When do you crate your dog?

I agree with you MRV.  I use the crate in the minivan when I am not familiar with dog or the other dogs don#%92t know each other…SAFETY.  I don#%92t use the crate at home because I am gone too long.  My 3 Great Danes have free reign except the kitchen is off limits because Blizzard can turn on the faucet.  I originally set up 90sqft kennels in the basement to secure the Danes when they are alone.  One day Drizzle got her toe stuck on the top of the kennel and was dangling and crying.  Luckily I heard her before going off and I rescued her.  From that point the Danes have had free reign.  To make it work I had to dog proof the house and that took a while.  Eventually they got use to being alone and being free in a large space.  Now they just sleep.  I did have Nessie, an English Bulldog who always had free reign.  But one day I came home to find Nessie mauled by Drizzle and then from that point of time Nessie was confined to the kitchen (remember kitchen was off limits to the Danes).  For the kennels in the basement, I use them for my fosters.  No foster will have free reign because of what happened to Nessie.  They are large kennels for such small dogs but I do not double up for SAFETY reason.

Currently, we have 7 dogs in my house.  4 are mine (boxer, doberman, aussie mix, dachshund), 1 is my grandparents (dachshund, grandma is in the hospital), the other 2 are fosters(doberman).  With this many dogs in a house (even a large house)  there is a definite need for crating.  During the day, whoever is home (3 go to work with me daily) is crated.  Bevo, my dobie, is left loose in the house.  He is totally reliable and is left loose to patrol the house.  At night, Bevo & Shooter, my doxie, sleep outside the crate.  Everyone else is crated. 
 
I know that my 4 dogs get along well and there wouldn't be a problem if they were left uncrated, but with 3 others in the mix I can't be 100% sure that there would not be a problem. I would prefer not take any chances. 
 
Glenda, I understand the kong dilema completely.  We freeze 14 daily. 

Pearl gets crated while we're away and at night.  I feel bad about doing it at night, but she has slept with us twice recently.  The first night went well, the second night, she chewed three holes in a very nice blanket on our bed.  So, back to the crate.  She now cries, whines, and barks for a while after we put her in and head to bed. 
 
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I found it very interestig that the majority do not crate. It would be interesting to know if those people feel they lucked out with their dogs or if they had to do some serious effort to achieve that.

 
DPU, I didn't actually do a count, but it seems that many of the people who's responses put them in the "free reign" category, have crated their dogs in the past and their dogs have now moved on to free-reign privileges.  So I don't think the "majority doesn't crate" is really accurate.  I realize that your numbers are just a quick recap...I'm not picking on your tally, I'm glad you did it.  But I just wanted to point that out, because for many folks, crating is a means to an end.  Just because someone is now able to give their dog free-reign doesn't mean that they are not supporters of crating in general. My boys were crated whenever they were alone up until the age of 16-18 months.  They are 5 & 10 years old now and have had free-reign of my house for many years.  I don't feel that I lucked out with them, or that it took any serious effort to get them to the point of free-reign privileges...just time and consistency. [color=#000000]Their crates are still set up in "their" room, with the doors removed.  They have always eaten in their crates.  At night they have the choice of sleeping in their dog beds or their crates.  They usually choose the beds.  But the life-long daily contact with his crate (eating) has turned out to be a great thing for my oldest guy who suddenly went blind a little over a year ago.  It is his reference point and a comfort zone.  They are still crated when they are alone at someone else's house, for instance when my sister watches them for a weekend.    [/color]

I attemtped to crate train Dodger when he was about 3 months old - that lasted a couple of days because he'd hurt himself trying to get out.  Ever since then he's had free reign of the house.
 
I think part of it was luck in that from the day I found him (6 weeks) he could hold himself overnight (10+hours).  The next part was tiring him out completely when he was going to be left alone and leaving an interactive toy.  Another bit of luck is that he is too lazy to chew so he's never been dstructive.  The last part was early training and really, not giving him the opportunity to do something wrong.  Dodger has never destroyed anything - in fact I think the "devil-cat" has caused more damage[]
 
I never thought he'd be able to crate train but at a fun match I put him in my friend's x-pen and he was fine - he'd never been in one but he just sat there, looking nervous but calm (calmer than all the other dogs who yap and whine in their crates).... I was amazed so he's getting a "cool cot house" for Christmas.

Brown and Grey aren't crated. Tar is crated when we leave the house, but he's slowly earning more freedom. He sleeps in his crate, but we no longer close the crate door because he sleeps through the night without getting out of it.

Shy and Rotten were never crated, but if I were going to do it again they would have been. Boomer was crated when we were gone and at night for about six months, then he got to stay out at night, then he started staying out if we were only going to be gone for an hour or so. He's still crated if we're gone more than a couple of hours.

Whenever I leave my house, Ella is crated.
I have forgotten to crate her twice and she did fine, but I was not gone for longer than 45 minutes those two times.
She just made herself at home on our bed.

I SWEAR I'll never get a better dog than Ella.

I don't believe I 'lucked out' with my dog as far as trusting him to roam freely in the house, but I do believe the fact that I was at home with him from day one made it a lot easier to get to the point where I could trust him on his own. I was able to observe him through out the day and teach him what he could and could not do. When he got to the point where I could trust him to stay out of trouble when I was with him, I began leaving him alone for short periods of time. 45 minutes alone gradually stretched into a couple hours. Now I can leave him all day with out any concerns.

If I had been in the position where I had to leave him alone when he was young, it wouldn't surprise me if he would still be crated everyday.

never. he just does not seem to like being confined in small places.

Glenda, I knew that Max was OK home alone with free reign when he was totally housetrained (meaning  no accidents inside anytime - ever) and was no longer looking for things to destroy, other than his own toys/stuffies. As for what he'd do if there were an emergency and a stranger had to come in ...  I found that out a few days ago when I came home to find him alone with the Terminix guy who had come to do his yearly termite inspection and DS, who let him in, had to leave to pick DGS up at school. Here he was, alone with a stranger wearing some weird looking jumpsuit and a mask on his face ... licking  him on the ear whenever he had to get down to  his level and  chasing the light from his flashlight.[] I think it's safe to assume he wouldn't freak out. He just figures anyone coming in the door is coming to play with him, and he behaves accordingly.
 
Joyce

I know part of why Sofia is so good is my constant attention with her. I'm a very strong leader for her, and she knows it. When she was littler she was a hellion, she and her sister both. I did get the less dominant of the two sisters, too, so that makes a difference. However, I hear from my son (who has Athena, Sofia's sister) that Athena is also very good when left alone. Lily the Piggle, though is another story (pit bull + beagle = piggle []).

So I think part of it is that she doesn't mess with my stuff because it's mine, and part that she knows she'll get attention from me very soon, so there's no bored dog problems.

I was extremely lucky.  And, from what I get from the chow forum it's a breed thing. . .most of the chows there are never crated or only crated when they are very young.  But, my "goddog" was crated at night and also when nobody was home with him his first year.  And, a lot of my pet sitting clients dogs are crated.  It all depends on how the dog is and also the preference of the owner.
 
I only have issue with it when it gets excessive. 

jason is crated when i am gone. night time, it depends. if i decide to have them sleep with me, then he is not crated. if they stay in the living room, then he has to be crated. he is a big fat chewer. can't trust him yet. i do hope i can trust him enough one day. he does love his crate a lot though. "go in your crate" is his most solid command..
moca was never crate trained. i had some housetraining issues in the beggining, but only due to her changing owners a lot before. i figured, crate training is new, housetraining is not, and i can go without the crate. it worked out fine...
 

My dogs are crated at night when any of the girls are in heat at which time the boys are also split into two rooms but not with crates. They are also crated when they eat RMB and sometimes if I'm busy I'll crate them for a while in the afternoon so I can mop floors (or if they are especially ornery that day). The rest of the time they sleep with me although it's a tight squeeze. I always end up with someone sleeping on my face.
 
I might consider crating them sometimes when I'm out but I am terrified of fire and when they are out of the crates they can get to the doggie door.