When to start giving freedom
The topic of when to start giving more than just crate space enters...... At what point, age wise, behavior wise should we start? I gave him a room off the kitchen for a few hours this morning and then back into the crate for the afternon after the walker came. He's almost 8 months...is this too soon or are we ready? |
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| Woof used to have the kitchen & utlilty to run around in. At 18 months we would, on some occasions let him have the run of the house. Now he's two, we just let him roam when we're at work - the only change in his behaviour I've noticed is that he will sometimes steal a shoe (or somthing else handy that smells of us) and cuddle up with it.....
PS we never used a crate. (our kitchen needed replacing anyway....) |
| Pooh is adorable! Eight months is still pretty young to totally trust the dog. He'll surely find something to occupy his youthful tendencies. While he may no longer need the crate for much of the day, he should still be confined to a "safe" area. A friend raises Newfs. While she is away they have the family room (Newf room) and access outside to a limited and well fenced area for potty breaks. They are very content. They don't need the whole house.
Be prepared for some mischief.....he's still a puppy. Relish in the way his mind works. He won't stay this way forever, tho having lab in him, he might stay a clown far longer than normal. sheepieboss |
| It was at about 10 months when I gave my boy freedom at night (tried at a little more than 8 months but I got NO sleep!).
At about 13 months he has had the run of most of the house while we are gone to work. Been pretty good, but you can tell where he has been throughout the day (couch pillows on the floor, bed messed up). We have had a couple of counter-surfing and a "I want to eat Dad's work out of his briefcase" issues, but other than that the house is still standing. |
| I'll agree. You can never really trust your dogs, no matter how well behaved they are. If they get bored, anxious our overly exited over a nosy neighbor or the cable guy, mischief will ensue, so it's better to keep damageable things away from them.
Lennon and Sofa stay home inside and they have full roaming of the lower story and the stairs when it's raining or cloudy, otherwise they will stay in a 10 feet fenced yard. So far, the only accidents we've found is garbage can raiding and rug chewing, and sometimes they chew on the mail  . No furniture damage and they can hold it very well, it's been a long time since we've had an accident. Usually they play for a while and then sleep in their beds or the sofa until we get home for lunch and dinner.
Just keep Pooh Bear in a safe area where he can roam and see how he behaves, your instinct will tell you if he can be given full roaming on the house while you are away, but get ready for some mischief and chewed bills! |
Good question,because I ahve just started giving Mickey the run of the house at night.he is doing awesome!!His last accident was a very long time ago,like when he was 4months old and now he is 10months old,I usually crate him due to his puppy chewing and his huge body running into my china cabinet and knocking over my candles  .So when im not home he gets crated.Its funny he sleeps right in front of our daughters door at night we have to keep her door closed due to him chewing up her remote for her game boy  .So needless to say Im going shopping tomrrow for a new one!!!I think once they are potty trained completely giving a little freedom is good.My collie Jagger and the maltese mix always have the run of the house at all times,(collie is 2.5yrs and maltese X is 7yrs). |
| I'm wanting to start him on more freedom--not run of the house yet, he is definately still too immature for that. But thought that a room was a good place to start. I had him in a room yesterday for about 4 hours by himself and then the dog walker put him away until I got home. Note from the wlker is that he seemed to do great--no mistakes, and no chewed furniture (had him in the dining area where his crate is). So, I guess it's a gradual thing. I'd like to have him roaming by the summer time but don't want to one day say: OK boy, be good!
Did any of you find that at night out of the crate your dogs were better worse or the same with the waking you up part? Pooh tends to make a lot of noise in his crate while he is trying to get more comfortable and I am hesitant to get him a larger crate as this one is plenty big from what I can tell. He can stand, turnaround etc. But he can't stretch out toe to toe like he does on the floor when he naps. Any ideas? |
| Truman just turned two this month. He no longer sleeps in his crate at night and does just fine. Just this week, we have started letting him have the run of the rec room and kitchen and, so far (fingers crossed), no problems. We were having a problem with him peeing in his crate during the day when he was in it for more than a few hours at a time. The freedom of roaming in the two rooms seems to have eliminated that problem........ I hope! When we took Truman to obedience school, the trainer said she never left her dogs unsupervised in her home until they were about 2 years old. We are currently working with a behaviorist to figure out why Truman was having these peeing in the crate episodes. It may simply be that he was bored and letting him have more freedom will cure the problem. I sure hope so! |
| Depnds on the dog and the owner. A Pyr friend always puts her Pyrs in their crates at night, cuts down on the barking. Right now I'm putting just one dog in a crate at night.......she puts herself in....it's her bed. The others sleep wherever they want. They've been here long enough to know sleep means sleep, no midnight raids or romps. As to where they sleep...........ha ha, that's a whole other issue.
If I were to counsel you, I'd say, keep the crate training up to date. You never know when you may suddenly need it to protect your dog. For example, rowdy kids come to your house and the dog is in peril, workers come and your dog takes exception to the intrusion, dogs should travel in the car in a secured crate, etc, etc. |
| I was very resistent to letting Carl "be free" for any length of time. He could be a holy terror when he wanted to. We started him out sleeping in the bedroom with us. He was noisy for a bit because it was new to him and he thought it was play time.
After he got used to that. (It took about a month.) We started leaving him in the bedroom with our older dog for short periods of time; like when we went to the store or were working outside. We then increased that length of time gradually until it was all day. We then repeated the process, letting him have the run of the house. We would still check on him at random times; have to keep them guessing or they know when you're coming home. I have found that if we're sleeping and he is loose in the house he seems to look for ways to get in trouble. I woke up the other day to Carl poking at me with his nose and the bedroom door wide open. When I got up, the new issue of Rolling Stone was in pieces everywhere and Carl kept picking them up and throwing them in the air. I'm not sure if he wanted attention or to show that he was out of the room on his own or if he just doesn't like Green Day! |
| well Maggie is 8 months and has been cage trained during the day and night and with the adoption of Molly who is not cage trained I thought I would leave maggie out to see what happened and they went an entire night without a problem. I have also prior to brining Molly home I would leave Maggie out if I knew I was only going out for an hour or so and then when I got home and she had been a good girl I would reward her for it. She has been fine and I feel better knowing she can enjoy her sister during the day instead of being locked up. The cage is still there and open if she chooses but she is not choosing it at all! Maybe keep it to the kitchen for a week and if all goes well put up gates in the areas you dont want carl to be and enusure there is nothing laying around that can hurt him and try it little amounts of time and reward him when he has done a good job. I think he is old enough and may appreciate a little more space but whatever you do leave his cage open as he may be one of those dogs who prefers the cage over the freedom. |
| Using a pooch playpen, Pooh now gets the crate and a space outside the crate door (large enough for him to lay on his side and stretch a bit). Been doing this for about a week and a half and he's doing great. Has not made any morning noise and moves from the crate to the floor and back throughout the night. Last night, he finally settled down in his crate and was either still there or there again when I got up. Now if I could sonvince my wife to start allowing him freedom of the whole bedroom at night.....Pooh knows the nightly routine now and comes up stairs with us and gets a bedtime cookie and immediately settles down and goes to sleep.... |
| Dougal has had the run of the house from day one never had any problems. I bought him home when he was eight weeks he is now a year and two months.
luv pepe |
| We crated all our dogs at night until they didn't wet the crate overnight. We've never had an accident that wasn't our fault unless one of them was sick. Worked great for us. |
| Farley is still being crated. I've never crated before but then again I've never had a puppy either and Jamie insists.
Just yesterday Farley entertained himself while in the crate during the day. There was a roll of paper towels sitting on top of the crate and he picked at it throughout the day. By the end of the day there were a hundred bits of paper all over the place. What fun!  Oooo razzin frazzin ...  |
Well so much for the record - It has been a week since Molly arrived and Maggie and Molly have had the run of the house. Everything has been great with the exception of the couch cushions on the floor and the mits or hats scattered about.........Until today...........this morning I walked downstairs to greet them and walked into the kitchen to get my coffee and walked through a big puddle of pee - not one puddle but 3 - 
hmmmm - not sure who's fault that was (my husband lets them out before he goes to bed and may have gone to bed earlier than normal) but I did sleep an extra half hour today ----It appears that 1/2 makes a difference - I hope this was a exception to the rule  and from now on I will make sure I stick to my schedule! |
| My girls are definitely on the clock too, they go at exact times and if I'm even a few minutes off, puddles happen. |
| I still put Sam in her crate at night and while I am gone during the day. She will go in the crate by herself to take a nap. And after seeing saulmr's pictures of the dogs and the dead pillow....hmmm.... |
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