Just an off the wall thought but does anyone have any opinions as to whether crating effects growth rate in dogs?  I crate my pup (huge crate!) and she is happy in there but she is a fairly small GSD and in my moments of hypochondria! I worry that I am stunting her growth or something.  My SIL crated her husky pup and she is also quite a small pup who has taken a long time to get to full size.

I really don't have any strong opinions either way but the thought kept floating through my mind so I thought I'd throw it out here.......

i dont think it does because we crated our black standard poodle pup in a med sized cage and hes huge 26 at the sholder i no someone who said as lonnd as the pup has a lot of space around then in the cage they will grow have u looked at mother anf father are they small it could be in that line that they are smaller dogs
fiona

Eb stands at about 20" at the shoulder and is currently crated in a 42" crate so she has plenty of room.  As I say I am not worried apart from in my sillier moments! :)

personally i wouldnt worry about it she will be fine ses got loads of room she could come from a line of small ones
fiona

Having recently purchased a new crate I understand that ideally it should be 5-6 inches longer than they are nose to base of tail and 5-6 inches taller than they are to the shoulder.  Saying that I still bought one that was probably 9-10 inches bigger than he needed just to be on the safe side

Claire

doesnt it depend on how much time is spent in the crate? Dont get me wrong I have crates too and think they are a fantastic training aid, but unless the dogs are spending huge amounts of time in them I wouldnt think that they would stunt growth?

what do you use the crates for?

Just sleeping?

How can it be a training aid....................HELP !!!??

dogs are less likely to mess in their sleeping area, so they're a great tool for toilet training. Also, by confining them to their crate you can decide what they can chew (i.e not your brand new coffee table or leather sofa etc!) while you are unable to fully supervise them.

hth  :-)

edit: they are not training aids for teaching sits etc tho :-P

get it.

So, in the evening you put the puppy in the crate, it doesnt want to pee where it sleeps, so potentailly holds it till the monring, when you take it outiside.................. ???  

Ok, so, we soon to be getting a SBT pup, what size should we go for?

It's not quite that easy. You put the puppy in the crate, and it doesn't want to mess its bed - yep, fine. But a small puppy can't be expected to hold on all night. So, if you're going to crate the pup you have to be prepared to get up a couple of times during the night, when you hear the pup waking and moving about, to take it into the garden. Otherwise you're forcing the pup to mess its bed, and it'll be very unhappy.

Nope when it needs to go it wakes you to take it out rather than peeing, as very few baby pups can hold all night.  You can set the alarm to just before the time pup likley to wake to take it out for a pee and put back to bed. 

This is one of the quickest and most reliable way to housetrain, but take care the pup does not mess crate in desperation, as that can really set housetraining back, once you have a pup who doesn't mind being dirty he has less incentive to hang on until you can taekhimoutside which when he first arrives should be every half hour while awake, and after naps food or games.

I would say go for a crate that is 24 inches tall, 21 inches wide and 31 inches long, the size below what I use for my breed.

Brainless is right. If the pup gets used to messing in it's crate then it's a pointless exercise. However the pup should start to whine to let you know it wants to go out and will mess it's crate as a final solution. If possible keep the crate somewhere you can hear it (either sleep downstairs if you don't want dogs upstairs or have the crate in your room) until it's reliable at going through the night or making enough noise to wake you wherever you are.  Ideally get one that's big enough to accomodate a fully grown SBT and has dividers so you can reduce the size and increase it as it grows. Having said that I gave my pup my other dog's old crate and never sectioned it off with no problems. I suppose it depends on the dog.

:-)

I think it might already be ok through the night.  The person Im getting her from said she is ok, and doesnt wee in the bed, or in the house(she gets taken out just before),,,, can this be right for such a young pup?  I may be wrong in what Ive just said, I need to speak with the breeder again.

Crates do not stunt growth any more than keeping an iguana in a small fish tank will keep it from growing to it's full length.  Theoretically, your dog would grow to it's full size but be crippled as it's bones wouldn't form correctly from being smooshed in a too small area.  You'd have to keep your dog in a small crate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for this to even come close to happening.

Your dog needs room to stand up, turn around and lie down comfortably.  When it's housetrained you can have as big a crate as you like but too big when they're a puppy and you defeat the purpose.  A too big crate allows your puppy to mess in one corner and go lie in the other.  If you decide to start off with a large crate you can buy dividers or fashion some type of divider to make it the proper size.

A puppy should be taken out of the crate halfway through the night (at a minimum) during the crate training process.  You don't want it to learn to mess the crate and be comfortable with it. 

darrens here, it depends on the age of the pup, id be very very suprised if a very young pup, say 7 or 8 weeks, coulds hold it through the night, but mine have usually been able to by 12 weeks, good luck with the pup, they are a great breed !!

leo our sheltie was crated at night for quite a while and hes now 1 and huge for a sheltie, we were told when we got him he would be big because his parents were so probably more to do with the parents