As if our family hasn't had enough drama the last two weeks, Saturday night we had to take Nigel (my Skinny Brown Dog) to the emergency room. He couldn't urinate and was frantically running around trying only to produce a few drops. We were afraid he might have a blockage so off we went to the ER. It turns out that he did in fact have bladder stones and one ended up lodged in his urethra. They put a catheter in him and he had to stay at the vet overnight and wait to have surgery.
Nigel started his crate training when he was 10 weeks old. He was in his crate when left unattended until he was about 18 months old (he is now five years old). Over the years I have randomly put him in his crate just to keep up with his training. All of this work paid off for us this weekend. Nigel had never spent the night at the vet and he was totally stressed out by everything that was going on. Thankfully, he is crate trained so he went right into his cage at the vet and laid down and got comfortable. Imagine if Nigel was NOT crate trained? Imagine if this traumatic experience was compounded with him being put in a cage for the first time? Why would ANYONE want that for their dog? Not to mention the stress of having to be confined to a crate at home for the week(s) of recovery.
I always always always stress the importance of crate training. It not only keeps your puppy safe while they are learning what's appropriate to chew on and help with potty training, it helps if and when your dog might have to stay overnight at the vet's office.
Nigel is home safe (in his crate) recovering from his bladder surgery and the only thing stressing him out is that darn Elizabethan collar.
