Leaving food and water in crate

[mdrichey]

Clementine has been crate training since the day she came home at 9 weeks. She is now 9 1/2 months old. For house training reasons, she has never been allowed to have food and water in her crate with her (don't worry, she is never left in there all day). But I am wondering if she is old enough now to be able to handle being left in her crate for longer periods of time, with food and water in there with her, without having an accident. What do you think?

[Ace's Place]

I would only leave my dog in a crate for four hours max. Therefore there would be no need for food and water. How long were you thinking of leaving Clementine?

We phased Ace out of the crate by 9 months. He moves freely around the house now - with the exception of a couple of rooms that we leave the doors closed to. It's nice because he does have access to his water at all times - we're home when he eats but he also would have access to anything he has left in the bowl.

Here's the thing. Normally after a dog eats he/she needs to go out. So to give Clementine a bowl of food and then have her in a crate without access to the outdoors I'm not sure I would do it - one reason why...

[Hays]

I agree with Ace's Place! I wouldn't leave the dog all day alone in the crate nor feed or water them in the crate unattended. I do have a neighbor that leaves her dog for 8 hours in the crate while she is at work. In my opinion, that is too long of a time for them to be left in a crate without socialization but it work for her. We take Hayley to Dog Sports (Doggie Daycare) three days a week, the days that I work and she absolutely loves it!! She gets socialized, has access to water all day and they have nap time and play time! She comes home exhausted. We only feed her twice a day, morning and night so we don't have to worry about anyone else feeding her. And it works for us. Do you have any doggie daycares or petsmarts in your area that you could take your pup? If not, you are probably at a point where you could leave her water in the crate for a longer period of time, but I wouldn't recommend food. And if you don't have to leave her that long, I would try not to. Hope that helps some...

[mdrichey]

I got a water feeder for her crate (the kind where she licks the ball) and it seems to be working great. She doesn't drink a lot, but the water level does go down a little each day. I will follow your advice and not leave food in her crate. I won't leave her in there for more than 5 hours, and hopefully in a few more months she will be grown up enough to handle being left home outside the crate.

She goes to doggy daycare 2 days a week, but I can't afford to send her all 5 days. On the days she doesn't go, I go home at lunchtime to let her out for a little while.

[Hays]

Sounds good!! Good Luck! I am sure she will do just fine! And soon, you will hopefully be able to leave her out and about. Hayley is just 5 months old so she will be in the crate a little bit longer yet. She loves it though. I honestly don't know if we will ever give that up since she likes it so much anyway and keeps her out of trouble. Plus we have two cats that have free roam of the house and I wouldn't want to worry about them. The cats also sleep with us in bed, so if Hayley started sleeping in our room, she would have to stay on the floor in her own bed....which I'm sure would work out just fine!