Length of time in crate?

[Stephanie]

Hello all,

 

This is probably a puppy madness question, but when I searched , I didn't quite see the exact answer, perhaps because it affects the older doodles....

 

Just curious...  Perry has done very well in potty training , and certaily has a bladder of steel (except after vigorous excercise)   I have been coming home @ lunch each day, since we got her in MArch to let her out at lunch. she usually goes no more than 4.5 hours max... with out a potty break - sometimes  it's much less , like 3 hours.

It's certianly not ideal, I know, and I don't want to push her past what he body's capable of , but this fall,  it's ocasionally going to happen that I can't get home... 

 

At what age did you find  your doodle did well  if you have to leave them more than 4 hours at a time? 

 

I know  I'll have to increase excecise for sure to compensate for longer crate times. She's  WAY to strong to have just a pen, and her chewing....well -  if I left her out of crate...  she'd eat her way thorugh drywall & vinyl siding... and  consume a few socks as well...

 

I'm on the lookout for a dog walker , and  also investigated doggie day care.  Unfortunatly the one directly across from my office wants 26 $ a DAY!!!   that's  sounds ridiculous to me!!!  PLUS they charge a temperament fee  to boot!  that's definately  NOT in the budget!  others are more like 15 $,  but MUCH further out of the way :(

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

We might have left Peri for around 5 hours in the crate, but never much more.  For the first 2 years of her life, we went home every day during lunch and walked her. 

When we moved into our new house, we stopped using the crate (it was time, she was 2 and trustworthy) and confine her to the playroom and kitchen (very large area; probably 600 square feet at least) - she and her bro Taquito have access to their couches, food and water bowls, and views of the front and backyards.  They have been good with it.  They get a lot of exercise in the morning and afternoon when we get home.  Peri gets at least 30 minutes of ball play per day, weather permitting and walks. 

I don't know how long I would leave her in a crate though...again, probably not 5 hours. But we only use it now if guests come and she is being crazy or something like that.

[L.M.]

My husband and I do not work close enough to our home to let our dogs out during the day.  Both of mine (2 large doods) go for between 8 and 9 hours without a break.  I know it's not ideal in the least, but it's our reality.  By about 7 months they were able to do this.  We crated them initially, but by a year old they had run of the house.  We don't come home to accidents and of course we exercise them in the afternoons/ evenings, but in terms of bladder control they are fine.  We both teach so we leave by 7am to get to work...this works to our benefit because our lazy doods would typically sleep till at least 9:30am normally, so they are not active in the morning anyway.  They go a good 10 hours at night without a potty break too.. I hear you on the dog walker...I don't have the extra money and there's not many people I would trust to enter my house like that.  

[L.M.]

Just to clarify, we do not crate our dogs at night at all...the 10 hour stretch I meant at night is in reference to them not needing to be let out.  They sleep in the room with us lol...lucky us!  =)  I think dogs adapt to crate time just as they adapt to holding their bladders.  I notice that mine take a big drink when I first get home.  I'm guessing that they don't drink much during the day,  even though they always have water out.  Honestly, I think they sleep all day while alternating shifts at the window  =)   And like I said, once mine hit a year..even a bit before that, we stopped using the crates altogether.  

[Emily & Wispa]

Oooh, I don't leave Wispa in her crate when I leave the house, she gets anxious!  She's fine if we restrict her to just the hallway, kitchen, and her crate, though.  I did leave her in the crate for 1-2 hours at a time when I went out a few times, but she barked the entire time I was away (we have a neighbour that kindly told me). 

On another forum I was told that the crate should only be used as a training aid when you're in the home with them, and the door should only be shut when you can't keep an eye on them all the time or overnight.  When leaving the home, it's better to restrict access to puppy-proofed rooms.  He may have accidents in the house, but at least if he really really can't hold it he won't be forced to soil the bed!  Even if it's just the bathroom or something, if you're worried he will not be able to hold it, it's not worth the set-back in training to have him soil the crate.  Surely you must be able to puppy-proof an area of your home - or get a puppy run/pen to set up, give a larger space to play, but still enclosed!

And as for doggy daycare or dogwalkers, we pay £20/day for boarding or £15/day for walks where Wispa is picked up at 11, dropped off at 2, and spends the time in the woods with up to 4 other dogs.  Our walker is also a behaviorist and trainer, so she has been doing recall and off-lead training with her as well.  I think it's well worth the cost, even though it translates to $23-31 USD..

A crate may be a safe den-like place, but how would you like to be restricted to a small enclosed place all day?  I know it's not exactly comparable, but I wouldn't leave my puppy in a crate when I leave the house.

edited to add: and an added note, even though she has her run of a bit of the house, with only being left at home from 8-11am and 2-5pm I haven't come home to any accidents in over a week (she's only 13.5 weeks).

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

It seems it would be hard to find an absolute number of hours for ALL dogs to be in their crate. Some probably do better than others and you have to do what works for your situation and dogs. I don't crate, never have, just because I don't want two big crates in the house. But if I did have to crate if destruction was a problem, I certainly would, and they would be in them for 6-8 hours at a time until the pet sitter came, and then again another 6-7 hours as we work about 12-13 hours on days we go to work. But that would only be maybe 5-6 times a month. So I feel it would be harder on them to be crated so sporadicly. So, again, you have to do what you have to do to keep them safe.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Until Daisy was 5 months she was in her crate 4 hour stints and did fine, I think she may have been left a couple of 5 hour stints due to the nature of my business and could not get away but never longer. Now that being said she was a very laid back puppy, I would offer her a treat when I left and she would run to her crate to get it. After the lunch break I gave her a kong and she did the same thing. After 5 months she was fully potty trained and started going to work with me, she may have had a couple of submissive piddles at work but nothing we couldn't handle.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

honestly, I think 8-10 hours is ok. however, being in a crate all night, a brief walk then in the crate again for all day is too much. If you can get a few good hours of play between the cratings then its better. We used a pen attached to a crate for Cooper.

Dogs really do just sleep when we are gone. i recently went back to work after studying at home for 10 months. Before, Cooper would sleep most of the day, getting up to follow me around. fast asleep by 9pm. Now im working, she is full of beans when I get home despite having the run of the whole apartment, and is still wide awake at 11pm when I go to bed so I have increased her exercise morning and night (im half way through week 2 so its still a working progress). 

If you can get a nice big crate then a longer time in the crate is more acceptable than if your dog was in a smaller crate. of course, this would be no good if your dog is not potty trained... but for one who is its great. We just bought Cooper a "giant" sized crate for 130lb dogs even though shes only 60lbs. it has a side door as well as a front door so its more versatile and it actually take up less space (well it takes up more because its bigger, but is less in the way and actually gives us a better set up). Cooper can really stretch out in the crate sit up and not hit her head, and if she curls up at one end, she takes up about 1/3 of the crate!

As for holding pee, Cooper can hold hers for 12 hours easily. When i got my new job, before i started I didnt take Cooper out for her usual pee breaks, I waited til she asked me to go out, to see how long she could go. Once we hit 12 hours I took her out even if she didnt ask!!!! One day I was busy and she went 14 hours before asking. Of course i dont recomend you do this on a regular basis, but its good to know just how long they can hold it if needs be

[Thuy & Hops]

Since 5 months, Hops always went out around 6am (when I left for work), 12pm (my neighbor walked him), 6pm (home from work), 10pm (before bed). A couple weeks ago I wanted to test to see how long he could actually hold it in, so I took him out at 8am on a saturday and waited until he asked to go out (he stands at the door when he wants out). He waited 8 hours! By choice! The last couple days I've been gone 10 hours each day for work training and absolutely no accidents nor destructions (he used to destroy things too). He was not crated and will turn 1 this August.

 

Maybe you can test out to see how long Perry can go without using the restroom on a day you're home all day?

[Richard Crowe]

We have never crated Holly. Holly has been totally house trained from 3-months old and has never had an accident since then.

I can see how crating might be effective but, I also worry about the impact that crating may have on a dog's health.  One of our foster Labradoodles, Sophie, was crated for too long a time.  Her inability to urinate caused a urinary tract infection which in turn resulted in bladder stones which required sugery.

We had a Maltese foster whose previous owner was terminal.  The dog stayed in his masters bed and since there was no one to take the dog someplace to urinate, the poor pooch just held it.  That also resulted in a urinary tract infection and a terrible and painful case of bladder stones.

 

 

[Jennifer and Jack]

Jack was only crated at night when he was a puppy and during the day only until he was old enough for dy care. As a puppy ten to fourteen weeks I had a dog walker come every four hours for thirty minutes.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

My doodles were crate trained when they were young and I also came home on lunch to let them out.  On very rare occasions where I could not come home on lunch and my BF was not available they did stay in the crate all day which was 8.5 hours.  There was never a accident and they did very well.  I would limit the water and food and would let them outside for longer periods of time in the morning before I left.  After my youngest doodles was about a year and half, I let them loose during the day and have had no problems what so ever.  At first it was letting them loose at night then while I ran errands, after each success I let them loose longer and longer periods until I finally put away the crates all together :)

[Brenda Showfety]

The only time Maggie is in her crate is if we go out to dinner or run errands and at night.  We first got her from the breeder when she was 7 weeks old and got up with her 2-3 times a night .  Around 12 weeks, when we would go to get her to take her out at night, she didn't want to go out, so we started taking her lead.  Now, at 15 weeks, we can put her in her crate at 10pm and she is good til morning!  I know that is crazy, but she does fine with it.  I believe I read somewhere that you add an hour to their month of age and that is about how long they can hold their bladder.  ie:  4months=5hours.