My wife and I both work night shift. We're both away from home the same night once or seldom twice a week. We have a Jack Russell who's 10 or 11 years old and over the past few months her bladder isn't what it use to be. Most mornings I'm coming home to pee on the carpet. We have a cage that she comfortably fits in as she's not that big of a dog. But every time we go to work I don't have the heart to put her in it all night. When we both work, we're gone from about 6pm to 7am the next morning. I'm sure there's alternatives like dog walking services but I haven't looked into them to see how useful they'd be for night shift workers. The other thing that bothers me is that when you've worked all night and you come home in the morning exhausted to a mess on the carpet, it takes away all the enjoyment of having a dog. I actually hate the dog (she's my wife's) and I could give a fuck if she ran out the front door forever. But I think I'd also genuinely tolerate the dog more if we weren't always cleaning up after her. So I'm looking at it as "caging you up all night sucks but in the long run it's going to help us both." 

So I poll the Chatter: Leaving a dog crated for 13ish hours a night 1-2 times a week okay? I had a Border Collie growing up and early on we'd keep her caged while we're at school so never more than 7-8 hours. 

Does the dog typically sleep in the crate? It seems it’s only a few extra hours if that’s the case.

Worst thing I ever did was take a dog that was crated as a puppy and let it out for awhile....it never went back in.  Basically tore up the house.

THere is nothing wrong with caging a dog.  You have to be consistant from day 1.  

posted by Laley23

Does the dog typically sleep in the crate? It seems it’s only a few extra hours if that’s the case.

No, she's always had free roam of the house. 

It sounds like you're looking for a solution for you and your wife to keep the dog as opposed to what's best for the dog.  They aren't necessarily the same thing.

Caging a dog who is having trouble controlling it's urination is only forcing a dog to lay in it's own urination for hours at a time.  I personally don't think that's the best thing for the dog.

We were having a problem with our puppy barking at night.  The vet says "you need to crate your dog".  I said "no".

We have had 13 years of our little dog sleeping with us at night.  I don't think she'd be around today if she had been crated.

I agree with Con_Alma.

posted by Con_Alma

It sounds like you're looking for a solution for you and your wife to keep the dog as opposed to what's best for the dog.  They aren't necessarily the same thing.

Caging a dog who is having trouble controlling it's urination is only forcing a dog to lay in it's own urination for hours at a time.  I personally don't think that's the best thing for the dog.

I explained this incorrectly initially. I don't know that she can't necessarily control her bladder. Sometimes - a lot of times - I think she's just lazy. We have a stake in the ground with a 30ish foot long leash we hook her up to to go outside. I can open up the back door and put her on the leash but unless I literally tell her to go out and go, she'll just sit there on the back deck until someone lets her in. We were gone for 7-8 hours yesterday and she was fine. I come home late and am trying to put a 4 year old and 6-month old to bed so I let her out and am not really paying attention if she actually goes out like she's suppose to, and then I eventually let her back in. I got up a few hours later in the night for something and notice she had then peed/pooped on the carpet. 

Anyways, we're both working tonight and the dog's going in the cage so we'll see if she can control it or not. My personal (and perhaps wrong) theory is that she'll do a lot better at controlling her bladder when she's in a 3x5ft cage. If she still has the same issues in the cage then we'll need to figure something else out. 

I agree when it gets to the point where it's a poor life for the dog then it's selfish for me personally to keep her, but the alternative could be the pound/death. Maybe there's someone out there looking for an 11yo Jack Russell with possible bladder control issues, but probably there isn't. 

We adopted our Min-Pin when he was 3.  We found we couldn't pen him in the kitchen at night, he could climb a 5-foot high barrier.  

Bought a decent crate for $10, started putting him in there at night, and now he goes right in whenever we tell him to - whenever we're gone, or at night.  We let him out first thing in the morning, at 3 PM, and at 11 PM, and we've never had a problem.  He's only peed once in the living room, and that was when I was gone and my wife was home.  The dog was out and about in the house, and she forgot to let him out for the afternoon.