To crate or not to crate?

Lil Spanky

Bringing Spanky home from the breeder was a bit like bringing a baby home from the hospital. Being first time dog owners, there were so many unknowns, including the best way to transport him. We had a cat carrier that we put a blanket in, but he must have got car sick or was just plain scared to death.  The poor little guy vomited a few times in the 3-hour ride back from Burlington, so by the time we got home, both the carrier and Spanky needed a bit of cleaning.

Fortunately, he seemed excited to explore his new surroundings and quickly did his business in the backyard. That made us happy, but we soon learned that puppies don’t always remember to hold it and so over the coming months we had to deal with many accidents in the house. In that regard, I think cats are easier. I’ve seen little teeny tiny kittens at Humane Society learn to use the litter box faster than Spanky learned to hold his little bladder. But I’ll save the joys of house breaking for another blog posting.

The big question in our mind that first day was how would Spanky do sleeping in a crate. We had decided ahead of time that we wanted to crate train Spanky as we had two cats in the house and we had visions of the three of them chasing each other in the middle of the night. At the time we only had a queen bed and there certainly was no room in it for even a small dog. And did I mention that pugs snore and can be gassy?  Plus we had steep stairs that Spanky couldn’t even initially climb up. So with all these considerations in mind, having him sleep in a crate seemed to be the logical choice.

Getting him in the crate was certainly easy enough (we started off with the cat carrier, as Spanky was only maybe four pounds at the time) and we didn’t end up with battle wounds like we did when we had to stick the cats in there. However, Spanky started whimpering and “crying” – what the heck had I signed myself up for? I had already dealt with the trials and tribulations of raising two kids, so why did I want to put myself through this again? I gave in and brought the crate up to our room the first night. He did eventually fall asleep, and even better, didn’t even need to be taken out in the middle of the night to go potty. But we didn’t like him sleeping in the room and wanted to break him of this habit quickly.

So on night #2, I left the crate in the kitchen. Once again, he started to whimper. But it was a bit better than the night before, and so like a mom trying to teach her toddler to get to sleep without a binky or in his own crib, I left Spanky in the kitchen until his whimpers died out and he went to sleep.

By night #3, Spanky happily trotted to his crate and seemed content to cozy up with his blanket. I quickly learned, too, that having some sort of chew toy made it easier in the beginning. Even better, he learned to love his crate as a safe retreat. When he was a puppy he was even fine staying in it while I went out on errands. It kept him out of trouble and from chewing up furniture and other things.

Spanky & Bubba

Eventually, I did have to get him a larger crate – it measures 21 inches high, 18 inches deep, and 24 inches wide. It’s the perfect size for him (he’s now about 23-24 lbs.) and even slides neatly under the counter desk in our kitchen, which we never used anyhow. We put a small dog bed in it so he can snuggle up and feel comfy. And here’s the funny part – Spanky is perfectly content to share it with one of our cats, Bubba, who takes the day shift in the crate, while Spanky sleeps on the couch.

Bubba in "his" crate

So in the end, crate training worked out well for us. While some folks may think it might be cruel to put a cute little dog in a cage, Spanky seems happy to go to bed there and has never caused a ruckus during the night. After all, many animals in the wild sleep in dens, so I see it as no more different than that. Besides, the few times Spanky has snuggled into bed with my husband in the morning, he has turned out to be quite the bed hog!