Just to be clear, Natalie, I'm not knocking crates. I'm a big believer in training a dog to accept being crated, and then crating them when necessary.

You didn't answer my question about whether the dog gets any breaks from the crate in that 11-hour stretch. I guess that is what concerns me.

For me, personally, crating is something my dogs are introduced to, learn to be comfortable with, and the times in the crate are increased ever-so-gradually.

I guess I'm fortunate in this respect, but I have never been in a situation where I had no choice but to leave a dog in a crate for anything like 11 hours. If I was, though, I believe I would make arrangements for someone to come and let the dog out, if not a trusted family member or neighbor, then maybe I'd hire a reputable pet sitting service to do that.

 Quote: Cheri Grissom

Just to be clear, Natalie, I'm not knocking crates. I'm a big believer in training a dog to accept being crated, and then crating them when necessary.

You didn't answer my question about whether the dog gets any breaks from the crate in that 11-hour stretch. I guess that is what concerns me.

For me, personally, crating is something my dogs are introduced to, learn to be comfortable with, and the times in the crate are increased ever-so-gradually.

I guess I'm fortunate in this respect, but I have never been in a situation where I had no choice but to leave a dog in a crate for anything like 11 hours. If I was, though, I believe I would make arrangements for someone to come and let the dog out, if not a trusted family member or neighbor, then maybe I'd hire a reputable pet sitting service to do that.

i'm sorry, i thought i did. no, the 5 days or so i had him in the crate (we didn't do every day) he gets no breaks.

few things
1. he goes all day with no potty breaks, he has no problem being taken out twice a day though we try doing 3. so that part doesn't worry me
2. i was told that a dog goes through the crazy stage the first hour or so, after that he just settles down and goes to sleep. that was my reasoning for not asking my daughter to go into my room and take him out, i didn't want for him to once again go through the settling down stage for another hour.


the crate is not what bothers him, it's not seeing me. he will whine if he's in the crate for 2 minutes and i went into another room. that's why we couldn't leave him alone all these months, we used to lock him up in the hallway inside our apartment and he'd dig the floor.

i thought that once dogs are 7-8 months and on they have no problem being crated or alone for 11 hours. i read about many people crating their dogs the entire time they're at work.

i understand pups needing more potty breaks but at 7-8 months they can hold it for a very long time

My opinion:

Eleven hours is much too long.

It's too long to hold his bladder, even if he is physically able to, and it's too long to be uninterruptedly in a crate.

It's pretty unfair to be asking a teenage dog to be crated that long just. like. that. On very rare occassions my dogs (adult, fully acclimated to crate/kennel) may spend 11 hrs in one stretch in a crate. If it was going to be an everyday thing I would have someone come to take them out in the middle of the day. About 9.5 hrs in one stretch is the longest I'd want to routinely leave an adult dog crated. But only 6-7 max for a teenage dog. Acclimate him to the crate and seperation from you and leaving him will get better.

i didn't know that, i got a different impression from reading the forums.

i will leave early today

I use crates enthusiastically myself, just as others on the thread do.

But I'm having some trouble understanding this. I went back over the thread trying to figure it out.

You are locking him in a crate, alone in your bedroom, even though there's another person in the house? He's holding his bladder and bowels for 11 hours at a time, and the reason for this is to get him used to it for later?

Am I reading this right? You've mentioned having trouble sometimes getting things across clearly.

nope, you read this right.

i did explain my thought process though, the SA article i read said that dogs go through the anxiety in the first 45 mins after we leave, then they calm down and go to sleep.

i told my daughter not to go in and not even open the door that way he doesn't get all riled up and then have to go through another 45 mins of anxiety.

and yes, the reason i was practicing leaving him alone was for days that i do have to leave him alone (some days she's not home, like today).

i see and read about people leaving their dogs for 15 hours and thought it was OK.
i'm on my way home now, it will be 9 hours when i get home

Where did you see and read about people crating dogs, no exercise/potty breaks, for 15 hours? Please link us. This can't be allowed to stand unchallenged if it's on some forum.

Actually, no matter where it is.

Also, there are many people here that take their dogs out twice a day.
I did wonder about it, how dogs can hold it for so long, we can't. And I don't remember the explanation, something their bladders are larger or made in some way.

In any case, usually they say a dog can hold it for however many months he is plus one. That's 10 hours. 11 is the longest I'm gone, I'm usually back in 9-10

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Where did you see and read about people crating dogs, no exercise/potty breaks, for 15 hours? Please link us. This can't be allowed to stand unchallenged if it's on some forum.

Actually, no matter where it is.

I didn't see it, I know someone that does it.

ETA he's not crated, he's either loose or chained.

But as I posted later, everyone I know around here takes their dogs out twice a day