See, that is still telling them that going potty in the house is OK. Some dogs can’t ever move past that and will never be truly housebroken. And when the dog ends up at the shelter because he won’t stop going in the house, crating for a few hours per day doesn’t seem so cruel, does it?
That recommends keeping the door to the crate open with adult dogs - an indoor kennel. It only says to shut the door for short periods if you use it for training puppies - knowing the dogs trust, that means about half an hour. This is a trust that doesn’t like rehoming any dogs to homes with young children or without gardens. They advise against putting a dog in the crate all day and seem to be basically talking about giving the dog its own space rather than locking it up.
You say that, but my experience shows me that the dogs do learn to go outdoors even with owners who aren’t particularly good at training them to bhevae well in other ways. Crate training is not the only way to train a dog. When people get rid of their dogs it’s for bigger reasons than pooing.
Locking a dog in a crate for hours a day - your whole day at work - is cruel. I realise that means that I’m saying some people on here are being cruel, but they are.
No, it specifically says the dog may be “confined” in the crate overnight.
…as an aid for housetraining and for safely confining a puppy for short periods when you cannot supervise ** and overnight in the bedroom**, for example.*
It’s funny- all morning I’ve been busy, so the crated dogs, three of them, were in crates from about 7 until 1 p.m this morning (except for one who got to go on a 45 min. walk with me). I finally got home, let everyone out and EVERY single one of them are passed out around the living room and knowing them, they won’t be active again until 5 or so. These are mostly working border collies…btw :).
No, I’m talking about crates, and putting your dog in the crate when you sleep, or putting your dog in the crate when you are away from home because your dog is not well enough trained not to chew. This show has years worth of episodes filmed in the UK.
Generally, people are not encouraged to paper train their dogs. You can do it, but U.S. housebreaking practices are generally “unless you are going to continue to use paper, just don’t start.” Puppies who can’t hold it need to get let out every few hours - which means if you work, you need to have someone come by and let them out.
U.S. homes often have open floor plans. There aren’t a lot of good places in my house to confine a dog - my bathroom floor space on the main floor is smaller than my dog’s crate - and that’s the only room with a door on the ground floor (and, as I said, the dog doesn’t do steps due to his hips). And around here, leaving your dog in an outside kennel is far more likely to have you in trouble than having a crate. Its a 20 below windchill out there right now - even a good doghouse isn’t really isn’t sufficient for a lot of dog breeds for an extended period of time.
Oh, I know there are other ways. My puppy is housetrained and I didn’t use a crate. But, I was home with him all day long, and could take him out every half hour.
Many people get rid of their dogs for not being properly housetrained. Ask any shelter worker how many come in because of inappropriate elimination issues. Even sadder, IMO, are the dogs who have never been properly housetrained and get put out in wire kennels or tied out in yards and have no human contact other than to have a bowl of food put down for them once a day. 
What a sad, lonely life for a dog.
My dog freaks out if he isn’t put in his crate when we leave the house. If he’s in his crate, he is perfectly happy, and even runs there waiting to be locked in when he sees us getting ready to leave.
nm
My aunt paper trained her dog, and as I believe I mentioned, said dog STILL pees on a newspaper in the laundry room – even though she’s about 12.
Wow. This is a brilliant idea. My parents have a bullboxer they adore, and a very expensive security/alarm system, so they’ll be very glad when I pass this information along.
Six months? That’s a long time to house break in my experience.
Our black lab was housebroken very quickly by using the crate. I don’t think he even once peed inside the house. The same with our dalmatian when we first got him 16 years ago. As soon as they come out of the crate they are taken outside to their spot to do their business, come inside & play. Then right after they eat they are taken outside to pee/poo. I’ll have to ask my dad how long it took, but after a very short period of time they learned to go to the door when they had to go out. As soon as they were housebroken and trained to not chew on anything they weren’t supposed to, the crate was put away and now he sleeps on his own blanket next to the TV. Our dogs have always been exceptionally well trained.
Or, you could try the Potty Patch[sub]TM[/sub]
Oh, hell no. Dogs aren’t that hard to housebreak.
Who’d use that?
I was reluctant to crate train our last dog as it does seem like it could be cruel, especially if someone leaves a dog in the crate too long. But we heard good things about crate training and so we tried it. Best way to raise an indoor dog ever. Any dog I ever get will be raised this way, unless maybe it is strictly an outdoor dog.
Our puppy was, mostly, housebroken within a couple of weeks, I think because of the crate training. His crate became his bedroom - a place of his own where he went when he wanted to be left alone. He spent a lot of time in there over and above the time when he was in there with the door shut. Over the years he fell out of the habit of sleeping in his crate and we removed it.
My dogs crate is in the spare bedroom, she sleeps in the crate when I am not there. The door is never locked anymore. I think she feels more secure in the crate.
What happens when a dog has to stay at the vet for treatment? Do all the dogs just hang around inside the office?
If you have an apartment, I could see using it. Especially up here where it gets cold, it can be a drag having to bundle up to take your dog downstairs and outside. Better than my old upstairs neighbor who let his dog out onto his slatted wood balcony to piss, which then fell all onto my patio. :mad:
I’ve also heard that Italian Greyhound owners use things like this because of how intolerant to cold they are.
We always keep our crate fixed with a table cloth during the day, since it’s in the dining room. In the evening, my mother fixes it up, to get it ready for Lexie’s bed time.
She USED to leave it open so Lexie could go in before bed if she wanted…but then BUFFY got in there the one time. My mother didn’t notice when she put the dog to bed, and they got stuck in there together. :eek:
Since then, it’s kept locked up until bed time. 
Odd how I keep thinking about dog related issues and there seems to be a thread already going about that issue. Saves me a lot of work.
Anyway, I wont have an issue with crate training. I’m home all day so I wont need a crate.
BUT my house has a very open floor plan which means that if a dog wants to be alone, she’ll have nowhere to go.
So, before we get our new dog(s) I’d like to get a crate (or two).
My question is…
Is it possible to get a crate that’s too large? The dogs we’re looking into adopting are puppies but they will be quite large when they’re done growing. Crates are expensive. So, I’d prefer to only buy them once.
If we get an x-large crate, will that be too large for a puppy?