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Proper Housing For A Working Dog?

7927 Views 39 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  Andy Andrews
Hello All.

Just wondering how some of you house your dogs, be it a kennel, cable run, or freely roaming among you and family in the house?

What made you decide on your current methods?

The last dogs I owned were not working dogs, so after crate training they were allowed anywhere in the house...except the couch! I hate a dog in my domain. :D

Thanks,
Andy.
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My GSD was crated at night till 6 months old, and now he's 2 and has been out of the crate when I leave the house for the last month or so. But he's a calm relaxed dog most of the time, sometimes he gets mischevious though, I try and keep anything food related out of reach and he's confined to one room not the entire house unless I'm home. When I'm home he's never in the crate except feeding time.

My dutchie pup, well, she'll probably be a crate dog for the rest of her life LOL! Nah, I don't know what she'll be like as she matures, but as a pup she's in the crate most of the time except for play/training/potty times. Both dogs sleep in the bedroom at night, the GSD wherever he wants, the pup in a crate. During the day I sometimes stick her in an exercise pen so she as some more roaming freedom without getting into everything. She's actually pretty good at leaving stuff alone that isn't hers to touch, she's very focused on whatever toy I let her play with at playtime, she usually carries it over to the bean bag n lays down to chew it.
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My hunting terriers have always been house dogs. depending on the individual personality, some have been crated at night, some not. My ten yr old JRT is ALWAYS crated at night. He's a pain in the a$$ and will sneak down in the basement at night and piss all over everything. My 13 yr old Border Terrier stays in the kitchen behind gates. She would have no problems being out in the house except for her comfort drive :eek: . I'd probably have to kill her to keep her off of the couch at night. :lol:
My GSD became an outside dog after the first 6 months. I started him inside for house training and socialization. I built a nice kennel along the garage, with a insulated dog house inside the garage, through a dog door in his run. BUT! He has fee roam of the yard because of the neighborhood I live in. I want "da boys in da hood" to know he has access to every part of my yard.
His kennel and run is being occupied by a Presa pup I'm working with at this time.
HAHA! I'm suddenly reminded of how I became aquainted with crate training in the first place. Let me see if I can tally the wreckage from my last dog, a rescued pit bulldog bitch:

1 completely devoured CD.

2 Shredded DVD's(including A Charlie Brown Chirstmas...I never forgave her for that!)

1 dog bed turned into mulch spread throughout my living room.

4 unrecognizable pillows.

1 half-eaten door.

1 futon turned into post-modern art.

All of this for the $50 or so adoption fee from the humane society. lol

Seriously though, I had never before owned a dog with any kind of behavioral issues so I was completely naive about crate training. My g/f was kind enough to show me the error of my ways and wound up saving me lots of money. :lol:
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The living arrangements of our working dogs is flexible. The only thing I don't allow is being chained, cable runs etc. We build a kennel at each persons residence. Even with that, some handlers elect to keep thier dogs in the house. I don't have a problem with that as long as the proficiency of the dog does not decrease. Sometimes, living in the house causes dogs to get a bit on the "fluffy" side. So of course we watch for that and other signs of "la dolce vita" that may affect the dogs willingness to perform under less comfortable conditions.

DFrost
Andy Andrews said:
Hello All.

Just wondering how some of you house your dogs, be it a kennel, cable run, or freely roaming among you and family in the house?

What made you decide on your current methods?

The last dogs I owned were not working dogs, so after crate training they were allowed anywhere in the house...except the couch! I hate a dog in my domain. :D

Thanks,
Andy.
I would suggest that you got to www.Leerburg.com and get Ed Frawleys DVD " How to Raise a working Puppy " EXCELLENT video have raised 2 working dogs off this DVD well worth the 30 bucks !!!
Both my GSD stay outside in a fenced yard. At night they both come in the garage in crates. The female's crate is locked but my male, Bentley, roams the garage and outside in the back yard.
Jak WOULD be inside the house, but I have cats and he'd like to have them too. He stays in his kennel outside next to the garage most of the time.
My GSD stays in a fenced yard. She has a 10x10 kennel with a covered roof and a doghouse for if I ever want to confine her. For example, a few hours before training I like to put her in there so she will have a little built up energy for her bite work. At night she has full range of the yard so she can do her job. During the day if I am home and it is brutally hot I will bring her in the house for a short while, but not enough to have her unconditioned to the weather.
Quote:I would suggest that you got to www.Leerburg.com and get Ed Frawleys DVD " How to Raise a working Puppy " EXCELLENT video have raised 2 working dogs off this DVD well worth the 30 bucks !!!

I saw about 1 1/2 minutes of Emily's copy of this, then fell asleep. *edited*


Any questions on how to raise a working dog should be addressed to Woody. He will let you know whats up.



Jeff, I love the way you said that and I agree. :D
Jerry Lyda said:
Jeff, I love the way you said that and I agree. :D
Kind of abrupt to just see it laid out there like that, Jerry. ;-)
My three are all house dogs. However, all three are crate trained and Buck adores his and takes naps and sleeps in there all the time. I don't need to shut the doors anymore. Not that I could with Zoso (short of getting a really expensive aluminum one) because he's broken down the doors of 3 plastic crates and 1 wire one. :roll: During the day when we're off at work, they share the basement with the ferret where their crates are but at night, they are allowed to sleep either in the basement, kitchen, or living room so Zoso and Strider can alert us to anything odd (Buck, despite his rather ferocious appearance, would rather run and hide in his crate than attack an intruder). They are not allowed into the hallway that goes to the office, the master bedroom, etc. They are not allowed on the couch either. Our landlord told us he wouldn't mind if we put up a small kennel under the deck, but eh...I prefer to have them as house dogs so they don't become nuisance barkers and so they can guard what is inside the house, not guard the yard. Plus they would probably have barking contests with the poor lab mix who lives outside the house behind us who is tied out all day long in the 100 degree heat.
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I saw about 1 1/2 minutes of Emily's copy of this, then fell asleep. *edited*


Too bad Jeff you fell asleep, if you were awake you could have learned something from this DVD. :D
all kenneled.
Welll, my dogs are with me when I am in the house but not babied and I do keep it not too air conditioned or heated and they are in good condition .....and I do spend individual time working with each of them.

I would prefer outside kenneled while at work, but I don't trust the neighbor kids.

They sleep in the bedroom - each does have *their spot* on the floor, but sometimes they sleep in their crates.

Either Grim or Toby is crated while I am at work. I don't trust Toby alone with Grim. I could trust Grim with any dog. Toby knows better than to pull any dominance stuff when I am around. Nobody has any *issues* with Cyra, the female.

What would be gained by not having them with me during the part of the day when not at work?
Quote:Too bad Jeff you fell asleep, if you were awake you could have learned something from this DVD.

I saw the tape. If you need a tape like this, you need to get into gardening 'cause your too dumb to do anything with a dog anyway.

Nothing against Ed, theres a sucker born every minute. Why not take their money?



A lot of people I know disagree with you on that, Jeff. HOWEVER, the thread is not about Ed's videos; it's about housing for a working dog.
Connie Sutherland said:
A lot of people I know disagree with you on that, Jeff. HOWEVER, the thread is not about Ed's videos; it's about housing for a working dog.
Yes Jeff just because someone has opinion other than yours it is okay take a pill and relax calling someone Dumb you don't even know just show your intelligence level. So stop with all the name calling to put someone down just to boost your own little Ego :D
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