Thank you Jeff for your thoughtfulness and consideration and open mindedness.
Actually I am ALL FOR crates! Our house and truck and van and Montana are full of crates and xpens! In our 3295 under the TV area, where a lot of you have that nice fireplace, we have "yorkie central", 4 small crates and grooming towels. There are 3 crates in the truck, the boys ride together, the girls ride seperate and on opposite ends of the truck (they will fight and snarl, and it is best to keep a little space between them). In the van I have 4 crates. I lost count of how many are in my house, LOTS! And, play pens (X pens) every where, one in each of the bedrooms, 2 downstairs, and that is just in the house.
There are 5 Xpens hooked together out in the back yard for their potty area. Yorks are ratters, and if they were to see a rabbit or a squirrel, they would be GONE! We live on almost 5 acres, and I hate chasing them around the entire estate!
The primary reason for crating in a moving vehicle is because it IS a MOVING vehicle. God forbid if you would roll that truck and Montana, an unrestrained dog becomes a missle. Not only do you risk the life of the dog, you risk your own life, a flying pup, that weighs, ohhhhhh, 10 pounds, could kill you by breaking your neck. I can tell you several real life stories on both sides of the crate or no crate situation. One story has a great out come, ohh, the dogs were IN crates. The other is so sad and horrible that it could make you sick, ohhhh, those dogs were NOT in crates.
OKKK, I have hijacked this thread for long enough, and my soap box is getting rotten, I need to get down before it breaks!
Thank you for your well wishes, we hope to be outta here on Saturday, for my research trip to Iowa and Minnesota. I started this trip 2 years ago, but we got called home because of illness and death of my grandmother, she was in her 90's, bless her soul! Starting to get excited about the trip!
Again, I don't intend to insult any MOC members, I just feel very strong about dogs and safety.
Cheers, see ya on the road
Carol