Is It Fair, When You Have Multiple Dogs....

[Guest FrankieWylie]

If one gets crated when you leave but the other doesn't?

 

Charlie and Magic are two totally different personalities. Of have no doubts leaving Charlie out of his crate while we are out of the house. But Magic? Not so much. Besides the cat issue, I don't trust that he wouldn't get into trouble while we were away

 

We crate them both now, and Charlie doesn't mind his crate at all. But I don't think he HAS to be crated. just curious on how that would effect Magic if we went that route.

[pabozem]

I crate one of mine any time I'm gone. Heaven (sooooooo misnamed ) will knock the baby gate down and get into whatever she can find. I don't worry about it being fair.

[Guest Lovey_Hounds]

I crate Chili and leave vegas out when im not home, Chili is bad when left unattended she is 3 and still acts like she is 8 months old

[Annette]

We have 3 hounds right now (one is a foster). When I go to work both Miriam and Toby (the foster) are crated. We have only had Miriam since the end of July and Toby since the beginning of November. Miriam had problems peeing while I was at work so she stays in a crate when no one is home. Toby is a "bounce". Supposedly he had sleep space issues (haven't encountered any so far with him here, and I regularly lob stuffies at him when he is a sleep and have had no reaction so far) so we are crating him when we are gone and when we go to bed. Dixie only goes in a crate if she wants to and if no one else is in the crate.

 

It doesn't seem to phase either Miriam or Toby to have Dixie free while they are crated. Dixie has actually started collecting stuffies and giving them to Miriam and Toby while they are crated.

 

Annette

[Guest FrankieWylie]

Ohhhh good to know! I think Charlie would probably just end up in his crate anyhow. He loves having his space to go to.

I also am not to the point to trust Magic with not peeing in the house....or otherwise

 

We may give it a go this weekend

[Batmom]

When we're out, Gidgie is crated. Joseph stays out, in the large room with Gidgie's crate. Gidgie is a perfectly good girl; she is crated only because Joseph frets in the crate, and it works better than leaving them both out and muzzling.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Batmom

[TheFullHouse]

When we leave the house we have 5 crated and 4 are out with muzzles on. No one seems to have a problem with it. It's the same set up at night when everyone goes to bed.

[Guest KennelMom]

We have one crate in the house and use it if we need to. Right now, Tater is on crate arrest when we're out b/c she can't keep her mouth to herself and won't wear a muzzle.

[Sighthounds4me]

In my house, Manero is free, and the others are crated. It's fine here.

 

Dogs don't really have a concept of "fair" when it comes to crating and the like. I don't think they really care that one is free, and the others aren't.

[Guest FrankieWylie]

For those that have your dog(s) free to roam, are they muzzled as well? We would for SURE muzzle Magic if ever he gained our trust to be out. But hadn't even thought about it for Charlie. Thoughts?

[Batmom]

If more than one is out, you have to muzzle all of them.

 

If one is in (crated) and the other out, you'd muzzle the "outie" only if he/she were an Eater of Inappropriate Objects.

[Guest FrankieWylie]

Batmom, why is that? I am just trying to understand even if you have two pups who don't argue? My personal situation won't ever warrant that just because of Magic and the cat. But in general if you had laid back greys would you still muzzle them both?

[SarahsBlackPack]

Only one of my mine is crated when we all leave. And it's Fast, he just gets into too much trouble if he's left uncrated.

[Jackandgrey]

None of my three are muzzled when out. I only ever muzzled when Jilly was eating inappropriate things. After she stopped I have only on occasion used muzzles when a particular guest dog was staying. He and Jonah had issues.

[Batmom]

Batmom, why is that? I am just trying to understand even if you have two pups who don't argue? My personal situation won't ever warrant that just because of Magic and the cat. But in general if you had laid back greys would you still muzzle them both?

 

General rule is, muzzle none or muzzle all. Pup with muzzle on can't defend himself against pup(s) without, and the muzzled pup's expression isn't fully visible to others.

 

Personally, I would still muzzle both. Doesn't bother them (altho some like to pretend while we're watching ), and it beats coming home to injuries or worse. They can argue about the darnedest things.

[BauersMom]

Batmom, why is that? I am just trying to understand even if you have two pups who don't argue? My personal situation won't ever warrant that just because of Magic and the cat. But in general if you had laid back greys would you still muzzle them both?

 

I think of it this way - there is no such thing as two pups who don't argue... they are just two pups who haven't argued yet.

 

For me, it's better to prepare for the worst than regret not doing it after the fact. Muzzling is SO easy. Stitching a dog back together? Not so much.

 

As for the original question, one crated and one not crated here. No issues. I will swap up who gets crated every once and a while, but not for any "fairness" reasons, more to reinforce the crate. Never know when you will need to crate both or crate the one who isn't used to it.

[Guest DorasMom]

I have four hounds and all are muzzled everytime they are left alone, even if I'm only out for 10 minutes. I learned the hard way with a 2300.00 eye surgery bill occuring from an accident that happened while I was 10 feet away from both parties!!

One hound was sleeping soundly and Dora thought it would be a good idea to step right on his ribcage, puncturing the skin with her nail. He jumped up and in doing so snagged her lower eyelid with his canine. Her "eye liner" was ripped almost all the way off (left hanging down her face) and her tear duct was cut in half.

I hate to think how it could have escalated if I wasn't home and they wern't muzzled.

[Guest shanesmom]

I only have one dog at a time but my first 2 greyhounds were not crated when I left but Ace is. Ace still likes his crate and does well in there. My first 2 would have hurt themselves in a crate they hated it so much so I stopped using it pretty quickly.

[BatterseaBrindl]

Nixon & Ruby are not crated, nor are they muzzled.

 

We've had multiple dogs for many, many years...3 of them Dobes...and only one of the Dobes ever had to be crated. She was a chewer.

Until we discovered Greyhounds, it would never have crossed our minds to muzzle dogs.

 

We did muzzle Nixon for his initial meeting of our GSD and Pointer. That lasted all of 15 minutes.

 

Ruby wore hers for the initial introductions, too.

And, as she had a sketchy history of mild SA/destruction, we did muzzle her if we had to leave all the dogs alone for more than 15 minutes. However we quickly figured out that she is not a chewer.

 

Yes...I know that freak accidents - like DorasMom has pointed out - can happen.

[Wonder]

Passion is crated, the boys are in my bedroom and muzzled.

[Guest sheila]

I don't think dogs think in terms of what's fair and what's not. They just adapt to the routine that is theirs and theirs alone.

[TheFullHouse]

Even if you don't have dogs who don't normally argue, there is always a risk, they are dogs. Muzzling one dog leaves that dog unable to protect themselves. You have no idea how many times people have come on GT and asked for help because they have returned home from being out to find that their two dogs who don't ever argue have gotten into a fight and one or both are horribly hurt. It's not a chance I choose to take.

[Guest FrankieWylie]

I never considered the lack of ability to protect ones self! Makes perfect sense to me

[GreyPoopon]

On the original question: some of mine are crated and some aren't. They don't fret about it.

[GreytNut]

I wouldn't hesitate to crate just one of them if the situation warranted it. I don't consider it unfair. You're just managing the situation as required so that no one gets hurt.

 

Both of mine are well behaved in the house and get along well, so they are not crated. I muzzled everyone for a while when we had three because there was tension between two of them (and since I muzzled the offenders, I also had to muzzle the non-offender).