01/09/2025
If you’ve done training with us, you know that we are huge advocates for crate training! Recently though, I had an experience with one of my personal dogs that fully cemented that belief for me-
A few weeks ago, my 1 year-old puppy Coven underwent emergency surgery to remove a foreign body that was stuck in her colon: a piece of one of her stuffed toys that she had torn off and eaten before I was able to take it away from her. Surgery went really well, but afterwards we were facing 2 weeks of strict crate rest during her recovery with an extremely active and high energy young dog.
I am so grateful that Coven has been crate trained since puppyhood, and that being confined to a kennel while she recovered was not an additional source of stress for either of us. She was kenneled at the vet’s office after her surgery for the rest of the day while she was monitored for potential complications, and then she spent the next 14 days crated with me at home. And she was OKAY- she loves her crate, she was not stressed or anxious to be spending her time there, and she is good as new now.
An emergency surgery was definitely not anywhere on my radar when this happened; I don’t think emergencies are really ever on ANYONE’S radar- but they happen, and proactively crate training your dog can help ensure that you’re as prepared as possible in case something unlucky comes up (a medical emergency, an evacuation, emergency crate/rotate, etc.).
I can’t imagine how stressful and scary it would have been for her to have had no prior exposure to crate training, and then suddenly be confined to a kennel for weeks with no preparation. THAT is why we ask you to crate train your dogs. I promise, it is not because we want to see your dogs living in a kennel- it’s so you have the peace of mind of knowing that if you ever need to confine them, they will be as comfortable as they can be.🤍
