| When speaking of reasons to crate train dogs, many | | | | return to that den for the birth of the next litter, |
| well-meaning dog lovers refer to the "natural den | | | | they may just as easily abandon it altogether. |
| instinct" of canines. Since we humans are so intensely | | | | So if wolves don't live in dens, and dogs are as close |
| connected to our private space and sense of shelter, | | | | to wolves as you can get, it seems unlikely that dogs |
| we assume other creatures must be also. Depictions | | | | should have any "den instinct". Why, then, are dog |
| in various media have also created the impression | | | | crates so popular and valuable as training tools? The |
| that wolves naturally reside in dens. This provides a | | | | answer is simply that dogs are (in this case, unlike |
| biological justification for crate training- a simple | | | | wolves) tractable, trainable animals. They have been |
| fulfillment of a canine instinct to have an enclosed | | | | bred over thousands of years to readily receive |
| space to call its own. However, as we shall see, this | | | | conditioning from humans, and accept the conditions |
| particular notion is ill-founded. | | | | we place them in. That can mean anything from the |
| Dogs are the direct descendants of grey wolves | | | | high-fashion lifestyle of a Paris Hilton "purse dog" to |
| (Canis lupus), and are nearly genetically identical- only | | | | the desperate and brutal lives of pit-fighting dogs. |
| 0.2% of their genetic code differs from each other. | | | | Dogs have no more instinct to live in a crate than |
| Wolves in the wild most certainly do not "live" in | | | | humans do to drive a car- but in both cases, |
| dens. Quite to the contrary, they roam great | | | | education trumps biology. Crate training is useful |
| territories, sometimes more than a thousand square | | | | because a dog crate is an easy way to restrict a |
| miles across, in search of food. The only time that | | | | dog's access to inappropriate items or areas. Also, |
| wolves use dens is for the purpose of breeding. Wolf | | | | dogs do develop an instinctual desire to not soil |
| pups are born blind and helpless, and must have time | | | | themselves with their own waste- therefore, |
| to develop before being exposed to the rigors of | | | | confining them to a small area teaches them to "hold |
| the wider world. Before birth, the wolf pack will dig or | | | | it", and aids the housebreaking process. |
| find a suitable hollowed-out space. This is where the | | | | The point of this article is simply to demonstrate that |
| mother will give birth, and for the next four weeks | | | | approaches to dog training do not need a spurious |
| the pups will remain in or close to the den. Even | | | | "natural" justification. The reasons to use dog crates |
| during this time, the mother wolf does not | | | | as part of a training regimen are plenty good enough |
| necessarily live in the den- she may go out to hunt, | | | | on their own without fabricating non-existent |
| leaving another pack member behind to watch the | | | | behavioral elements. Dogs, like people, are intelligent |
| pups. As soon as they are able to do so safely, the | | | | and adaptable, and nurture will generally win out over |
| pups leave the den to begin traveling and hunting | | | | nature. So never mind the talk about "den instinct", |
| with the rest of the pack. Although the pack may | | | | and focus on "den education". |