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Did you ever wish you could make your dog disappear for a
few hours? You are not alone! My Cassie, a beautifully behaved
chocolate Lab, is a valued member of the family. She is also a
problem when we have visitors who are not comfortable with a dog drooling on their feet.
Meanwhile, our five Basenjis are completely tucked away, silent and content. (Basenjis may not bark, but they certainly aren't quiet when unhappy.)
What makes the difference? Crate training. Each Basenji has its own private quarters in which it feels snug and secure. Often, they choose their crates instead of a chair for naps.
People who visit us tend to call the crates "cages" and leap to the assumption that all animals in cages are unhappy. The truth is, a crate is *not* a cage except in the strictest sense of the word, and the average dog does not act as though it thinks its crate is a jail cell.
Why Crate Train?
As difficult as it may be to remember at times, our dogs are not little humans. Even though they have shared our hearths and homes for thousands of years, they still retain many of the instincts and characteristics of the wild dogs from which they are descended. Many authorities today believe our dogs are selectively bred from an ancestral wolf, and the wolf is not only a pack animal, it is a den animal. This means the need for a special place that represents safety is innate in our pets. For this reason, most dogs will happily accept a crate as part of their lifestyles, especially if trained as puppies.
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