A big part of my business is training puppies.  I recommend crate training for every puppy.  Dog owners always want to know when they can stop using the crate in their training efforts.  There is a two part answer to this question:

Weaning your dog off the crate at night time:  The first time period where you can wean your dog off the crate is at night when you are sleeping.  Normally I like to see that the dog has been sleeping through the night without any problems (whining, going to the bathroom, etc.) for several months.  If the dog has been doing this well for several months then at the age of eight or nine months I will allow the dog to sleep outside the crate for one night.  At this stage it is just an experiment and I like to stack the deck in my favor.  I will provide a little bed for the dog to sleep on, I will ‘puppy proof’ the room, and I will close the bedroom door so the dog can’t wander the house.

If the dog lasts the night without any wrongdoings, excellent!  He now earned a second night.  If he continues to progress I will continue allowing him to sleep outside the crate.

If he does something wrong, however, I will go back to the crate the following night.  Depending on the dog I will then wait a month or more before experimenting again with the dog sleeping outside of the crate.

Weaning your dog off the crate while you are gone:  The second area where you need to wean the dog off the crate is during the day while you are at work or out of the house.

I usually wait until at least a year of age before moving on to this step.  Of course I am assuming that the dog has been problem free in the house (no housebreaking accidents, chewing, destruction, etc.) for at least six months or more while I am at home.  If that is the case it is time to move on to this step.

It is imperative that you don’t give too much freedom too quickly.  What you want to do is leave for two or three minutes.  Don’t say anything when you leave, don’t say anything when you come back.  Simply go, stay outside for a couple minutes, then return.  If the dog does well next time you can stay out a bit longer.  Gradually increase the time you leave until you can do an hour or two.  When you get to that point it can be a few hours.  Once that happens you can typically leave for an eight hour work day and rely on your dog to be trustworthy.

If the dog, at any time, backslides and does something wrong you need to take a step back in the training.  If all goes well you can usually go from five minutes alone in the house to eight hours alone in the house in two to six months of training.  If everything goes well that means that at about 14-18 months of age you can leave the dog alone without worrying that the dog will poop all over and eat your sofa.

Many people are able to accelerate this program rapidly and have a dog home alone for hours well before these times.  Many people can’t, however, so I always teach people to be conservative.  It doesn’t hurt to put in extra training for long term benefit.

Good luck with your crate training efforts.