Dog alone, crating?

My husband and I are considering getting a dog.
If this was in the States I would be more than happy to do so since I had an incredibly large backyard for the dog to run around.  But we are living in London and we don't have a backyard or any kind of yard at all.
I would not exactly feel comfortable leaving it around the home because it would chew on everything and worse it might chew on wires and get hurt.
Soemone suggested that if we are going to get a dog, we should crate train him and leave him in there when you go to work.  Does anyone do that here?  So for those of you who have dogs and who are in a similar situation, what do you do when you are at work and the dog is "home alone?"

There is a lot of things to consider before getting a pet. They take up a lot of time and require a lot of attention. 

How much time will it spend in a crate? Where will you take it to exercise/relieve itself? Have you had a pet before, or a dog before?

It's a bit more difficult to get a dog in the UK as most shelters won't let dogs get a home where both partners work full time. I have a dog, and I stayed home with him since he was a pup at 8 weeks old until he was 6 months old (fiancee visa) which was more than enough time to train him, house train him, and crate train him. He stays in his crate while I'm at work but gets loads of exercise, attention and love when I get home, and we have a fairly large garden which helps.

I found the crate did help with him staying home alone but it is never used as punishment or a place to keep him more than absolutely nessisary (though he loves his 'bed' and goes in there to lie down sometimes when we are home).

I think it's something to do some research on the internet, really sit down and consider this choice. I don't know all of your situation but you need to consider your time and if you have time to train, walk, feed, give attention to, and exercise a dog. Not trying to come down hard, I just want what's best for you and the dog.
Good Luck!

I don't mean to crate him for 2 days and forget about him and never take him out.  Walking, feeding, playing, exercising the dog is already a given.  Perhaps I worded it like I will neglect the dog but I assure you that is not the case.
I am curious as to what people do in the city since I am sure there are plenty of single people out there (and I am married) with a dog who work 8 hours a day like I do.  I don't think this is a rare phenomenon.  I'm sure they still provide adequate care for their animals given their schedule.  Do they get a dog sitter?  Do they hire a dog walker?  Do they put them in the crate like people suggest on the internet (I am asking because I personally find the crates iffy)?
If you let the dog roam in your place there is always a chance it will find something to chew on.  People who own dogs are prepared for the chewed up shoe and pillows, etc but it is the chewing on wires and finding their ways to reach things you want to keep them away from that worries me more.
You said you crate him when you go to work.  How many hours do you work?  Do you put him in his crate for the duration that you are out working?

I don't know any full time workers who crate their dogs although it's apparently quite common (?).  Most people just deal with the odd few chewed shoes or couch cushions.  If I had a dog I don't think i'd be overly worried about wires because I can't think of anything I leave switched on. 

I don't really know much about crating but I haven't heard anything negative about it.  One thing to bear in mind is that US/UK attitudes towards pets differ A LOT.  And not just when it comes to dogs!!!

We crated our dog at first - he is home alone from 8:30 to 3:45 most weekdays.  Then we were able to close him off in our front entrance so he had a bit more room.  Now, he has the dining room, kitchen, front entrance way but really all he does is sleep and he loves his bed so much that he sleeps in there during the day. 

We've never had problems with him chewing or destroying anything and he's a power chewer! 

He has lots of toys, gets lots of exercise and is around us the whole time we're home.  He does get closed in his bed at night but by 10:00, he's put himself to bed.

I think it is totally doable as long as the pup has balance in his life. 

We got our dog from a shelter that believed in working with working families. 

We are looking to give a dog a second chance at a nice home so I will try to find a shelter that works with working families (Great suggestion thanks!).  I hope we get a well behaved dog like yours! 

Our Buster chewed many cords before we figured out how to deal with him. Namely we lost 5 alarm clocks, 2 lamps and phone because the cords were just too much fun to chew.

However. . . .we wised up and started using a Kong and Kong Ball filled with treats and peanut butter for him. Now he doesn't destroy anything, he just rearranges the pillows on the bed on a regular basis.

Crating can and often is very beneficial for dogs.  It gives them a "safe place" that's all their own as well as protects them from hazards when you're gone.  The key is proper crate training.  There are lots of great resources online about how to properly crate train a dog (for example, you should NEVER use their crate as punishment).  My dogs have always loved their crates and voluntarily would take naps in them even while we were home during the day.

Personally, I am a single dog owner who works full time and I also foster dogs frequently for a local shelter. My dog (a cocker spaniel) is left alone all day while I am at work and is free to run around the house. I do have to deal with the odd overturned trash can or chewed up something or other, but it works very well for us.  When I have foster dogs at home, I do crate them for many reasons (safety of both dogs and house training issues) and this works wonderfully for the vast majority of dogs I have worked with. 
My dad just got two puppies (bless him!) from the shelter and he is working on crate training them while he is gone.  I realize this is a US site, but check out www.hsus.org for a lot of great articles on knowing when its right to get a dog and how to properly crate train.
As a few people have mentioned above, the UK seems to be much more strict in allowing full-time workers to adopt, so please if you run into that problem, look on Gumtree or an alternative site before resorting to purchasing a dog.

I have a lot of experience in dog training and a lot of resources even more experienced than I and would love to help you.  Feel free to PM if you have more specific questions about which breed of dog might be best or if you have any trouble acclimating a new dog into your family.  Good luck!

Have you considered looking into Ex-pens? They can allow you to sort of create your dogs own "play-pen" area which will likely be much more spacious than a crate. I think crating is not necessarily ideal for a dog, and *can* (not saying it always or even most of the time does!) lead to behavioral problems. At the least, it has got to be quite boring unless its a very short period of time or an extremely large crate. I find that ex-pens at least give them space to move around and roam a bit.

Many of my classmates have dogs, and most of them do leave them at home free-roaming. A lot of them started out with ex-pens or cordoning off an area of the house that was "safe" and then gradually building rules that eventually let them free-roam.

One of my classmates has two dogs - one of them was fine in his crate, the other would destroy any bedding he was on and defecate/urinate everywhere. She had our behaviorist professor come out and it turned out that he has barrier frustration, and once let out of the crate all day he was absolutely fine (no chewing or defecating/urinating). So it really depends on the dog.

Good luck with whichever route you take!!

I have a big backyard (still in the states), but my dog just spends her days in the house.  We had some chewing incidences just after she came to live with me--she was on the verge between puppyhood and adulthood, plus she was really stressed out--but I don't think I've seen her chew anything in years.  She is incredibly lazy, and I suspect that she spends her days sleeping on the couch (an activity that is not allowed when I am home!).  I read a million books on dogs before I got one, and I was pretty sold on the concept of crate training.  However, she is pretty claustrophobic, so crate training didn't really work for us.  She used to throw her body against the sides of the crate until I let her out, and this was with me sitting right outside the crate, trying to give her treats and telling her what a good puppy she was for being in the crate--I even tried getting into the crate with her, but she still hated it.  I'm working on it again with the biggest crate available (she's about a 65 lb dog) in anticipation of our move, and that seems to be going better.  She's much more grown-up and anxiety-free now, though, and I think that helps.

I think it is important to really read up on how to crate train well.  I had friends who trained by leaving their dog in the crate only when they left the house.  The dog was miserable in the crate, and I think it might have been because he associated it with his owners leaving the house.  Everything I've read really emphasized the importance of training your dog to be in the crate while you are around, and offering lots of encouragement and attention to the dog as it gets used to the crate.  Like I said, it didn't work in my case, but if you're going to do it make sure you read a book on dog training and do it right--most of the advice I read seemed pretty similar.

You may want to read more about types and breeds of dogs before acquiring a dog as well.  Different breeds of dogs are going to be easier to leave at home alone, uncrated, while other breeds generally do not take well to being crated at all (Great Pyrenees come to mind, but I think most livestock guardian breeds are this way).  It probably goes without saying, but if you aren't at home all day and don't have a yard, you probably want a pretty lazy dog.  While many dogs are mixes, you can infer a lot about a dog if you have some sense of its heritage; none of these are absolutes, of course, but it should give you some guidance.  I've seen a lot of people/dog relationships not work out because people didn't seem to understand the basic tendencies of a breed.  My dog is a Pyr/poodle mix (I think) and I've found that reading websites dedicated to Pyr behavior and training have been really useful.

Our dog was crazy when we first got him.  He was just a frenetic ball of pent up energy and the crate was the only way we could contain him. He's also a fairly big, powerful dog so there was no way we could do it any other way.   We got a "cage" type crate rather than a travel type crate and we put it in our living room.  He was  only let out to go outside to relieve himself, for walks and playtime.  He got used to our rhythms and that period only lasted about 2 months.  We were walking him like crazy at that point, trying to get rid of all his pent up energy.  That took about 6 mos to a year! 

The owner of the shelter where we got him was totally supportive of crating and encouraged us. Her ethos was if it's ok for him to be in a shelter kennel for 23.5 hours per day with only a half hour walk per day, then crating is a viable alternative, if it means a nice home otherwise for the dog.   

If you and DH both work, it may be a good idea to get an adult dog instead of a puppy. We adopted a 2-ish-year old cocker/golden mix several years ago, and it was great! Already housebroken, basic manners, etc.  He had some anxiety issues, but they were minor.  I definitely preferred that than trying to raise a puppy. Also, I could see his personality already pretty developed, so no real surprizes. His only real bad habit is a liking for tissues, preferably used. He loves cold season--nice and juicy .

Sometimes breeders have dogs that don't show well, or have a minor flaw, and they will sell them to caring homes. It's good that you're thinking first, and doing your research on breed types and what kind of dog will work well for you; many dogs in shelters are there because couch-potato people get a super-high-energy dog. I always liked Australian shepherds until I found out that they need hours of exercise every day!!