Visit cancer patients of the clicker times of using size physical comfort and the need to eliminate. This is likewise the limiting factor, for me, on the time dogs should be left alone. personal 'comfort zone' for the dogs is around six hours. When I return to the house, almost never seems to need to urinate urgently, though Sandy sometimes does, starting around six hours Obviously, every dog is different, and I'm sure that can and go much, much longer but eight hours is personal limit, after which I leash him up and force him to go out to I acknowledge that this is a fairly arbitrary number, but there must be some scientific consensus on how it is reasonable or healthy for a dog to go without urininating, even if that interval is much longer than I imagine. But here's the rub, for me. If people are using the crate while at home, to housebreak a dog or puppy, that seems fine to me…when the puppy cries, the person scoops him up and takes him out, and the crate encourages him to 'hold it' only for the few minutes between when he feels the urge and when his signal gets a response. I have no problem with that. But when people use the crate to stretch the length of time that their housebroken dog can go without eliminating…meaning that they are forcing a dog to choose between standing urine or feces or tolerating the discomfort of holding it for longer than a few minutes, that strikes me as unacceptable. Human labor laws require that people be given regular breaks for this reason. What really swung opinion on this issue was reflecting on the one and only time ever defecated the house. It was back the beginning, when he was suffering from some chronic GI troubles. I could tell that he was feeling off, all day, but he seemed to be husband and I took a risk and went out with friends for dinner. We just went around the corner and cut the evening short, but even we were gone around hour and a half. When we returned, had had diarrhea on the linoleum, right front of the kitchen door. I felt awful for him, and hoped that he had just had a very sudden severe cramp, because fastidious as he was, I can only imagine how much discomfort he must have been to defecate the house. I really he didn't spend hour fighting not to. But I'm REALLY glad that he wasn't crated. Not only would the mess have been much worse, but if he had spent hour standing his own feces, I would have felt beyond terrible. If that hour had been four, or six or eight? Doing that to a human counts as torture. I realize that dogs 't have quite the hangups about bodily secretions that we do, but clearly they must be distressed by this possibility, or the crate wouldn't function as a housebreaking tool at all. I wouldn't want to crates prohibited, as they seem to be very beneficial to dogs and people, but I find I'm not comfortable with the idea of a dog being kept like a rabbit a hutch, 20+ hours per day, and I'm also not comfortable with the idea of dogs having to choose between physical discomfort or standing urine or feces. With no way to monitor or limit the way that people use the crate, I can understand why they might be made illegal, even if I 't feel that's necessary. I am glad that I had the to think these issues through. If I ever raise a puppy or get another green rescue, I might use a crate for a safe space and a sleeping area, but I think I would prefer some other method of confinement, like ex pen or a stripped-down room to use while I am out of the house. That's choice, and I'm not necessarily saying it's the best or only one, but it's the one that would give ME the greatest peace of mind-even though dogs are seldom alone more than seven hours, I do feel oddly comforted knowing that they are loose the house that if husband and I were unexpectedly detained, and seven hours became 10 or 12 or 24, they would at least be able to go to the bathroom somewhere without having to stand it. I also note that I have gone 10+ years without a dog because I didn't feel I had enough time. Again, this was a personal choice, much the same as the hundreds of other personal choices that people make about their lifestyles. It didn't seem right to me to leave a dog alone 8 hours per day, but I would never argue that it can never be acceptable to do or that all dogs left home alone during the day are unhappy. Right now dogs are typically alone for no more than six-seven hours, a couple of times a week, because I do a great deal of work from home. If lifestyle were to change, and I were to take a job that required the dogs to be alone much more than that, I would think it reasonable to hire a dog to come and take them out. Again, I'm sure it's not necessary for everyone, but probably not a bad idea, either.