what do you think of this article?

Interesting. One can lie with statistics pretty easily....so I'd throw the numbers out.
 
I think he is trying to be avant garde and different. People here have already said that limiting water as he suggests isn't kosher with them...so that's out the window.
 
the 3'x3' area....is only slightly different than an overlarge wire crate.....if the uppy has to pee/poop, and he has space to do so and not lie in it...he will, left for 4-8 hours a day...with access to food and water. I have never NOT known that to be true.
 
Brian Kilcommons had a similar methods yet he papered the ENTIRE FLOOR...thus getting the dog used to going on papers...which were then reduced to smaller and smaller area. This to me...seemed like it could work.
 
There is a case against everything...and I do think what he says about over use is true. BUT these same people crating too long....would NOT instead spend the time training...they'd come home to a soiled home one too many times and the dog would still end up in a shelter. The fact is people get dogs, who shouldn't....and nowadays that's a LOT OF PEOPLE! The crate method isn't the problem...because take away the crate and you have a puppy in a 3'x3' area that's STILL not seeing anyone 8 hours a day....lol!

If he's got a problem for dogs being left alone for too long that is one thing. But don't take it out on a crate. I don't see what the difference is between confining a dog to a small room and a crate. Either way the dog has limited space to move and is alone.
 
He's saying crating doesn't work for housebreaking, but where is he getting this information? Because an  awful lot of people are able to crate-train for housebreaking and then uncrate the dog after housetraining is done with no problem. I'm actually pretty unusual in that I have an adult dog that I still crate. Most people stop before the dog is a year old because it was just for housetraining and with that done, the crate can go away.
 
Really though, if you're out of the house, what is a dog doing outside a crate that it isn't doing in? I've set up webcams to watch what Marlowe does when I'm not home and he's not crated--he curls up on his favorite couch cushion and sleeps, gets up, stretches, chews a bone for a while and sleeps some more. He's not running zoomies around the room, he's not playing chess with the cats, he's not doing my taxes. He's zonked.
 
Leaving a dog alone for too long is leaving a dog alone for too long. But that's different from properly carried out crating.

I am using a crate for the first time, and I think it helped us tremendously. I had Houdini in a GSD suit the first couple of days.
 
Leaving a dog to long is as you say, to long, my DH is home all day, both of us on the weekends, Kord spends the overnight hours in the crate and a few short 30 to 60 min during the day when my husband goes and gets our neighbor from work. The crate is open the rest of the time and he uses it all the time.
 
As for housebreaking, sorry but that falls on the human, not the pet. Kord has had only a couple of pee accidents in the house and no poop ones. I consider myself lucky to no end that this is the case, he was very very quick to learn where and when and how to tell us he needed to go out.
 
Dawn

Is a dog really at a high risk for bad behavior if he is crated for about 8 hours on weekdays, even if he is given adequate exercise and socialization prior to and after being crated?

Nope, has nothing to do with the crate. It's what you do with the dog to ensure (or don't) that the dog's needs for exercise, mental stimulation, training, and companionship, are adequately met.

I couldn't crate Zhi when I was home at any time. She has an inbred need to be within touching distance of me at all times. Duh, that's why she's this tiny dog with no hair and fancy trimmings - she's cute and snuggly. She'd go Wacko Dog if I isolated her in a crate for hours at a time.

Who is this guy anyway? It makes my hair stand on end when someone claims to be a dog trainer and then says something like this:

Our dogs are beloved family members and need to be treated as such. You wouldn't keep your child confined to his room for his entire youth and adolescence, would you? You'd have one maladjusted young person!

Um, duh? My dog is a dog and needs to be treated as such! No, I'm not going to crate a dog for 3/4 of the clock, but they do just fine crated comfortably for a few hours while Mom is at work.

He suggests confining the dog to a small room. I wouldn't confine my kid to a small room, either! Even when my kids have "time out" they sit on the bed with the door wide open. I want them to always know they have the choice to be wrong, because they are not dogs! I can almost always protect my dogs from the consequences of their actions, but the kids have to learn to reason through those consequences and make informed and confident decisions.

I can't explain to my puppy Ted that he's not supposed to chew Mommy's computer cords, or open the medicine cabinet and eat my prescription meds. Nor does he understand that the house is not the potty, not even the farthest, darkest corners of the sitting room where we don't hang out much. [8|] So until he's got the picture, he stays where he won't get in trouble, and he is "set up for success" - in his crate - when we can't watch him.

Eventually Ted will be big enough that going outside has become a habit, and his urge to chew will be confined to his raw meaty bones. Then he'll get his freedom while we are gone, too.

Until then the crate eliminates many confrontations between his puppy nature and my need to have a clean, unchewed household. Otherwise we are back to the days of swatting with newspapers and rubbing Pup's nose in crap, right? But I suppose I have to buy this guy's book to find out.

ETA: I'm saying "duh" a lot. I promise I'll stop now. [8|]

I used a crate to help housebreak Mattie as a pup and to keep her safe while I was gone. She was crated until she was about a year old. Now she has free reign of the house and I have never had a problem with her.
 
Casie was adopted at 3 years and had never been crated.I was extremely lucky with her. She has never had an accident in the house, so I did not have to crate her for housebreaking. She does however have her own crate and she does go in there whenever it storms out. So I believe that crates do serve as a place for a dog to feel safe.
 
I dont really see a big difference in gating off a 3 x 3 foot section of the kitchen and putting the dog in a crate during the day. At night  I would not have left Mattie alone in the kitchen, I much prefered crating her next to my bed where she could see us.
 
I have known people though who use the crate way to much. Just like people who tie their dogs outside 24/7, some people I know crate their dogs for 12-14 hours at a time and then tie them up outside because they are too wild in the house[:@]. I have wondered how many dogs are neglected inside houses in crates that noone can see to report. I would imagine its just as many if not more that the amount of dogs that are tied to trees and neglected. 
 
I think crates are a wonderful training tool. And if used properly are very humaine, and probably help to keep dogs in the home. I also believe that they are also a good place for the dogs to hang out to feel safe and secure. But like anything, it really all depends on the dogs owner to make sure its used properly.

I see some validity in this. I think the starting with a 3 x 3 space is intended to be expanded weekly so that the pup knows the difference. Crates are a tool and some people will overuse any tool. I guess I have a problem with people getting puppies and the puppy spending 16-18 hours a day in a crate. Many times an adult dog would be the better pet for these households. If a puppy is in a crate, I believe it needs to have things to keep it mentally stimulated. Puppyhood is a time of learning and the more experiences a puppy gets whether by sound, texture, people etc. the better chance of it becoming a well-adjusted, intelligent dog.
 
We didn't crate train. Tasha was a bit slower to be housebroken but ended up just fine. Wolfgang came at six months old and had never been inside a house, yet was trained almost from day one just by imitating Tasha. He was an otherwise very well socialized puppy and has done well in life. Floyd was adopted at four. Although his breeding would suggest he'd be more intelligent than the other dogs, he's not. He displays fearfulness where they show confidence and curiosity. Obviously this is not all the doing of crates, but I think he was given too few opportunities to learn when he was a puppy.
 
There's danger in not crating too such as eating the wrong thing etc., but I think if you are careful and can find the time, not crating is an excellent option. We recently had a foster pup and I tied her to me with a leash. Between that and watching the other dogs, she learned very fast.

The problems start when people mis-use the crate. Crate em all night (8 hours), let them out five minutes to potty in the morning, pop back in crate all day (10 hours), come home, dog is completely wired and hysterical, so back in the crate he goes. This scenario is all too common. Dog ends up spending more than 20 hours a day in the thing, and of course he develops behavioral problems.
If you only use it to help you housetrain the dog, and provide adequate exercise/training, and gradually phase out its use as the dog matures, well, then no, not at risk of behavioral problems.

Well, I can tell you with certainty that crating literally saved Sally's life.  She was a dump off at our barn.  She was a year old, not at all housebroken, had no concept of how to be in a house, was timid, and had seperation anxiety.  Oh yeah, and she was the first dog DH and I had owned.  I had an apartment--I could not have had a dog destroying property that did not belong to me, or running to every window screaming.
 
Not only did having the crate help her housebreak and not destroy everything she could get her mouth around, but it also made her fell more comfortable.
 
If we had not had the crate as an option, I do think we would not have had a choice but to take her to the local shelter, as we simply could not have delt with her behavior.  Tell me, what do you think are the chances of a 1 yr old very timid pit bull getting adopted? 

I think that article could have some validity for people who are actually leaving a dog in a crate for 18+ hours out of 24,  but I've never gotten the idea that the people on this forum who use crates are doing anything like that at all.
 
Joyce

Meh. I take the point that crates can be miused and abused, but the notion that crate-trained dogs are "never" housebroken is frankly ridiculous. I crate trained Russell and he is completely housebroken. He could also be trusted to be home alone uncrated for a workday by the time he was 10 or 11 months old. However, I didn't just take my puppy home and stick him in the crate all day... for two weeks I lugged his crate to work with me so I could actively crate-train after that I came home midday for months.

The author sound like somebody who sees a dog behind bars and melts. Sam has a crate, the door is never locked while he is at home, yet he sleep there and rests there. Plus, while you work, does your dog actually run around the house and exercise? No,  he just sleeps the whole time, or rearanges the furniture. It's not all that much better, and I can say, as of 100% of other crate-trained dogs that the method has worked.

Ridiculous.

Crates are like anything else- properly used, they're fine.

Indy was crated when alone until he was 3-4. Not because he wasn't housebroken, but because he couldn't be trusted not to destroy stuff- he loves to chew and NOTHING is more shreddable than fabric.

Mal, at 5 months, is reliably non-destructive for up to 3-4 hours without supervision (yay webcams). I wouldn't leave him alone uncrated if I was going to be gone more than 2, though. For us, the crate is more to do with that than housebreaking.

Re: papering the whole floor method- I'm not sure who originated this method- but in the (rather old) training book series Water Dog (and Bird Dog and Family Dog), this is the method the author uses. I think it works as well as any other type of paper training, but the problem is getting the dog not to play with the papers....

As you might know I don't advice any equipment at all. Crates are for people that don't know to train their dogs properly.

I see in your signature that you are a professional trainer.  I am curious about your training and/or education in the field.  I am quite interested in your methods of management during training and securing a dog in an unfamiliar situation when you do not choose to use crating as an option.