NTTGPR Crating your dog

BBer4

Our pup is 10 months and we crate him if we are gone for more than an hour or two, since he still has some crazy puppiness. When we are at work he is crated for no more than 8 hours and my sister has always come to let him out for a pee and a bit of love midday.

I'm wondering if he is okay to be crated for the whole day now or if we should always let him out once through the work day. I don't want to be a bad puppy mom but it's sometimes not easy to get someone to come over.

Do you crate your dog while you are at work? How long is he or she crated for and how old are they?

Edit: fixed my words

TrueBlue12

I don't crate my dog, he is 4 so pretty calm now. I just wanted to tell you that it should be fine to crate him for 8 hours. Most dogs can hold their bladder and bowels for 8 hours by the time they are 11 weeks.

JuliaH21

All my dogs, dogs I foster and dogs I pet-sit are always crated when no one is home. It depends on the dog, by 10 months, I can usually leave a dog for 8 hrs in a crate. Once (stuck behind an accident) my min schnauzer was in a crate for 14 hrs and didn't seem to mind, just really had to pee. At first, I might limit water intake close to going into the crate and see how that goes (just make sure he has plenty of access to water the rest of the time). Whenever someone can let him out for a break, it is never a bad thing, though. 

beckynsean11

I crate my dog during the day when I'm not home. That's usually at least 10 hours for work. She's 8 1/2, but this has been her routine since she was about a year old. There have been times when she's been in there longer, but she's never had a problem in there. She has a bed & her food in there. She even goes in on her own. HD trained her & as soon as the bag for her crate treats is in our hands she goes straight in. She's usually a little wound up when I get home but she's fine. Honestly she sleeps all day in there & your puppy probably does too. If he can make it most of the night without any accidents, he should be good to go.

Twinkie0612

My dog was crated for much longer at that age and she never had a problem.

Bella61811

My dog is crated from around 7:30AM-5:15PM so almost 10 hours. He will be 3 in June. He never has a problem with it. I'd like to leave him out but as a PP said, he would terrorize the house.

krdesi

We crated our dog until he was over a year old. When I was working as a teacher, I got home by around 3 but he was alone from when we left at 7:30 to around 3 with no one coming to walk him in between. I know a lot of people that do that as well and the dogs are fine.

When I wanted to start letting him loose, I picked one room to start out with, and wouldn't leave him for long periods of time to start. He is 2 now and basically has free reign of the house and hasn't destroyed anything except for the blinds when I forgot to pull them up so he could look out the window. lol

I definitely needed him to be more mature before I trusted him outside of the crate when he was alone, so if your guy is still doing some puppy things, he might need more crate time and that is fine. It takes a while.

sunlavender

My pup is 11 months old and we've been doing all day (8 hours) crating her since she was about 5 months old.  I'm a teacher, so I was able to be with her over the summer, so luckily we didn't have to crate her right away.  At the beginning my mom was able to come over and let her out at lunch if I had a meeting after school.  Now the pup is able to go all day, even on days when I have to stay an extra hour.  The only draw back, as I'm sure you know, is she needs a good walk/play when I get home.  

Milagros315

We also crate our two huskies when we are gone for more than an hour or two. We don't have to do it anymore because we have someone living with us, but before that they would be crated for about 6 hours each day. They were fine - like PP said, I would often find them passed out. Even when I work from home, they sleep most of the day.

When we just had one dog, we tried letting him stay out of the crate. Usually he did fine, but once he got a tupperware container off the counter and ate some things he shouldn't have. He ended up in the hospital for two days. After that we realized that it's much safer for them to be in their crates.

Emily&Chad

I recently read an article that was saying do NOT crate your dog for many hours during the day.. I wish I could find it.. It was posted on FB from a shelter than I foster puppies for.. Gating him in a specific area may be an alternative. That's what we do when we leave the house for our mastiff and toy pom. They stay in the kitchen. 

sueann911

Rule of thumb that I've heard is puppies can hold it for about an hour per month of age. Yours should be fine.

To the previous poster who said not to crate, gating is only acceptable when a dog can hold bladder and bowels all day. Gating them gives too much room for the dog to per or poop on the other side of the gates area. Dogs don't want to lie in their own waste so that's why it's important to crate them in something only big enough that they can turn around in. If they can go to the other side of the crate or room then they will use the bathroom and delay house training.

BBer4

EmilyChad:

I recently read an article that was saying do NOT crate your dog for many hours during the day.. I wish I could find it.. It was posted on FB from a shelter than I foster puppies for.. Gating him in a specific area may be an alternative. That's what we do when we leave the house for our mastiff and toy pom. They stay in the kitchen.nbsp;

I've thought about gating him in a room but we are refinishing the whole house and the small bathroom is the only one that is completely finished. The living room and hallway are puppy proofed but I don't want to give him that much space for the whole day. So that's not going to work for now.

I feel much less guilty about crating him for the day now. I'm sure it's harder on me than it is on him. He has mastered the art of the puppy eyed guilt trip face but like many of you said, I'm sure he sleeps the whole day anyways. Thanks ladies!

sueann911

BBer4:

EmilyChad:

I recently read an article that was saying do NOT crate your dog for many hours during the day.. I wish I could find it.. It was posted on FB from a shelter than I foster puppies for.. Gating him in a specific area may be an alternative. That's what we do when we leave the house for our mastiff and toy pom. They stay in the kitchen.nbsp;

I've thought about gating him in a room but we are refinishing the whole house and the small bathroom is the only one that is completely finished. The living room and hallway are puppy proofed but I don't want to give him that much space for the whole day. So that's not going to work for now.

I feel much less guilty about crating him for the day now. I'm sure it's harder on me than it is on him. He has mastered the art of the puppy eyed guilt trip face but like many of you said, I'm sure he sleeps the whole day anyways. Thanks ladies!

Don't feel bad. Those puppy eyes are brutal but crating is the best thing for him. In a gates area an non house trained dog will pee in one area and lay in the other end. I promise you that he sleeps during the day and is fine in his crate. If he was out of the crate and got into something or tears up something he could get hurt or sick from it. The crate is the safest thing for him and safest place for your house as well.

BBer4

talon1226:

My youngest dog is crated for almost 8 hours a day. She turned 1 a few months ago but she's been ok in a crate for that long since she was about 6 months old.

Can your dog sleep for 8 hours at night without needing to get up and pee? That's one way to get an idea of how long they can go without needing to be let out since he is probably asleep most of the time he's crated.

He hasn't had to go out in the middle of the night since he was about 10 or 11 weeks and has never had an accident in his crate. He is also uncrated at night and still hasn't had to pee until I get up usually he won't even go until he eats breakfast so you ladies are right, he will be fine.

runforcookies

I rescued my dog at 8 months and we are away for 8 hours a day. For the first month or so I would come home and take him out during the day, but he was never rushing to go pee so I stopped coming home around 9 months. 

We stopped crating him and leaving him gated in the kitchen after he was a year, and somewhere a few months after that we just leave him out. We've never had any accidents. (knock on wood) 

Nea2009

We started crating our pup at 4 months old. She can jump our 6 foot fence so she has to be crated. Now 2 years old and she remains crated during the day for about 8 hours. Dogs are "den" animals so most actually love their crate(as long as a crate isn't used for punishment) 

doodiebug18

My dogs are crated while we are working or gone also. We let them out right before we leave and as soon as we get home, if we're gone more than our normal work day we have someonelet them out

this1life

We do not crate. We got our dog from another family when he was 5 months old (4 y/o now). They crated and appear to have done so inappropriately (leaving him for too long, using as a punishment etc.). We tried crating when we took him home and his anxiety was unbelievable (shrieking, panting, panicking). A couple days of trying this and we just couldn't do it to him and let him cruise around the house. He is a very good boy and has never chewed or destroyed anything. He does get absurd amounts of exercise morning and afternoon though, so he's a tired guy.

 The dog I grew up with loved her crate. We didn't even have to shut the door, she would just head in there when we left for work/school and chill until we returned home.  

argonne

mrsashleyk:

I was lucky with my first dog. We got him at 8 weeks old (way too young to be crated all day) but it was summer time so I crated him from 8-12. I would pick up my little sister on my lunch break and she would watch him until I got off of work for 20 bucks a week. We didn't get our yard fenced in until a couple months ago so I would just baby our kitchen so he would have a little bit of space to roam, but also left his crate door open so he could nap in there if he wanted.

 

That privilege was taken away when I came home one day to a hole in the floor and two holes in the wall! Now they are outside all day unless it's raining and then we crate them. I feel bad crating them for so long so I make sure to take them on an extra long walk that night.

so you're one of those people that leaves their dogs out everyday to possibly terrorize the neighbors?  That's cool.

I hate it when people leave their dogs outside everyday. Hate it.  You know why?  We have a neighbor across the street and a few houses down who does this.  Those dogs bark all.day.long. Before you say that your dogs don't, let me say that you probably don't know for sure. Be a responsible dog owner. Don't leave your dogs out all day, especially in a neighborhood situation where you're impacting your neighbors.