Life offers no guarantees about the future, and it's sometimes sadly the case that dogs have to be rehomed. People get transferred out of the country, devastating illnesses occur, financial circumstances change drastically, dogs may become strays by theft or by escaping from fences or cars.

Crate-training your dog is one way of helping to keep your dog adoptable in case it should ever have to be rehomed. This is especially the case for large breeds, which always seem to be more difficult to place than smaller ones. Once your dog has been crate-trained, you don't even have to use it very often if you don't want to.

Just haul it out every couple of weeks and crate the dog to keep it "in practice." This is what I do with my dog. We got her from the shelter as a stray, and she's a runner. I tell myself that if she ever escapes and all our efforts fail to find her, at least knowing sit and down and leave-it and crate-training and housebreaking will increase her odds of finding another home. To put it in business-like terms, it increases the "marketability" of your dog.

This will also pay off for you when those times come, as they almost inevitably will, when your dog must be boarded. Family illnesses and other emergencies don't always happen at convenient times, and it's very possible that even if you have planned to either take your dog with you or have a friend take care of your dog when you're gone, these may not be options in a pinch. A crate-trained dog will experience much less stress in a boarding-kennel situation--it'll be old hat to him. It'll also be a big load off YOUR mind to know that your dog is not suffering undue anxiety while he's kenneled. For many other excellent reasons to crate-train your dog, you can check out: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary