Dog and Cat Owners: What a Crate Actually Is The mention of crate training divides pet owners into passionate camps. One camp sees crates as essential tools for management, house training, and safety. The other camp views crates as cruel confinement. The reality, as with most polarized debates, lies in the middle. A crate is genuinely neither inherently cruel nor inherently kind. It’s a tool whose morality depends entirely on how it’s used. A dog who spends his entire day in a crate while his owner works is experiencing confinement and likely suffering. A dog who spends a few hours in a crate occasionally, who has learned that the crate…