How many hours a day should a dog be in a kennel?

If you want to start a fight in a dog park, mention crates and watch the pro- and anti- tempers rise.

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The process of crate training consists of keeping a puppy in a crate and letting it out to pee and poop. A dog won&#;t soil where it sleeps, so it will hold on until you let it outside. Many people continue using a crate throughout their dog&#;s adulthood to avoid destructive behaviors, or because they believe a crate makes a dog feel safe.

Crate training supporters cite experts arguing that such dogs thrive. Opponents shout just as loudly (&#;Dogschwitz-Barkenau&#; is how a Jewish friend refers to the enclosure).

I recently moved to the US from Australia with my two small dogs, and quickly learned that, unlike back home, many Americans are pro-crate.

When we visited our new vet, the Village Veterinarian in New York City, practice manager Nina Torres told me their recommendation was to crate train. According to Torres, this allows dog owners to set boundaries, which results in less anxious dogs. &#;You confuse them if you allow them everywhere,&#; she says. According to Torres, about 80% of the clinic&#;s canine patients spend their days &#; when their owners work &#; in crates.

When I asked John Parncutt in Australia (of John the Vet, our previous clinic) how many of his patients use crates, he said it&#;s a minority &#; and that the dogs are crated overnight, rather than during the day. &#;I probably hear from someone about once every couple of months saying they&#;re going to be crate-training their new pup.&#;

The only person I knew in Australia to crate train a dog is Sheryl, an American living in Melbourne. In New York, Sheryl says, &#;everyone did it&#;. She decided to crate train her pup in Australia, putting Dizzy the schnoodle in a crate overnight (getting up every three hours to let her pee) and while she was at work, during which time a dog walker would come. That&#;s a total of about 16 hours a day in a crate.

The ASPCA says crates are best as a short-term management tool.

Sheryl was shocked by the reaction Australians had to it. &#;It&#;s the biggest fight I had with my mother-in-law&#; Sheryl says. &#;She thought it was cruel, that it was like the dog was in a circus.&#;

At work, Sheryl&#;s colleagues sent her photo-shopped images of Dizzy, in prison garb. But with the help of the crate, Dizzy was housetrained in just three months. &#;After a year, we stopped locking her in,&#; Sheryl says. Now Dizzy&#;s crate stays open, and she goes voluntarily into it each evening.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other organizations compare a crate to a den: a safe space that dogs are naturally drawn to. ASPCA says crates are &#;best used as a relatively short-term management tool, not as a lifetime pattern of housing&#;. This is where opinions divide. Nina Torres says it&#;s fine for most adult dogs to be in a crate &#;nine hours maximum&#; during the day (with a walk in the middle), and then eight hours at night &#; unless they are seniors or large dogs needing to stretch their joints.

I work from home, so I observe my dogs&#; behavior during the day. Though it is true that they sleep most of the time (as they would in a closed crate), they have their preferences. Sonia will often drag her blanket, mat and toy out and into a patch of sunlight. Natasha usually stays deep in her crate, under a blanket from where she yips every now and then as she dreams.

In an experiment where I locked the crates, Natasha was content, while Sonia whined, working the latch with her claws, eventually opening it to escape (like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park). With the right training, would Sonia learn to love her crate, or is it just something that doesn&#;t appeal to her individual nature?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has come out strong against this, claiming that wolves, dogs and other canids in the wild spend their first eight weeks in a den, and after that, they abandon it. &#;And since dens don&#;t come with a locked door, there is no true scientific comparison between crates and dens,&#; Peta&#;s website adds.

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Nevertheless, in the US crates have taken off &#; with celebrity dog trainers like Cesar Millan, authors like The Monks of New Skete, and other professionals giving it the thumbs-up.

Liisa Tikka, a dog trainer working in Helsinki, finds the trend disturbing. &#;We have trouble with some dog-training books written in the US promoting crating. People do not understand that it&#;s not considered an ethical solution here &#; and that it&#;s illegal.&#;

Finnish law states than an animal can be in a crate only for &#;transportation, illness or other temporary and acceptable reason&#;. And if you want to keep your dog in an enclosed space while you&#;re at work, you have to follow strict and roomy guidelines &#; for example, a Labrador would need an enclosure approximately 37 square foot (in the US, the ASPCA asks a crate be large enough &#;so that your dog can lie down comfortably, stand up without having to crouch and easily turn around in a circle&#;).

You can probably guess where Emma and Ray Lincoln, authors of Dogs Hate Crates, stand on the subject. &#;Americans have never been so in love with the concept of owning dogs while being so ill-equipped to give dogs the face-time, exercise, socialization and purpose in life they need,&#; Emma tells me.

The Lincolns see crating as a &#;quick fix&#; for problem behavior. &#;People realized this is the easy way to deal with any behavior with a dog,&#; Ray Lincoln says. If a dog is chewing, peeing or being hyperactive, if you put it in a crate, &#;the behavior stops, because the dog can&#;t do anything, so he shuts down&#;.

The Lincolns believe that prolonged confinement can be damaging &#; and they say some people lock pet dogs in tiny crates for up to 18&#;22 hours total per day. Over-crated dogs, they say, can suffer complications from &#;cage-rage&#;, to anxiety, fearfulness and depression.

Tikka, who, as part of her Helsinki school runs a Canine Good Citizens course, says &#;I think crates are a good place to teach the dog to relax in a difficult stressful environment, like dog shows or competitions. I do not approve of its use in the house.&#; She adds: &#;The Finns are very practical and they do understand that a puppy is a puppy &#; and it will pee on carpets and chew the furniture and that&#;s life.&#;

Wolves travel hundreds of miles and hunt prey in packs. My dogs live in New York City, where they hunt pizza crusts from sidewalks. Their life is a far cry from that of their ancestors. I keep them active by walking them, hiding treats in their Kongs, and playing videos of horses, which make them dance on two legs and howl like wild. And I&#;ve decided to keep their crates open. They&#;re animals living in an apartment, and though I sometimes wish they were better trained (like when they steal yoghurt containers from the recycling), I feel like we&#;re all generally happy with our living arrangements.

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Why Crate Train Your Puppy?

Used properly, a crate is an effective tool for managing, transporting, and training your puppy. Their crate becomes their den, a special place where they can go to sleep, when they are unsupervised, or when they need a break. Crates make housetraining easier because dogs don&#;t like to soil their sleeping areas, so they will naturally avoid eliminating in their crate. Crate training your puppy can also prepare them for events like travel, veterinary visits or stays, and grooming. Crates can be easily misused, however. No dog should spend most of her day, every day, in a crate. Puppies can only be crated, and left alone, for however many hours are equal to their age in months, plus one (for example, a two months old can tolerate three hours, at most), and no dog or puppy should ever be in a crate for longer than 10 hours total, even with potty breaks.

How To Crate Train Your Puppy

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• Prepare ahead &#; Before bringing your new puppy home, prepare a puppy-proofed space for them with a crate, bowls, and toys. Use an ex&#;pen or baby gate to restrict them to a certain part of the house, such as the kitchen. Puppies should not be given free range of the house while learning to love their crates as they can practice undesirable behaviors like soiling and inappropriate chewing that they can carry into adulthood. When you choose a crate it should be big enough for your puppy to turn around, lie down, and sprawl out fully. However, if a crate is too big (eg. an XL crate for an eight-week-old) they will have room for a bathroom corner and a sleeping corner. Place a piece of soft bedding and a few toys in the crate and don&#;t provide additional beds outside of the crate.
• The introduction &#; When you bring your puppy home be sure to provide them with ample opportunity to eliminate outside before bringing them indoors. After a bathroom break, place them in the area you have set up and toss a few treats into the crate. Let them explore their new space and resist the urge to force them to enter the crate.  Eventually, they will walk into the crate and discover the treats.  Praise them profusely for going in the crate and continue to reload it with new treats for them to discover at least 10 times a day for the first week.
• Feeding and kongs &#; Dogs learn through association, so you can teach your puppy to love their crate by feeding every meal in the crate.  You can stuff a kong with their food and put it in the crate, hand feed them in the crate through the bars, or simply put their food bowl in the crate.  This will teach them that they get wonderful things in the crate. It is important to leave the crate door open while you teach them to associate the crate with good things.
• The first few nights &#; A puppy&#;s first night in your home may be stressful since it is likely to be their first night alone (ever!), but most puppies are often malleable enough to take a small crate training shortcut: have your puppy sleep in the crate each night. After their bedtime potty break, put them in the crate with a cozy bed and toys, and turn off the lights. Resist the urge to go back to them if they start whining. If you give in to the whining or barking, they will learn that it gets them attention and will cry longer and louder next time. Your pup will soon settle down and go to sleep. If, however, you hear your puppy begin to cry in the middle of the night, they are likely whining because they need to go to the bathroom. Take them out, reward them for eliminating outside, and then immediately put them back to bed. Some puppies may find the transition to sleeping alone easier by sleeping the first few nights in the crate close by, like next to your bed, where they can smell, hear, and/or see you. Over time, you can transition the crate into another space for sleeping. If you have to &#;cave&#; and let your puppy out of the crate, wait until your puppy is calm and quiet for a brief moment before opening the door so that they do not think their whining or barking was successful.
• Teaching them to spend time in the crate &#; Help your puppy continue to associate their crate with good things by giving them stuffed kongs, nylabones, or new toys only when they are in their crate.  Stuff a kong with peanut butter or cheese whiz and put it in the crate with your puppy and occasionally shut the door.  Any time they go into their crate on their own, praise them and drop a few treats into the crate.  Before you know it your pup will choose the crate as the preferred place to sleep in and chew on their toys.
• Slowly increasing the time alone &#; It is important to slowly increase the amount of time your puppy spends in their crate.  Keeping in mind their age and how much time they can spend alone, start to expect longer periods of time crated. Crate them while you watch a television show, then let them out for a potty break and play time.  Crate them for a trip to the mailbox, the grocery store, or while you go to pick up the kids. Remember to always provide them with a stuffed kong, chew toys, and soft bedding when they are in the crate.
• Teaching them to go in the crate on cue &#;  You want your puppy to learn to go into their crate on cue so that as they grow you don&#;t need to ever physically put them in the crate.  Toss treats into the crate while providing a hand signal and/or verbal signal for them to enter the crate.  When they do, praise them and reward them with more treats.  Use your hand signal and/or verbal signal whenever they go into the crate, followed by a reward, and pretty soon they&#;ll learn what they mean!  
• Troubleshooting &#; If your puppy is scared to enter the crate at first simply lure them in with a trail of treats. You can also place toys, kongs, and their food bowl just inside the door and slowly move it to the back of the crate as they become comfortable with the crate.  If your puppy whimpers and whines while in the crate, ignore it and leave the room. Be sure to NEVER open the door while they are vocalizing.  This will teach them that whining or barking leads to the door opening so the next time they want out they will whine or bark louder and longer. However, if your puppy is experiencing abnormal panic when crated, contact one of the Certified Professional Dog Trainers at the Humane Society of Western Montana for help.