Dogs Hate Crates

Book excerpt: The first comprehensive expose on damage dogs and their families suffer from excessive crating, both in puppy mills and private homes. Dogs Hate Crates reveals that many owners who buy their dogs rhinestone collars and call them "babies" also lock them in small cages for 18-23 hours a day. And although "crate training" is proven to cause hundreds of physical, emotional and social problems and is a poor method for behavior and housetraining, many dog industry "experts", motivated by $50 Billion in greed, are attempting to persuade America that "dogs love crates". Free of emotional bias, Dogs Hate Crates details scientific and neurologic research, expert opinions and true case studies to demonstrate hundreds of serious symptoms caused by excessive crating, ranging from fear to dislike of humans. The book also contrasts cases of criminally abusive crating, puppy mill raids and atrocities against dogs with quotes from well-loved animal behavior experts on dogs transforming lives as nature's ambassadors and physical healers. And the authors provide effective behavior shaping and housetraining instructions as alternatives to crating. Contemporary cultural trends make America vulnerable to crating propaganda at home; and allow commercial puppy mill breeders who keep dogs caged their entire lives to sell as many as 4 million pups a year to unsuspecting consumers. Dogs Hate Crates examines the relationship between monetary profit and the growing popularity of caging dogs, and identifies surprising players in the pet industry and beyond that likely benefit in the millions, and billions, from dogs' and owners' distress. This groundbreaking book is meant to inspire further action and investigation by behavior experts, veterinarians, scientists, journalists/media and government- and everyone who cares about animals- to remedy one of the biggest abuses of dogs today. (Dogs Hate Crates is the new updated version of the book originally titled Caged Love.)