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I'm curious too. I understand crate training helps puppies feel more secure as they're growing up, but I'm a little disturbed by the idea of keeping a dog in a crate for an entire workday. But I'm SO not an expert; I haven't had a dog since I was a kid (RIP Katie!) and maybe the current best practices say that's ok.
Well for my dog it is mostly so the destruction is limited. He is a sweet puppy but he is a chewer. So when I leave, into the crate with a bone or 2. It makes coming home much much happier. He isn't in it if I'm home but if I'm not it keeps there from being shoe bits or anything when I return. Also, when people are over he get to be in the crate around the people but not all into everything with everyone. Otherwise, he would have to be put in a different room because my apartment is just too small for a lot of people and a spazzing puppy.
I used crating when FI and I got a new puppy. Dogs do not "mess" their space, especially if it is small. Unlike leaving your dog in a bathroom where they can walk to the corner of the room, potty, and then walk away, crating your dog doesn't leave them room to leave their mistakes and be comfortable somewhere else.
Crating was very successful for us. Cletus does great when he's on his own. And he does great when we travel (and have to put him in a crate).
IMG_0514.JPG (176.3 KB, 22 downloads) 1 year old 
There are a lot of benefits with a puppy mainly because they are confined to their "home" so they are less likely to mess there where as with free roam of a house they can mess in one spot and still have plenty of other places to rest.
I think also it helps train with chewing and such.
I have had two dogs and neither were crate trained. With my one puppy we worked to limit him to one room while we were gone but that was it. They turned out fine. I feel more comfortable that he can move around on the days he is home for 8 hours or more by himself.
^All the reasons mentioned above^
Also, having a small dog, I was worried that she would get into or eat something dangerous to her and it was a security to me that she would be out of harm's way while I was away at work. I crated my dog for several years (4 maybe?) until I was comfortable with her being left alone and knowing that she wouldn't do anything to damage the house and/or hurt herself.
Humans see crates as a "cage".
Dogs see crates as a "den".
Crating gives the dog it's own individual space. Dogs like to have their own area. Even when I'm home, my dogs' crates are open and they often opt to sleep in there when they take a nap.
Crating protects the house from the dog. and also protects the dog from the house (chewing electrical cords, choking on a toy, getting into poison under the kitchen cabinet, etc.; can all be fatal for a dog. )
In my case, I have 3 dogs that don't always get along. I do not want them getting into a fight when I'm not home. 2 of them I will leave alone, not all 3.
Crating also makes car travel (short trips to the vet, and also longer trips such as visiting out-of-town family on the holidays) much less stressful on the dog. And even if you don't take your dog with you when you travel, if there was an emergency evacuation for some reason, you want it to be less stressful on both you and the dog. Dogs should always be crated or seatbelted in the car, it's safer for both you and them.
Here's one of my dogs, Josie, opting to nap in her crate (I took the pic because I thought she was funny with her bed all scruntched up sideways. 
josie_in_crate.jpg (135.3 KB, 21 downloads) 1 year old 
I can only speak from our experience and provide some insight as to why you may want to crate older dogs....
We crated our newly adopted Boston Terrier because he had severe seperation anxiety and literally would tear apart anything he could get his mouth on (he has eaten: coasters, multiple bags of trash, shoes, my wedding dress, etc.).
BUT initially he didn't have the "don't mess in your space" reflex. His old home let him go in his sleeping area and he had been conditioned into thinking that was OK. His severe seperation anxiety also caused his tummy to get upset.
SOO... our dilemma was let him out and all of our stuff would be chewed up or crate him and have diarrhea flung throughout the crate and surrounding area.
Eventually, after much training he learned to accept the crate as a good place and no longer has accidents AND our stuff doesn't get eaten every time we leave the house. WIN. WIN.
"The Heathen" after he finished destroying something...
When I first moved into my apartment, I crated my dog because she hadn't been well trained in my old house. Long story short, ex-husband didn't follow through with training, so she developed the habit of going on carpet. So when I moved into my apartment after my divorce, I wanted to make sure she didn't develop any bad habits in that space. Once I had her trained to go outside, I stopped crating her and didn't have any troubles at all. When I moved in with DH, we were able to continue with the good habits she had learned and except when she's been sick, she hasn't had any accidents.
We pretty much had no choice. When we adopted our dog she had been abused before and had serious separation anxiety. When we were home she could be in a room unsupervised and not do anything, but if we left her out when no one was home she would destroy everything. We got her a crate and trained her and now she loves being in it, it's her home. We find her sleeping in her crate when we're home all the time.
The benefits of crating our dog is that 1) he doesnt do any damage while we are out of the house and 2) because outside of his crate he gets anxious when we leave - even if just for a few minutes. He doesn't see his crate as a bad place. He sees it as a comfort. It is his little cave. We have several blankets and a pillow in there and when we put him in it we put a blanket over it so it is dark in there. He happily goes into it without us pushing him and occasionally he will just go and lay in there for a nap. Not all dogs need to be crated, but if a dog gets anxious when their owner leaves it is a good solution.
All the reasons above! For us it was to help establish "bedtime" at night, and while we were away from the house reinforce our house training methods. We only had one accident after bringing him home and it was the first night (totally our fault) -I think the crate training was a huge helper.
We used two crates. Downstairs (daytime) a wire crate we made bigger for him as he grew. Upstairs (bedtime only) an airline type crate.
I had plans to turf the crates as soon as he was fully housetrained as I was a bigtime anti-crate person before getting him. We've moved the bedroom crate into my walk in closet (it was beside the bed) since he's gotten older as he sleeps on the tile floor in the bathroom now, but the odd night you'll hear the "thump" of him throwing himself down inside his crate and he'll be upside down in there in the morning! His wire crate is still set up on the mainfloor despite my visual hatrid for it and he'll be in there snoozing when we get home, he now has free run of this house, but because it's "his spot" during the day we haven't taken it away!
I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, this pup converted me to crate training!
Lots of benefits of crating listed above. My dog LOVES her crate. We leave the door open and she goes in to nap. Its also helpful to crate train your dogs so they don't freak out when they are crated at the groomer's, vet's, or when boarded. When MIL watches our dog at her house, it makes our dog more comfortable when she can still curl up in her crate, even though she isn't at home.
Thanks for all the info, ladies! And thanks for all the cute pics.. We're still considering adopting a pup (I posted a few weeks back about it) and every little bit of information helps!
A lot of times it's to train the puppy more quickly. If you crate a puppy they will be potty trained much quicker than an un-crated puppy. Mostly because dogs don't like to sit in their own "stuff". So the crate must be the appropriate size. It can't be too big because then they will pee in one corner and sleep in the other. Letting your puppy roam around the house certainly means you will find pee/poo around the house as well. I've only heard of crating for puppies though. I crated my miniature schnauzer for a few months, and now he just roams around the house. (I'm almost certain he stays in my room, on my bed, while I'm gone... then rushes to the door when I come back).
Crates however, are apparently a "safe house" for your dog. Some dogs, even when their older, love to just sit in their crate, even if their owner is home. Especially if it has a cover over it. It's like a den or fox hole I guess. Be careful what you put in the crate though... if you leave your dog alone with bones and toys, they could choke on them and pass away while you're gone. Although, I guess the same can happen if they roam free while you're gone. I just try to keep bones up while I'm gone.
I agree, my dog, who is now three, still loves his cage. He will leave us in the living room so that he can go to the other room and lay down in his cage with his bed. He really likes to lay against something so the crate (with lots of blankets) is really nice for this. I don't really like him sleeping against a wall or anything because then the wall gets dirty.
There are a lot of advantages to crating but just like everything else it can be misused, which is why I think people often associate it with negatives.
Just as a counter point, we've managed to raise 2 dogs and host lots of foster puppies safely and happily without using crates. They have dog beds in a nook that gives them their den space and potty training doesn't usually take that long, some have just a natural sense to go outside and others took a week (though there are a few more stubborn ones we've had). We also have wood floors so it wasn't a big deal to clean up when they had an accident. For our older dog I think crate training may have made life a bit easier but for our second dog she was easy as pie to raise so with her I'm not sure there would have been any advantage to crate training. I think a lot of it depends on the dogs personality, how much time someone can be there to supervise and what your apartment/house setup is like. We've also heard nothing but positives on the foster puppies taking to their crates if their adopted owner decides to go that route.
We crated our dog initially, after we first adopted him, for about the first month or so. But once we realized he was fine without being crated, the crate got packed away. He got really anxious in the crate and would cry when he was in there. I couldn't take it. But we're lucky in that he never has accidents or chews anything. Some dogs love their crate....our dog thought we were punishing him :(
One benefit I didn't see mentioned is that when your dog feels like his crate = home it is hugely helpful that his home is portable! I know a lot of people leave their dogs at home or board them when they go out of town but ours usually come with. My old dog had pretty solid separation anxiety and having his crate made it so that I could take him to a friend's house with me for the weekend and not worry about him destroying her house when we went out to dinner or something.
That same dog actually "crate" trained himself to my truck before I even knew what it was! It wasn't until I realized he didn't freak out when he was left in the truck (no matter where we were when I couldn't even leave him home alone safely) that I looked into it and got him a crate.
Oh, and the crate saved me money because the smart alec knew how to open the fridge and help himself. Not only that but he knew to wait until I went grocery shopping. Little bastard. :-)
It works for us out of necessity. We are gone for a few hours at a time during the day (it's slightly staggered so they aren't in there for an unreasonable amt of time.) They have gotten very good at, when it appears we are going out, they will go sit in their crates with the doors open until we let them out.
It keeps them from chewing up everything in sight, messing in the house, bad behavior, etc. It also helps our peace of mind when we are gone - they aren't doing anything potentially harmful to themselves. It also helps keep their potty times to a certain schedule.
They aren't EXACTLY crate trained - they do not sleep in them. It's only for when FI or I go to school/work or if we go out together. I couldn't make them sleep in there, but that's just me. It may be different when we have kids, if we have to. I'm pushing for no though! They do well sleeping in their own beds in the corner of our master bedroom. End long, overly detailed story. :)
As cute as our Corgi is, she has a distructive streak - so we crate her when she's going to be alone, mostly for a few hours at a time (I'm a grad student so I can be home fairly often). Unfortunately, she can't be left alone for the space of a SHOWER without destroying something! She's fine in the crate, but doesn't love it like some dogs. But until she can be left alone without trying to destroy something, this is the best idea we've got.
We crate training our dog when he was a puppy.
He always has, and still does, currently sleep in his crate. At first this was so he didn't go to the bathroom at night and now I guess he just still enjoys sleeping in there cause it is like his safe cave.
For the first couple months we crate training him during the day cause we weren't sure if he was destructive or not.
Now he is free in the house while we are gone.
My husband wanted I dog, and I didn't and the only way I agreed to it was to keep her in a crate so that she didn't pee/poop all over our brand new house. As cruel as it sounds that is all i cared about (don't like dogs and still don't), but hey it taught her to hold it until we got home.
I have a crate training question and can't seem to find the answer anywhere. Please help me out guys!
We are going to pick up our new pup tomorrow and I want to make sure our crate training goes well. Now we bought a wire crate for her but being that she will be home from 9-12 we also bought a baby gate to keep her in the kitchen. My question is this, should we put her crate in the kitchen too or should we just get her another bed and put it in the kitchen instead of her crate? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
@pec1216: I think I'm one of the lone people on here who doesn't crate train puppies. So you've got a couple options. We had a crate for my older dog, we just never latched it and when he had to leave we put it in his room and I think it helped him get really used to the crate and see it as his 'safe place' and bed. That being said if you don't shut the gate the pup might poop or pee somewhere. We have used a piece of tarp as a 'puppy pad' and that usually only takes a couple days for them to catch on that that's their OK place to go and will stick to the pad if you ever miss a cue that they need to go out. With some pups they have such an innate desire to go outside the puppy pad doesn't hold them back from potty training, but then there's some that don't get the puppy pad or get the puppy pad a bit too much and it will set them back a little on potty training. So I'm not sure what the best answer for you guys will be, if you're thinking of both crate training and giving him his own room I think it's possible but you might have to figure out after a few days if having him out is setting back potty training, with some pups it won't and some pups it will. Also like camries post says some pups are very good at jumping baby gates.
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Can the dog people explain to me the benefits of crate training dogs? I had a dog as a kid (up until age 14) and we never crated him, never really knew it was an option! We would just leave him in the house when we left, though there was always someone home. Now it seems to be quite common for dog owners to crate their dogs. What are the benefits of this? I'm not (currently) a dog owner (if I was, I assure you, I would be researching this quite thoroughly) but merely just curious! Educate me!