Housebreaking a puppy...

Thanks for the link...

I'd hope the dog isn't kept in the crate until its bladder bursts. The dog will not want to soil it's sleeping quarters. Thus, it will hold it. A dog will also hold it in the living room, kitchen, bedroom, once it is housetrained. You don't think that is cruel too, do you?

Also from the link I posted for EriK:

Please remember that puppies are like babies when it comes to bladder and bowel control. Don't ask puppy to "hold it" longer than is physically comfortable for puppy ...

Yes i do !! would you do that to a baby? no i dont think so! how on earth is a child to bond with you if you are at work??? call me old fashioned but i think you should be with a baby till its at least 2 years old . this way they will learn who is their parent and not a child minder plus have a better standing in life. money isnt everything. a child minder doesnot have the same interset as the parent. well i say that i mean a good parent. i also think that if people are not prepered to put the time into a child then they shouldnt have a child either . the same goes for a dog. it is defenceless and needs its parent ie you! so you need to be there for them . ok i might have high morels on this but its what i beleive

Yes, I do think it's cruel. My dog doesn't soil anything inside, he hasn't since he was 4½ months old, and I've never had to keep him in a cage to train him. We house trained him for a week, always taking him outside whenever he showed any signs and praised him to heavens when he did go outside. No cage needed and he's never peed inside since.

And yes, I still think house training a dog using a cage is cruel. And don't get hung up on the words, a creat or a cage, it's the same thing. A confined space.

Ice

I would like to add, we didnt use a cage/crate either and our dogs are perfect. well apart from being gay

Then what are you doing with your dog when you are gone? You leave him outside???? Now, I think THAT is cruel. I hold my pee and I don't think it is cruel to hold it till I can use the bathroom. Same difference.


And Russ, no offense, but your views of raising a child are a bit unpractical/antiquated. Not everybody can take off work for 2 years to spend time with their children. Some of us have to work to pay their bills All of my friends children that had to put their children into daycare, know exactly who their parents are. I also know a good number of women who stay home with their babies, but don't spend quality time with them. Very sad, really.

Same with dogs, lots of people claim to be such great dog owners but don't take them to the vet because of the cost, don't feed them high quality food because they don't care to educate themselves on what's in the bag of food and lots of them don't bother taking their dogs to training classes. Now, those items constitute cruelty and abuse in my opinion. Just for reference, there is no such thing as a perfect dog. Just as there is no such thing as a perfect human.

I leave him lying on the sofa, usually with something good to eat. After he's had his jog and done whatever he felt like doing. He knows we'll always come back, and he doesn't need to vent his frustration on furniture or anything else. He's totally free to roam around the house apart from our bedroom (the waterbed doesn't like dogs) and after the teeth have changed, he hasn't destroyed a single thing. Only once he has crapped inside and that was because he developed a diarrhea from a rabies shot.

So, I still think it's cruel to put a dog in a cage just to housetrain him.

Ice

you mean you make him hold it for hours till you are back? That isn't cruel?

Obviously, that is the goal of every dog owner, to leave the dog to roam the house by itself and most dogs will be able to do that at some point.

Nope, it isn't. He's not a 4 month old puppy anymore. A 4 month old puppy needs to get out about every 30 mins. A 2 year old can hold for hours, and doesn't feel discomfort. But this discussion wasn't about adult dogs, but house training puppies by locking them into a cage.

Some sooner that others. Our dog learned that in a few weeks. Without a cage.

Ice

As i said they are old fashioned but whats wrong with that? have you not noticed the morel decline in society? dont get me wrong i'm not getting on any religious soap box here . however if we install good values inti kids right fom an early age then sure the next generation will be better than the last? and to do that we need to be with them from an early age? yes i can understand that you have to earn money we all do. yet i know mothers who work just a couple of days or even nights when the fathers are at home to earn monet. this way they are with their child when they need them.
As for those dog keepers who dont take their dogs to the vet then they shouldnt be keeping them either.Just for reference, there is such thing as a perfect dog.Hes called Toby! and his brother is called Ollie