Crate training, as far as housetraining, is supposed to be temporary. So you give your dog lots of little intervals in the cage in between lots of little intervals of attention. The point of crating your dog while you are away is that your dog is supposed to sleep when it's in the crate anyway. When their owners are away most dogs would either sleep or do something destructive. By crating them, you are only giving them the option to sleep. (Loki would choose to sleep anyway, but he is SAFER in the crate.) Loki is crate trained and I use the crate as a wonderful tool to prevent him from getting hurt or getting in trouble when I am not home. He would go crazy in the house all by himself. To him, the crate means NAP TIME. Usually when we get home he does not even want to come out because he is just waking up.
We use the crate differently now than when Loki was a baby. When he was a baby we used it when we were home to aid in housetraining. At that point YES he did sleep in his crate. Until he learned to let us know when he needed to go outside. Where is this 2/3 of their lives coming from? Now that Loki is house trained, he only spends time in the crate when we are away - not at night. We are rarely gone for more than 4 hours a few times a week - otherwise he goes to daycare or we take him with. I never force him to hold it more than 5 hours. If I had to come home at lunch, let him out, and put him back in his crate I think he would be fine as long as he got at least one day a week at doggie daycare, possibly two, and that is what I recommend for people who have less flexible schedules. Loki does NOT sleep in his crate. He is free to sleep wherever he wants. He is able to do this BECAUSE we used crate training to housetrain him. Confining him during his puppyhood now allows him complete freedom when we are home.
Loki goes to his crate ON COMMAND and eagerly looks at me for a treat. Did he always do this? Absolutely not. I trained him to do this. Did he fight it? Of course. When we first got him he figured out if he peed in the crate we would take him out to clean it up. So what did he do? Pee in the crate the second we put him in there. Those were the obstacles we faced. But now he LOVES his crate and in fact is laying in there right now. His crate is his quiet place and he knows he can go there when he wants to be left alone.
P-did. I completely disagree with you. Loki is two and we are *still* working with his trainer. We do it for fun, possibly to compete some day, but mostly to get over Loki's fears. Loki is reactive. It's just his temperament. We did everything "right" but that is just how he is. I'm happy for you that your dogs are wonderful, some dogs just have lovely temperaments and turn out that way. The trainer has been able to guide me so that I know how best to train Loki. Those who do not know of his limitations say he is one of the best trained dogs they know. He listens and he *wants* to learn. We do training EVERY DAY. He knows what the rules are. He knows more words than I can count. It is only because of working with a professional trainer that I have learned the right way to teach Loki things and he has come a LONG way. I would recommend at least two training classes to ANYONE with a puppy.
And how nice for you that your dogs are not chewers, or barkers, or have any problems. Loki is a barker and by keeping him in his crate he is NOT stimulated by things to bark at. When I am home, I am able to re-direct his barking by giving him another command. If I was not here he would simply bark himself sick. Better to avoid that, wouldn't you say?
We also use the crate for time outs. Time outs are not punishment but they do remove the dog from what it wants most, your attention, for a few minutes. He learns that certain behaviors mean that he doesn't get to hang out with you for a while.
I am not sure what books you are reading, but obviously they are not the same books I would choose if you are a fan of the dog whisperer. My trainer DOES have a Masters Degree in her field, and she is a positive reinforcement trainer. We do not use force OR fear like the Dog Whisperer. Check out a cook by Karen Pryor or Jean Donaldson or Ian Dunbar or Pat Miller or Patricia McConnell. I can give you more specific suggestions if you would like. Or go to
www.clickersolutions.com