For those of you with dogs...

calico2222

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If you crate them, how long are they normally in their crates? Ours are crated at night. DH lets them out at 6:30am when he gets up for work, and I put them back in when I leave around 9:00am. DH normally gets home between 3-4, but yesterday he was working his second job and didn't make it home to let them out for a run. I had to work late, and didn't get home until after 7:00pm to let them out. They were fine...wound up of course, but fine. But, I feel like I abused them or something. What is the guide line for crating dogs?

BTW, when they are out, they have a 1/2 acre yard to run in so they get plenty of excercise then. And, they don't get crated if we're only going to be gone for an hour or so.

This probably should have been posted in the "cats and other animals" forum (I just thought of that) so feel free to move it if you need to.
 

arlyn

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When I adopted Bear, he had some pretty severe seperation anxiety issues, so he was crated at night, and any time we could not supervise, up to 8 hours, but he is a large dog.

He has conquered his seperation anxiety so he comes and goes to his crate as he pleases now and is only crated if we will be gone for more than three hours.
But he will happily go in his crate when asked.

He loves his Kong and the only time he ever gets it is when we have to crate him.
I usually stuff it with peanut butter and freeze it.
It keeps him from getting bored.
 
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calico2222

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My dogs don't mind their crates at all! In fact, Brooke (part malamute and HUGE) will go and lay down in hers when she comes in from outside even if we aren't going anywhere. It's no problem getting them in...I was just wondering if 10 hours yesterday was too much.
 

capt_jordi

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The dogs at work are crated from 9 PM to 7 AM every night and they are all fine with it, but they are also completely worn out by being up all day playing together so they dont mind at all! Plus these are very large crates. We can fit a small great dane in them.
Maybe if you feel like you are being cruel you could see if there is a doggy day care in your area. It would be a great option rather than keeping him crated all day! Plus he's come home and fall asleep!
 

litterboxqueen

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I usually dont like to crate them more than a couple hours. Maggie sleeps with me, so I cant speak for overnight.


I used to crate her when I went to work for the first couple weeks, but she is now fine alone, loose in the house.

But she gets crated sometimes when visitors are over, for a couple hours.

Now that I have Daezi, I dont know what I'm going to do about the sleeping situation. She's a big dog, 80 lbs, and there's one bed! But I think it would be unfair to crate her overnight, but leave Maggie sleep on the bed. Hmm.

For me personally, I feel better leaving them in the bathroom, with water, toys, blankets rather than in a crate. But that's just me.
 

arlyn

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Just pray your lovely lab girl doesn't come complete with a lab's destructive tendancies.
That's the only reason Bear gets crated if we'll be gone long, he gets bored and starts destroying the house.

He's torn the weather stripping from the door, ate the screen off the storm door and has destroyed the interior of a barebones cargo van.

He even ate my mother's door mat.
 
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calico2222

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Originally Posted by snosrap5

We don't crate our dogs but my brother crates his dogs. They only crate them during the day while they are at work.
We crate them at night for 2 reasons. First, because when we got Snickers (our first pup) we had to crate her at night to help house break her. When we got the rest, they were already crate trained. Second, it give the cats the night to rule the house!


All our dogs are 2 yrs or younger (4 total, one is still a puppy) so right now we crate to keep the house intact. Actually, the other night, I didn't get the door closed all the way on Snicker's crate, and she woke us up at 2:00am roaming the house seeing what she could get in to! It actually was the sound of the trashcan being knocked over that woke DH up. She doesn't bother it when we are awake, but I guess at night anything goes!
 

snosrap5

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Just pray your lovely lab girl doesn't come complete with a lab's destructive tendancies.
That's the only reason Bear gets crated if we'll be gone long, he gets bored and starts destroying the house.

He's torn the weather stripping from the door, ate the screen off the storm door and has destroyed the interior of a barebones cargo van.

He even ate my mother's door mat.
I feel like you are talking about my chocolate lab Kisses!! Lord that girl has the shortest attention span I have ever seen!



Originally Posted by calico2222

We crate them at night for 2 reasons. First, because when we got Snickers (our first pup) we had to crate her at night to help house break her. When we got the rest, they were already crate trained. Second, it give the cats the night to rule the house!


All our dogs are 2 yrs or younger (4 total, one is still a puppy) so right now we crate to keep the house intact. Actually, the other night, I didn't get the door closed all the way on Snicker's crate, and she woke us up at 2:00am roaming the house seeing what she could get in to! It actually was the sound of the trashcan being knocked over that woke DH up. She doesn't bother it when we are awake, but I guess at night anything goes!
I should correct myself, although we don't crate our dogs we do use a baby gate at night. It keeps the girls in our end of the house and out of the kitchen, living room and cat room.
 

arlyn

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Yeah, Bear isn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he makes up for it in cute
 

sharky

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if under a yr ... during the day they need to potty at least once every hour to age ( ie 4 month old can go 4 hours)

adult dogs no more than 12 hours per day and no more than 8 at one time is a general rule
 

dixie_darlin

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Yeah, Bear isn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he makes up for it in cute
Nor is Jake


I used to crate him when we first adopted him. He suffered from severe separation anxiety and would eat the house if I let him. When we were broken into last December I decided from then on I wasn't going to crate him. I feel like had he not been crated, we wouldn't have been robbed.
He hasn't chewed up a thing since!!!!!
 

shorty14788

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My Husky has severe seperation anxiety. We tried more training and behavior modification techniques then imaginable. Thats why she has to be crated. She is now on clomipramine which does wonders for if we go out for short trip or outside. (Yes, she used to even destroy things when I went out in the front yard.) But she will destroy things when I go to work still. And heaven forbid I miss a pill.... Holy cow.... She stays in her crate overnight, is let out in the morning for about an hour, goes back in for 4 hours while I'm at work, comes back out at lunch for about and hour til I have to go back to work, then goes back in her crate for about another 3 hours until my DH gets home. I wish I could leave her out but its just not an option. She has dug holes in the walls, ate the door frame, peed all over the couch, ate the carpet, ripped off the base board in the kitchen, and ripped my slipcover into little tiny bits (The slipcover was destroyed in a matter of 5 minutes when I had gone outside) she will salivate excessively, bark, howl, and cry. If I didnt get up early enough, she would howl until I do. THen I wound find a lake of drool around her cage. Its taken a long time to get her to where she is at now.

The way I see it is... she doesn't mind her crate, granted she may get a little bored, but at least I'm saving her from getting a possible obstruction one day. (Considering what she eats it would only be a matter of time) You just have to weigh the good and the bad... I would personally rather have my dog be a little bored (she does get to have her kong in the cage with her) then risk her hurting herself in some way, shape or form.
 

emw

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I didn't catch how old your dogs are, I'm guessing young, but the only thing I would recommend is when they are a little older maybe you could baby gate them in a room at night so they have more room. We have 6 cats, our dogs are older, (1 is 2 years the other is about 9) and we have a baby gate in the hallway of our house that we use at night. When we had our boxers and they were younger putting them in a separate room worked very well, when they were out of the destructive age. I would try and work on getting them out of the crates at night so they have less time in them.

10 hours is a lot but as long as its a rare occasion which you cannot help I agree with the keeping them out of trouble.

The biggest adjustment we are having is three young kitties that want to play a lot... LOL. I know 6 kitties is a lot but we really love and take very good care of them.

Good Luck
 

liza24

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My Piper ( 4 year old Rottie, 100+lbs) was crated overnight, and when we were at work. now instead, i got a long 15 ft tie out, and have him leashed to the exercise machine. he basically has run of the front room, with his water, bed and toys, he just cant leave that room. the cats have run of the rest of the house, and THEY rule the roost,lol.

He loves it this way, cause the room hes in has the bay window, so he gets to sleep in the fall sun in the afternoons, and at night hes in the front of the house, so he hears everything.
 

cococat

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I crate during puppy training (house training, don't chew up the home) when no humans are home. But never more than 4 hours at a time, no matter the age of the dog, and always a good play time in the yard before crating and making sure they relieve themselves. We also own many acres to burn energy, they are fenced but I would never ever ever leave my dogs alone in the backyard period, certainly not for many hours.

10 hours is way too long for a crate. I would hire a dog walker or at least someone to come over to break up the day while you are at work. Maybe doggie daycare. You can also use baby gates or an exercise pen for more space in your house.

The puppy stage doesn't last too long usually with ours then they are allowed to roam the house and do whatever after they are mature and crates are put up and only come out for shows.
We show dogs so they are crated for short periods of time at shows and it helps keep them secure during long drives (we also use seat belts, just depends). We travel and many hotels welcome well behaved crate trained dogs.
Crate training is good for dogs, most like it, it gives them "their place", their own den, keeps puppies safe so they don't eat/chew things and have to have surgery or get hurt, and also groomers crate dogs and so do vets so it helps the animal have less stressed when put in a situation like that.
 

neely

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Originally Posted by cococat

10 hours is way too long for a crate. I would hire a dog walker or at least someone to come over to break up the day while you are at work. Maybe doggie daycare.
I completely agree. Is there a neighbor that can come over to let them out? If not a dogwalker or doggie day care is an excellent idea as cococat suggested. Also when in the crate it's a good idea to stuff a kong with a favorite treat.
 

EnzoLeya

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I cate my puppy because, well he's a puppy. I don't want him haveing an accident, chewing up my stuff, or getting hurt. He's crated at night and while we are gone at work. Luckily my SO can come home at lunch and let him out. When he is older he probably won't be crated at all.
 

sphynx

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I have never crated any of my dogs, never ever. However, when they were pups I would cordon off a room for them, with a baby gate, and made sure that there was nothing that they could hurt themselves on, and that they had fresh water available. I would also leave a radio on in the background so that they could hear voices and not feel too alone.
 
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