My husband and I are amongst the group of dog owners who believe in crating their dogs. We have had house guests, friends, etc. comment on our use of crates, with sentiments such as, “Oh, they keep you in a cage.” We try to explain that to a dog, the crate is like a den he would have in the wild–that he actually LIKES it. That always gets us mixed looks. We then argue that for our dogs, it is for their own safety–they are still young and still like to get into things they shouldn’t, which could be really bad during the occasions we have to leave them alone in the apartment. That usually gets us an understanding nod. If only they could see how Tori begs to be let out of her play area to go back to her crate. She has actually started pushing the pet gate out of the way ON HER OWN (no commands from us to stop playing) and going into her crate ON HER OWN. She does actually LIKE her crate. To compare to something in the human world—her crate is like our bedroom and bed–when we are tired and want to be comfortable, we want to be in our bed, our OWN bed. Well, when Tori is tired and wants to be comfortable, she goes to her crate. It is that simple.