When do you crate your dog?

Crating threads seem to be all the rage these days!

Conrad is crated whenever we're out of the house, but not at night. It shakes out to be about 8 hours a day on weekdays and a few hours here and there on weekends.
 
Marlowe isn't crated but he is confined to one room, same deal as Conrad.

Gromit is crated at night and Zoe is locked in the same room as him (by a baby gate).

I don't. I'm incredibly lucky to have adopted a dog who is very reliable when left alone, and to have someone in the house all the time.

When I'm not home, which isn't very often. I usually bring her with me when I go out. Lately I haven't been crating her ENOUGH so she's getting a bit of anxiety separation when I do leave and I have to re-train her. At night she sometimes sleeps in the crate with the door open, next to my bed.

Mine both have free reign of the house, luckily though they are hardly ever alone. The only time they go to their crates is if they are really tired or during storms. They seem to feel safer there.

Different dogs are different as to when we crate. We have a schedule. The dogs are divided into buddys and the household at any one time is divided into dogs that are "IN" "OUT" or "OUTSIDE". I used to throw kennel time in there too but the work has expanded since we moved here and down time is now greatly reduced.

Ben, Maggie, and Zhi are OUT or OUTSIDE all the time. They buddy up with the other dogs. When rescues or trainees come I have to rework the buddies. Ted has a very fast rotation because he's so young. The others spend about two hours "IN" at a time, unless we have to go somewhere, in which case Ben, Maggie, Zhi, and Cord are all "OUT" while the rest are crated. On Sundays we are gone for about six hours for church, and every other week I go run errands with my mom and I'm gone about eight hours then. The puppy, obviously, goes with us for those times but only to allow for quick leg stretches throughout the day. The folks at church think it's so funny when we bring the puppies. Of course, puppies are pretty tame for us - we end up bringing orphan lambs every year, too, so I can run out and feed between services. []

Depending on work load and training schedule the other dogs may be crated as much as four hours total during the day, on other days. This is not consecutive - there is heavy work and training that comes in between "naptimes" as I call it, and also just simple "OUT" time - one on one casual time with me.

Rotating the dogs ensures that they all get individual attention each day. It's even easy for Patrick to keep up with the dogs when they are on a schedule like this. Patrick is all about those schedules - write it down and he's The Man. If something happens to me, I get stuck traveling somewhere or run off to a training opportunity or trial, Patrick just follows the schedule and the dogs hardly know I'm gone.

I'm sitting here looking at Ted asleep in his crate and it's time to upgrade, sigh. My baby is about to outgrow his puppy crate. [] He's gonna be a HOSS. It took Rocky six months to outgrow this thing but Ted's got his forehead touching the door and his butt on the back panel - he's not quite five months old. Boo hoo!

Never. Sofia is incredibly GOOD. She never gets into anything! She's fastidious and would only wee in the house if there is absolutely no choice, such as being inside alone for 24 hours, and then only on the "special" mat. Plus she goes wherever I go 99% of the time.

I crate the girls to feed them, and Sioux sleeps in her crate at night (her choice).  Other than that, they are loose in the house because they are all well behaved adults at this point.

Axl is never crated because he's perfect. [] epito is crated when we're not home, when he eats, and when he's being rude and needs to calm down. Ogre is too big for the biggest crate I can find, but for the most part he doesn't really need to be crated anyway. The only time I ever confine him is when he's eating and when we're not home..and during those times, I just confine him to the kitchen with baby gates.

When they are home alone, my crew are all crated.  I have safety concerns...their safety in case someone gets cranky, the safety of my furniture, windows should someone come by, the someone who came by who might have a heart attack on my deck when confronted with SIX large dogs staring out the window....and of course, the fire concerns.  It sometimes happens that they are crated up to 7 hours, but with our work schedules, that's rare.  They go in with stuffed frozen kongs...ever tried to make room in a freezer for 12 large kongs??[]  They are also crated for meals and fresh bones, so I try to give the nice knuckles on weekends when they have more freedom during the day and a little bit of chewing time in the crate is a major treat.  Meal time is so short that I don't even count that as crate time......
 
At bedtime most everyone heads to his crate to sleep.  And they tend to stay there all nite even tho we don't shut the crate doors at nite.

ever tried to make room in a freezer for 12 large kongs??

Ha! I'm constantly having to rearrange things just to fit three in there! You might need to get a chest freezer!

Weekdays: the four adult dogs are crated while I work (4 hours AM, four hours PM) and that's about it. Nick (puppy) is crated or ex-penned during work and crated at night, unfortunately, at this point, but at 22 weeks that's the best thing for him. As he gets a little older he'll get to sleep out at night with the other dogs.

Weekends: if we're at home they spend almost no time crated - except for puppy at night.

Each of our three dogs goes by themselves in our one and only crate for 1-2 hours a month. This is just to make sure they won't freak out  if they need to be crated for medical reasons. I have just started training for them to get used to e-collars and booties for the same reason.

I crate my dogs when we leave the house and at night.
 
My minpin, who will be 11 in January, has never got it through his thick head that you DON"T pee inside!  He's been neutered since he was 9 months but he still manages to mark if I'm not present.
The bichon girls- they are both good generally, though the 5yr old one will pee inside if the grass is wet or dewy.   My 7r old bichon girl is an angel. Should give her the run of the house day/night but she tends to lay right next to the crated dogs anyway and she happily goes in.