I'm welcoming a new dog to my home and he is being trained to live with cats. He needs to be in a crate when I go to work. My last day of free day care is today and he needs to be in a crate tomorrow. I've been introducing him to it, but does anyone have any tips for me?

 Quote: Shelley Johnson

I'm welcoming a new dog to my home and he is being trained to live with cats. He needs to be in a crate when I go to work. My last day of free day care is today and he needs to be in a crate tomorrow. I've been introducing him to it, but does anyone have any tips for me?

Hi Shelley. It sounds like we're cutting it really close to be able to help you if your crating while at work has to start tomorrow. You say you've been introducing him to it, but you don't mention how he's doing or if there are particular issues you need help with. If he's doing well so far, maybe things will go okay. If not, we would need to know what particular issues you're having to even begin to help.

A lot will also depend on whether this is a puppy or adult, and the length of time he will be crated. If it's going to be for most of the day, say if you have an eight-hour or so job, then I hope you have somebody who can come in to let him out for a bathroom break a couple of times during the day.

Give us a bit more information, and I think you will see some more answers over the next couple of days.

He is three and a half. We have been feeding him in the crate since we got him. We have been putting him in the crate with a treat and going in the other room. We have done that and gone outside to get the mail. Sunday, we crated him for an hour and forty minutes.
He has not chewed or done any visible damage. He urinated the first time we left him for twenty minutes.
Today, he will be in the crate for four hours and on a "normal" day, it shouldn't be more than 7. (We can adjust our schedules to allow less than a workday).
Thanks for reading and responding!

ps... I think I'm being irrationally nervous a bit. But still, I'd like to make the transition pleasant for him.

How is he responding? Is his body language anxious or accepting. If he is accepting, you should be well on your way. My mature dog could do 7 hours without a bathroom break, so I believe a 3.5 yo should be okay. However, if he anxious or urinates in the crate, I would try to get a friend or neighbor to take him out once in the middle of the day.

How does he seem to feel about the crate? Does he go in on command, or are you bribing him, and how hard is that? If you left the door open, would he go in the crate of his own accord when he wanted quiet time? Over time, he will.

He eats in his crate and he walks in when the door is open. However, I think he is anxious about it and urinates in the crate.
I have to work and I have baby stepped him along the way, but he is stuck at this point. He will go in with a small bribe, and is never forced into the crate, nor is he punished with it.

Unless he has already adjusted to seeing the cats I would keep his crate out of sight from the cats or the cats out of sight from the dog when your away.

I'm not a cat person but I've see a few that seem to delight in sitting outside a kenneled off or fenced off dog and just stare at the dog.

Dogs and cat is a very delicate topic. I guess there are many hours you can not supervise the dog. Maybe that after being crating he feels a great necessity to be active overshooting needs of using his limite energy.

I've had about 35 cats (during a lifetime, not all at the same time). Some of them didn't bother at all about dogs passing by or guests coming with a dog. Others ran away immediately. Where we lived at that time (Switzerland) there were enough trees or other possibilities to climb or jump up to. On short distances they were quicker than dogs. On long distances they would probably hve been caught. A cat that didn't move was more or less ssve.

But nevrtheless I would never allow dog and cats living together, unless they have been brought up from a very young age together.

It is very difficult to judge. I have a friend here, who has a Rottweiler and another, smaller dog. They all were living during 3 or 4 years together without incidents. Though the cats had the possibility to jump easily on to the roof of the house if the dogs were in a very active phase.

But one of the cats was too willing to go near to the dogs. One day, when my friends returned home, they found that cat torn to death on the veranda. They don't know what and how it really happened, whether it was the Rottweiler or the other one or both. It only shows that this can be very risky. Once the cat runs away, it behaves for the dogs like a prey.

Also, making a dog safe with a cat it lives with doesn't necessarily mean unfamiliar cats will be safe.

Very true! When I walk one of my Pits or the Lab-Mix and we meet a cat sitting somewhere quietly, the dogs just look. But if the cat flees they beginn to pull. I can call them back and distract them with a little game. But if they were off-line I'm sure they would try to catch the cat.