Crate Poll

One of my dogs is actually incontinent. This means that she is either confined to a large crate, or a small room, with a pee pad, when I'm gone. I'm willing to clean up her messes, and give her the space so that she doesn't have to lay in them. When she first started becoming really incontinent, she actually got urine scald from being crated for 4 hours. From that day on, she's been given the space to pee and move out of it (contrary to popular training techniques... but this is a special case).

She does, actually, pee every hour to two hours. I do get up several times every night and take her outside.

Yes, but your dog is a special case.  I don't know anyone with a healthy dog that does that.  I certainly don't take Sally out every hour.

My dogs hardly ever use the crate.  Only when things are crazy in my busy house.  Mostly they go in if they are afraid of something...Vaccum, thunder, revving up the race car, Dad yelling at the kids.lol,lol  I do have them trained  go in when they are wet....All I have to say is " your wet, get in your house"  and they do and stay until they are semi dry. 

Yep my gals are crate trained, they are an awesome, we are an active family going camping and that fun stuff I know mine are more comfortable to be able to just go lay down when they've had enough. If you ever have a medical problem and they have to stay at the vet they will be in a crate there and why have them stressing over being in a crate.

I'm really hoping I can get Sasha used to a crate for winter weather. Right now they spend 8 hours in the yard, but when it starts to rain, I will not leave them out while I'm at work. Sasha opens windows on her own, and she also broke the glass on he top of my 55 gallon tank. She could have hurt herself VERY badly. So, from this point on, she will be crated indoors, or put in the back yard.
 
Someone can go ahead and train out her seperation anxiety if they want to. And I mean it's severe. Her trainer doesn't even know what to suggest.
 
So, when crating becomes necessary, she will have to be in a crate for 6-8 hours a day. Monday - Friday. Or she can be left out to break fishtanks, possibly windows, open windows, etc. I choose crating.

I'm answering for Xerxes, as he's itching to respond.

"Crate? What crate?  I don't go in that thing.  I do go into it sometimes, but don't expect me to stay quiet.  The cat needs me.  There's a couch that needs to be slept on.  How can I look out the window if I'm in a cage?  I can't stretch in a crate.  Why don't you get in the crate if it's such a neat place?"

The people across the street gave us a really nice metal crate.  I put Willow in it once and she went right in.  I shut the door and started crying.  So, that was the end of that.  I kept it though.

We used the crate a lot, when Jasmine was new to us.  She wasn't totally housebroken it was a godsend, when we were gone, sleeping, or couldn't pay attention to her.  Now, it's just a place to stay safe, when mom is opening plastic garbage bags, to hang out while we eat, a place to sleep, and a place to watch kitchen activity.

The only time Toby has been inside a crate was when we picked him up from the breeders. Since then, he's been allowed to raom free whether we are home or not. He's very well behaved and has never done anything that would warrant me to crate him.

As for safety while travelling in the car, Toby has a car seat that I can attach his harness to.

No crates here. Sofia is extremely well-behaved, believe it or not! If she has wild parties while I'm gone, she's very good at cleaning up! [] I've never used crates, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't crate-train a dog.

However, during the trip I just returned from, she had to practically live in the car. And sleep all night there, too. She did fine.

I'm a SAHM so Rupert is never crated very long. 2-3 hours maybe. At first he hated it, and I had to go over to my neighbors and explain and apologize in advance (I live in a townhouse). But now all I have to say is "Go to bed" and he runs in there. He also sleeps in there at night, but I don't latch it.

I crate trained my bloodhound and he was great with it.  Now he likes to stay outside most of the time, if the weather gets bad or something else scary or stressful happens he's straight for the crate.  My 3 Shih Tzus don't like being crated though, so I guess it depends on the dog and the situation. My daughter and her Hubby have 2 Boxers and 1 Shih Tzu that have always been crated when they are at work and when they are home the dogs will get in their crates on their own when they are ready to rest.

Of course I don't take her out every hour to pee!! That is why I trained her to use potty pads in the basement.
Jetta hates crates and won't ever go in one.

Well, you wouldn't want your dog in a crate, and I wouldn't want mine going potty in the house (the litterbox is bad enough)--it all balences out.

Cassidy doesn't use a crate, I have one for her size now, but the only time I've really had her in it is when we went to visit relatives, stayed there for several days. The dogs aren't allowed inside there, and so I crated them at night in the garage, I also did that when we had to go someplace while at their house. The next time, the dogs stayed in the barn at night, and I tethered her with her bed instead of using the crate.

That being said, I'm not against them at all; it's just that Cassidy never needs to be in one. Mirelle ( 7 months) has a crate, and she's in it whenever we're gone. At night she doesn't sleep in her crate because I don't feel like bringing it down to my room every night for her to sleep in. I have her tethered next to her bed at night now. We're usually home a lot, and Mirelle is the one that goes with us quite a few places ( she's a service dog puppy in training, and can come into stores, etc with us). But whenever she's at home, she's in the crate. Even when she was younger than 7 months, there were a few times she was in her crate up to 10 hours! Of course, I was all upset, I would have thought she would go crazy, but she didn't seem to mind, except she wasn't tired for bed that night and wanted to play, cause she had slept the whole day! It's usually only a few hours at a time that she's in her crate though, and that's not every day, maybe every other day, depending on what we have going on.