Crate training - too many hours?

hmmm... puppies usually shouldn't be left in crates for longer than four hours, especially since they need to go to the bathroom a lot more than older dogs. is there someone else at home who can watch her while your gone? and while she's inside, give her some toys to play with to relieve her boredom.

I think that is too long to leave that young of a pup.  You say you have a dog walker.  Have you checked into doggy day care?  I bet you can do that for about the same amount of money as your dog walker.

If she'll be unattended for more than about four hours, another option would be an x-pen.  That'll keep her confined and you can keep it away from the window sill, too.  Maybe try a buster cube or some frozen kongs to keep her busy?  Believe it or not, but they even make a kong dispenser that dispenses them throughout the day. Good luck to you! S - the price for admission on this board is pictures!  []  We love puppy pictures!

Pup picture for you.
 
 

Okay, so back to the discussion...

Is it really bad to leave her for 5 vs 4 hours at a time?  What harm is the extra hour if she is housebroken already?  She is already on this schedule, just not in the crate, and she has been for at least a month and seems to be doing well.   It is the confinement to the crate that will cause problems? 

If the pup is housebroken, I don't think there is a huge problem with 5 hours v. 4, although I might personally consider an x-pen for every day confinement, to stop the destructive behaviors.  If you can keep the puppy in a pen in the room that keeps him from getting to the windowsills, and put appropriate chew toys/kongs...  in there, that might be your best bet for every day. 
 
That being said, I do think it will be hugely helpful to you in the long run to crate train your puppy.  Once crate trained, maybe you could have him in his crate either before or after the dog walker comes, but not both (the dog walker could let him out and then put him back in the x-pen but not shut the crate)?  You could leave the crate open in the x-pen the other time - so the crate is always available to nap in.  I don't think it would hurt your dog to be in the crate during the day, so long as he is getting plenty of exercise and attention when outside the crate, but, it might be nicer for your dog to have a little more room to get up and stretch and change positions and have some water and look out the window... Just MHO...

Thanks for the response.  Maybe we'll start by just crating her at night since she is tired and sleeping anyways and see how that goes.