How long do you crate?

Elmer is crated for a couple of hours a day, mostly to ensure he gets a break from our hubbub and that he is comfortable with the crate.  Our boxer, Astryd, was crated 6 to 8 hours a day because we both worked.  My DH could go home for her to have a potty break, but then she went back in the crate.  Once I started staying home, she was put in the crate only if we were planning on being gone for more than about an hour.  As an old lady, we crated her any time we left because she was less continent if she had free range of the house.  There would always be a puddle of pee by a window.  We figured she'd see something really exciting and pee.  But if she was in her crate, this never happened. 

Crating our boxer when she was younger was necessary, as we had proven to us repeatedly.  She would be fine our of her crate unsupervised for an hour or two, so we'd leave her for four, and still she would be fine.  Then one day, we would be gone for twenty minutes and she would have made herself a hole in a couch cushion or eaten a pen or all the bread off the counter or .... 

A dog will think of a crate as its home, and will go in the crate by itself. I bought the largest crate i could buy for my german shepherd when he was a puppy, now he weighs 90 lbs and goes in the crate by himself when he wants to sleep. If I'm going someplace for 4 or 5 hours I will close the door on the crate with him inside, otherwise I just leave the door open, and he uses it all the time.

I agree- it seems too much to crate all day AND all night...

Georgia is crated for about 8 hours if she's not at daycare, but I do try and come home at lunch whenever possible to let her out.  The others are not crated at all.  No need.  If Georgia has been in the crate all day, I try and leave her out at night, but she's not reliably housebroken, so this usually means someone has to stay out in the living room with her and basically watch her all night, which is really a pain.

Indie chooses her crate to sleep in, and she's sleeping a lot at this age, so that's nice.  Most likely I will get her a pen pretty soon and put the crate in it with the door open so she has options but can't go too far.

I'd like to note that during the day, we keep rory is a very large crate, so she has room to move around and play. We've also attached a "potty area" where she can go, because I didn't expect her to hold it so young, but as she's gotten older, she doesn't use it anymore and prefers to wait until she goes outside for the most part. Her night time crate is a smaller one just for sleeping or riding in the car. I don't see why crating while we're asleep matters She's asleep at night, what does it matter to her? she has a nice comfy bed inside. She doesnt need to be wandering the house while we're asleep anyway. I don't think she has a problem with the situation, she often puts herself to bed in her crate at night and happily waits in her big crate in the morning when she knows it's getting close for us to leave - she knows shes getting her yummy kong. We have recorded her and she doesn't cry and freak out during the day. With her potty habits becoming better, we'll eventually leave her in the spare room with a gate. It's not like she's crated 24 hours a day and it's not like this situation is permanent. No, I don't love that she's crated, but she's fine and it keeps her and our stuff safe.

Kenya was never crated prior to Coke. Now when Coke is crated I generally crate her as well b/c I feel bad making him go in the crate.  Also, she sleeps in her crate anyway.  He doesn't put up a fuss as long as he can see her in her crate (they face each other).  They are crated during the day, but my husband is in school, so often he doesn't leave until noon and then gets home around 2:45.  If I know he's going to be gone all day, I stop home over lunch break.  The longest I feel comfortable crating them is 5-6 hours, but generally they are crated 3-5 hours a day total.  They both sleep in our room, no crates.  We trust Coke not to chew while we are gone, but lately he's been chasing after one of the cats.  Just one in particular he seems to take an interest in and I don't quite trust him enough yet to leave him out with the cats.  Maybe this week I will block off the cat door and do some trial periods.  We've only had Coke for 2 weeks.  I've never tethered b/c Kenya is perfectly well behaved and Coke chews through tethers (I took him to training class with Kenya once and he chewed his tether).  The goal is to exercise, train, and play with them enough so that crate time = nappy time.  If they weren't crated during these periods, they'd probably be sleeping anyway.  I'd rather not have to crate them at all, but like I said, we've only had Coke for 2 weeks and he was already crate trained, so I don't see the harm.  Neither dogs have to be forced into their crate.  They get all meals in their crates and when we leave, we give them part of a meal to work on while we are away.

 HHmmm lets see,i've owned dogs for over 20 years.The question is "how long do you crate"?.... ZERO hours! Imagine that,a household thats never crated their dogs,unbelievable huh? But folks it can be done,i just wish more people would try it instead of automatically buying a cage when they buy a dog...

 

I know i sound snipy,but 5-8+ hours a day in a cage is just abhorent IMHO.This subject upsets the hell out of me  

Why is it abhorrent?  I put my son in a cage too - his cot.  I suppose I'm a bad parent and a child abuser as well....

Chuffy

I put my son in a cage too - his cot.

 

 

I wasnt even going to dignify that one with an answer as there is absolutely NO comparison.But do you put your son in a metal cage and then leave him locked in there while you go out for 8 hours everyday?Do you make him hold his bladder for this long too? Obviously the answers to these questions would be an emphatic No....  I cant see anyone treating their children in this way,so why make our beloved dogs live like this because their owners HAVE to go out to work,remembering they never HAD to have a dog..

Edie

 HHmmm lets see,i've owned dogs for over 20 years.The question is "how long do you crate"?.... ZERO hours! Imagine that,a household thats never crated their dogs,unbelievable huh? But folks it can be done,i just wish more people would try it instead of automatically buying a cage when they buy a dog...

 

I know i sound snipy,but 5-8+ hours a day in a cage is just abhorent IMHO.This subject upsets the hell out of me  

Have you ever owned a dog with severe SA?

snownose

Have you ever owned a dog with severe SA?

 

 

Nope,but nor have i owned perfect dogs in all of these years either.

 

I guess my biggest gripe is that most people seem to use the cage as the first and only option,without ever delving deeper into the dogs problems and trying to find a cure rather than the easier bandaid approach,of caging the dog so he cant cause any damage,but the problems still there at the end of the day. Now i'm talking about dogs who are caged because of behavioural problems.

 

Now dont get me started on owners who crate for no real reason other than thinking it's the done thing.Perfectly behaved dogs stuck in cages for hours and hours per day.Then there are the puppy owners who think it's allright to go straight back to work after getting a pup and think nothing of locking it up  all day forcing it to hold it's bladder,not giving it enough room to stretch and move about,something puppies and mature dogs need for proper bone growth and health. One hour is the longest i will leave any pup of mine alone for in the first weeks,one of the reasons being they cant go much longer than this before needing to toilet.

I used to be the fool that left my oldest GSD in a safe area, well, I thought it was safe for him,until I found out he ate and chewed everything due to SA.....introducing the crate, suggestion by a dog trainer.....before that, I never crated a dog, only for transport.........

 My experience as a volunteer at an animal shelter is actually the opposite of the "everyone is throwing dogs who don't need it in crates" concept. What I mostly saw were lovely young dogs who were surrendered to the shelter for problems that could have been easily solved through training, including proper crate-training in many cases. But people don't want to do it becuase they think it's cruel. Somehow it's better to surrender the dogs to a shelter, that that was less "cruel" than just using a crate for a limited time as a training tool. And of all of my friends with dogs, I am the only one I know of who has ever used a crate. And of the three dogs I have owned, only one has ever been crated as a long-term solution to a serious serious problem. One was only crated for potty-training (I work full time, and I understand that potty training takes constant supervision, but I am not home all the time), and the other never saw the inside of a crate ever. He didn't need it.

But tell you what. I know crating is much less common in Great Britain, so if you'll let the crate thing go, I'll let the cats-outside thing go, which I really dislike as a pet-owning practice, though I know it is completely accepted in the UK. 

I crate train all my dogs so that I have a way to contain them if it's ever necessary (vet, groomer, truck, hotel room, etc.).  My dogs are crated for transport unless they are in a seatbelt.  I sometimes will crate them at the training center when I'm cleaning up, to keep them from stepping in whatever I'm mopping the floor with.  They sleep in their crates mostly (by choice & often with the doors open), although, they sleep in bed with me sometimes, too.  I crate them at seminars when they aren't working, or during lunch breaks, or if I slip off to the ladies room.  They are well behaved adults and have the run of the house while I am gone, but I do crate Sequoyah when unfamiliar people are in the house, rather than worry about her trying to "escort" (herd) them out!  I crate my dogs if there are children about, and I am not able to directly supervise the interactions.  My dogs just think of their crates as a den, where good things like dinner, stuffed Kongs, and Buster Cubes happen. 

Edie

Chuffy

I put my son in a cage too - his cot.

 

 

I wasnt even going to dignify that one with an answer as there is absolutely NO comparison.But do you put your son in a metal cage and then leave him locked in there while you go out for 8 hours everyday?Do you make him hold his bladder for this long too? Obviously the answers to these questions would be an emphatic No....  I cant see anyone treating their children in this way,so why make our beloved dogs live like this because their owners HAVE to go out to work,remembering they never HAD to have a dog..

There darn well is a comparison FOR ME.  I treat the crate like my dogs "cot".  They sleep there at night and for short periods during the day.  Thats where the comparison ends.  Because they actually LIKE being in there a whole lot more than the baby likes his cot!  They don't know how much I am abusing them, poor things... 

As for what I do with my dogs while I am out.... well I would never leave my son in the house alone for even 5 minutes so THAT is where there is no comparison.  Most of us couldn't AFFORD a dog if we didn't work hard.  Caring for a dog is not cheap.  Your logic means none but lottery winners and well off pensioners should be allowed a dog.... Seems a bit extreme to me.

I would never dream of judging someone with a dog who had severe SA, they do what they must to keep the dog safe.  Of course they could always.... give up work?  Umm, send the dog to the pound?  Yeah, that sounds like a solution....  Course, they could try re-training the dog to accept periods of solitude, but that takes TIME and what do you do in the meantime to keep him safe?

Crates are useful for so many things.... a safe way to confine the dog if ever you need to and they can be a cozy home-from-home if ever you go anywhere with your dog, which makes it easier for you to take them with you.  That's a GOOD thing surely...?

Like anything, crates can be abused.... that doesn't mean anyone who uses one should be condemned.... if a dog cant stretch out in the crate and sit and stand comfortably without touching the top, its too small

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