Too much time in crate??

[BUDDY&SADIE]

I have an 8 week old fawn female named Sadie and Im worried that she might be spending to much time in the crate. We usually get her out in the morning at about 7 and take her outside right away to go potty. Then I usually bring her inside and feed her then we go back outside to go potty. I usually stay out there for awhile with my other boxer and we have a little play time.
Then through out the rest of the day she goes from crate to eat to outside to her playpen to outside, and so on. I know it sounds bad but I get the mental image of a baby cow sitting in a little box being force fed getting ready to be turned into dinner. Is there a certain amount of time she should be spending in there? Thanks for a the help

 

[Rosey1]

Hope this helps. We have a 13 week white female boxer. In the mornings I get her out of her crate, we do the potty thing and then breakfast and back out to potty. She then has some play time with the other dogs and she is sectioned off in the kitchen, she does not have free run of the house. When I see she is getting tired and wanting to nap I will put her in her crate to sleep. When she cries to come out, I go and get her and we go outside, another meal etc........ I try to not put her in her crate wide awake and wanting to play, unless I have to leave the house. I try to keep the crate for napping and nite time sleep. I have put her in the crate if I have to do something that I can not have my eye on her also. I just don't like to restrict her in her crate if she is not tired and if I can watch her. Hope this helped.

Rosey1

 

[KonaKoffe]

Since we work all day our dogs are never in the crate if we are home. We also let them sleep next to our bed at night rather than put them in the crate.

You need to determine what works with your schedule and lifestyle. We always have the puppies by us when they are not in the crate - inside and outside.

 

[mmichaelson]

This is what we do:

Sam gets up at 2 am to potty outside, since he's still a baby. He goes back into his crate. At 5:15 I get up with him, feed him, go potty outside, play, then he comes into the bathroom with me while I shower and get ready for work. At about 7 am he goes back into his crate. I come home at lunch around 11:15 and stay with him until 11:45 - we usually eat, play, and potty at lunch. Either my husband or I are always home at 5:15 to let Sam out, feed him, etc. From that point until 10 o'clock at night, he is never separated from us. . .

 

[boxer]

If you're home all day with her, then I would crate her only when you cannot be watching her (helpful for the toilet training) and when she needs to nap. The rest of the time, it would be better for her if she's out and able to interact with you and your other dog.

Since baby puppies sleep quite a lot, that may actually mean a reasonable amount of time in her crate. But if she's awake and you're able to keep an eye on her, then it's better that she's not confined.

 

[OscarBoysMom]

Same schedule as Sam's

Hello!

The schedule you are following with Sam sounds almost identical to mine w/ Oscar except now at four months he is making it through the night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) without having to go potty. He sleeps in bed with us.

We get up at 6 a.m., go outside and potty, come inside and have breakfast, go on a walk around the block, potty again, play and hang out til I leave for work at 7:45. He is in the crate til lunchtime, when I come home and we follow a similar routine to the morning. Someone is home usually by 4 p.m. and he is out with us until the next morning.

Oscar hates going in his crate, but he is OK when he gets there...at least he doesn't make those awful alien sounding noises anymore when I leave!

 

[Duke86394]

Training Your Boxer - Joan Walker

According to her book a good rule of thumb is take the boxers age in months add one and that gives you the max time allotted in crate. ie 2 month old shouldn't spend more then three hours a day in the crate (besides at night). She also says a dog of any age should never be crated longer then ten hours a day.