The Queen of Niskayuna is being repressed:
Actually, ignore the reproachful look. She spends every night, and all day on weekdays in her crate, and she's perfectly happy to go in there. In fact, most of the time, she goes in there of her own accord, some time before we're actually ready to leave for work, or go to bed. She knows that she gets a handful of treats when we close up the crate, and tries to hurry that along.
The reproachful look in this picture is because I was messing around with the camera, rather than giving her a fistful of dog treats and letting her get on with her busy day of sleeping and dreaming about bunnies made of cheese.
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Really, you should have titled this "Her-Majesty-in-Chains" for proper parallelism, and also if you expected anyone but me to get the reference.
Dear God! Why are keeping her in a cage, and such a small one?
Ah, a crate trained candid. I should have guessed that the Queen of Niskayuna would possess the social skills of a true blue blood. She may perhaps have been born to humble stock, but has the sensibilities of her blended royal lineage.
For the squeamish of this practice, dogs are by nature den animals. The odds of a crate trained dog being relinquished to an animal shelter for adoption are sharply reduced. We have 8 dogs, Border Collies and Aussies, and yes, all live in the house with us. We have 4 crates set up in addition to an array of dog beds scattered around which substitute for wall to wall carpeting. As often as not, out canine companions choose to recline in a crate as on a dog bed, the couch, or my husband's favorite chair. Of the 8, 6 are rescue dogs. They are absolutely delightful, well mannered creatures, and I suspect the difference was made by our willingness to crate train them.
In my limited experience, a dog that has been crate trained does not need to be confined to a crate when we're gone. But much depends on the age and temperament of the dog. We take a dog through a period of crate confinement in our absence or when we are asleep, and then at some point just leave the crate door open. For each critter, there seems to come a point when they can manage their own behavior when left unattended and not be inclined to wreck the house.
A properly sized crate is one that is just large enough for the dog to stand at their full height, and stretch out when lying down. It's hard to tell from a picture, but Her Majesty appears to have a top of the line, properly sized crate. I tend to prefer an orthopedic foam pad with a sheepskin cover as a crate liner, but I also recall an earlier photo of a de-stuffed (surgically altered?) toy on which the Queen exercised her royal whims. She may prefer her 'blankie.'
Good on you Kate and Chad. The Queen is destined to live long and prosper in your household.
The Queen reposes in her crate for two reasons:
1) She chews things. When we are in the house and not paying sufficient attention to her, she has been known to pull pens off tables and destroy them, things like that. We don't particularly want to see what she'd destroy if left to her own devices all day.
Also, the passing of other dogs outside her domain makes her agitated; I don't know how this would affect the likelihood that she would wreck the house, though it would probably interfere with her beauty sleep. It's possible we may experiment some day.
2) She likes a safe space. On Thanksgiving when things got really hectic she went in of her own accord and could not be coaxed out until things got quiet again.
The crate is actually much bigger than she needs. She has fuzzy-covered pillows for lounging in state outside her crate, which she doesn't perform surgery on because they don't squeak, but her crate is lined with several towels that she rucks up to suit her pleasure and that are much easier to wash if she gets sick (which happens with some frequency).
Kate, your observation of a 'safe space' is absolutely consistent with our experience. I didn't want to make a post that was already too long, even longer. I could have also noted that when the proverbial manure hits the fan, which in a cattle operation it is want to do (especially in the weather we're having), all 8 'head for the hills' (ie, a crate). double occupancy under those circumstances is not unheard of.