To some, this question may seem rhetorical. Aren’t the crates themselves supposed to keep your dog safe? The answer to that is, of course, yes. However, what many people don’t realize is that it can be very dangerous to crate things with your dog. It can also be very dangerous to put things on top of or on top of your dog’s crate. Almost all puppies, as well as many adult dogs with anxiety problems, will chew or grind almost anything they can chew, whether inside or outside the crate.

When I first brought my German Shepherd puppy Sasha home to live with me, my main concern for him was safety. He was fully prepared with two different types of dog crates: one to use inside my house and one to use inside my vehicle. The one at my house was a wire dog crate with a dividing panel, specially designed for potty training a new pup. The one in my vehicle was a plastic dog cage, which is specially designed for traveling with a dog.

However, no matter what type of dog crate you’re using, you never, ever want to crate anything with your newly adopted puppy or older dog until you know exactly how they’ll behave inside the crate when left alone. Once a puppy or adult dog dismembers a toy or guts a bed, it’s all too easy for him to swallow pieces… and this can have very disastrous consequences. Not only could it be life-threatening for your dog, but it can also prove to be quite expensive if veterinary intervention is required.

With Sasha, any toy or other item I put in his crate with him when he was a puppy would get shredded, so I never left anything in his crate with him. Period! Many people think that their puppy or adult dog will be uncomfortable in a crate without a blanket or bed of some kind, but in reality, many dogs don’t like cushions in their crate, even when offered one. When Sasha got older, and it was finally safe for me to put a blanket or bed in his box with him, all he did was squeeze it into a corner of his box to get it out of the way. In fact, he preferred the coolness of soft, hard plastic.

In a very sad case with which I am intimately familiar, a blanket was placed over the crate of a dog being committed to a professional boarding facility, in an effort to keep the dog calm and quiet. Unfortunately, this dog would spin and spin practically non-stop, going round and round and round, every time he was placed in a dog crate, but a crate was still the safest place to keep him under the circumstances, or at least it was. . It should have been. However, this dog was wearing a collar, and by some crazy fluke, the collar managed to snag the blanket covering the crate, and this dog ended up accidentally strangling himself to death.

This was a daunting tragedy because the dog involved was a police K-9 dog. Interestingly, the police officer this dog lived and worked with placed a blanket over his dog’s crate every night for years and nothing went wrong. But it only took once, and the consequences were deadly. Almost every kennel owner has had a similar unfortunate experience and never makes the same mistake twice. But I hope that by sharing this information and explaining the potential dangers involved, I can help you prevent something bad from happening to his beloved dog.

So to summarize, when placing your puppy or adult dog in a crate, always remove their collar, don’t put toys, blankets or beds inside the crate with them until you are 100% sure of their behavior when left alone . in the crate, and don’t put anything on top of, on top of, or even near your dog’s crate, EVER! You should also make sure to place your dog’s crate away from electrical wall outlets where lamps, computers, or televisions are plugged into. Not only could they damage your equipment, but they could also electrocute themselves.

Sasha and I hope you found this article helpful and that you and your four-legged furry friend live many happy, healthy and safe years together.