How long is too long? Rosie is crated (door shut) overnight. The rest if the time she has access to her crate (which she uses quite a lot) but free roam of the kitchen/diner. If I'm out I attach a pen to her crate. So she's rarely crated door shut in the day. I can't help feeling sorry for her locking her away. What do you think? How long in the day is your dog crated door shut? X
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? I havent ever used one Jennyann , so not really qualified to answer, but it seems that Rosie isnt spending that long in hers , shut in anyway , its good that she goes into it of her own accord so it cant be so dreadful a thing for her
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? I have only just de-crated my 20 month old Lab. He would be in his closed crate from about 11pm until 8am and then for an odd hour or two daily in the morning when we went out. He didn't seem to mind at all, just took it as part of life.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? PS Just noticed your question how long is too long. I certainly wouldn't crate a pup/dog for more than four hours (in one spell) during the day and wouldn't like to do it that long personally; I think a couple of hours when they would be sleeping anyway is reasonable. I always exercised him first before his crating during the day.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? We probably crated Lilly for a lot longer than most others on the forum. A couple of times a week she was in her crate for 6 hours. She always liked her crate though. And very quickly had brilliant bladder control. She was probably out her crate and in the kitchen from around 5 months though. We almost always came back to her lying in her crate however. We only ditched the crate at easter this year when she was 3! I must add that we didn't go right to 6 hours straight off! Did the popping home at lunchtime stuff for a bit and she was happy to play but didn't usually be need to relieve berself so we stretched the time. I think dogs adapt to the household activities. Hyper kids often mean more active dogs! Don't know if this helps. Or reassures.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? Thanks for your comments Stacie, drjs. Seems I'm in the minority setting up a pen outside the crate when I pop out. I'll try crating her today and see how it goes. I'm assuming you pop all their toys in the crate too.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? We crated Bess overnight until she was just over twelve months and sometimes left her shut up for a couple of hours during the day / evening. Now she has her bed in the kitchen but she sometimes goes in her crate (now in the utility) of her own accord and it is very useful to be able to shut her in if we have visitors who dislike dogs or when I'm washing the floors. When she was a young puppy she used to come and find us if we had forgotten to shut the door and lead us back to the crate - it seemed to make her feel safe when the door was shut. We also used to cover the crate with a throw to make it nice and cosy. Alice
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? Up until about 9 months we'd put Riley in his crate when we went out. We tried not to crate him for more than a couple of hours although he slept in his crate overnight so we didn't worry if we got delayed occasionally. We've never used a pen but we do use baby gates to confine him to the kitchen which is similar. He never has the run of the house when we're out and he sleeps in the kitchen now too. We only use his crate if we go somewhere where I need to be 100% that he can't damage anything or himself
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? I use a pen, and did the pen/crate thing too. I think tartanmouse did too for Charlie girl. I ditched the crate and just have pens now, works really well for us. I think crates have an advantage in being more secure though. Charlie can jump over my small pen fence, and probably could even jump over the larger one I have if he really tried, but he doesn't
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? I would make sure it's safe toys that are left. I think Lilly mostly just slept in her crate though.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? My two ( 2 years and 18 months) are crated during day when I'm at work, I only work in the office one full day a week now, on that day they are crated for 2 x 4 hours with an hour out at lunch. the rest of the week they are in their crates for four hours either am or pm. they have been de crated at night now for about 6 months and just sleep in my room. I have tried de crating them during the day, but they are not so keen on being home alone out of crates. I nipped to the shops recently, just for half an hour, and left them out of their crates in their room with crate doors open. Or so I thought. Brodick's door was shut and when I got home, Cuillin was very firmly in it and Brodick was looking a bit worried and was quite panty and stressy when I went into the room, and he is a very chilled and relaxed boy normally. they have been used to being in them since tiny, and I think they see them as their safe place when I'm not around. We are experimenting leaving crate doors open just now, but brodick munches his bedding when the door is open, he doesn't when its shut! I just pop em in with a kong with something smeared in it, they will usually have had a good walk and a game before being left, but not always and they don't seem to bother. I don't bother putting toys or anything in with them.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? Murphy is 5 months old and so far the max he has been left crated for at one time is 3 hours. That has only been like 3 times though, usually he is in about 2 hours at a time and is fine. I put some toys and a kong in there and he's always asleep when someone gets home. We left him for 10 minutes last week with the door to the crate open and confined to the kitchen and videod him to see what he did and he just wandered around occasionally whining- I think he was confused as to why there was no-one around and he wasn't shut in his crate lol. We are going to work up slowly to him eventually being left in the kitchen when we are out but I am worried it might mean going backwards with his toilet training. That's why we are going to work up slowly, especially as he is quite happy in his crate and overnight is in between 10pm and 6.30 in the morn.
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? We've got our crate behind a child gate in Dexters ' room',he's only ever been crated during the day if we have had someone in doing work downstairs and they have needed access from the back door.his sitter would pop him in if she nipped out to the shops for 20 mins around the time we had a couple of chewing episodes.....think,she was scared in case he did it on her watch! He had the door shut on his crate at night up until 10 months....now we just leave the door open and he goes in sometimes for a snooze,I'll probably always leave it up..we don't need the space there and we do have a lot of holiday makers that come and stay,it can always be a little refuge for him
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? I work 6 hours a day (flexi hours), but I only leave Harley for a max of 3 hours at a time. I always come home for at least an hour for lunch, then go back for another 2-3 hours. When Harley is allowed out (7 days time), she will occasionally be able to come to work with me. I always put a few toys in her cage along with a frozen kong. My neighbour often looks in on her and always says she is either playing with her kong/toys, or asleep. I always make sure we play for at least an hour before I leave in the morning. Harley never minds going in her cage, I think she likes it as she gets her kong!
Re: How long can you put a dog in their crate for? The bliss of being able to take your dog to work....heaven x
