Free reign of house...how old?

[aleethomas]

How old was your cav before you started leaving them along in the house all day without being confined to certain areas or in a crate?

When will I know that she is ready to be left out? As this would be ideal at some point for us. We have a 700 sq. ft. condo so there isn't much that she can get into. I know she isn't ready yet but we leave her out for 20 minute errands and she's been fine. Either sits in her crate or waits by the door. Just wondering around what age we can start gradually increasing her time out until it becomes all the time.

[judy]

hi.. how old is she now?
if you're already leaving her, she must not be too young..on the other hand, if she's staying by the door or in the crate, maybe she is pretty young.

When i did it, i didn't really have any particular age guidelines. i read in a puppy training book that you gradually increase it, as you are already doing, to see how long they can be trusted. Of course, you puppy proof the house so that there's nothing they can get into or destroy. You wait, of course, until their housetraining is pretty reliable with only the rarest misstep.

I think Zack was around 8 months old when i started leaving him free in the downstairs part of the apartment while i was at work, or sleeping upstairs during the night. It could've been older, but that seems about right. I kept the upstairs gated so that he didn't have access to the cat box or the cat's food. I started just leaving him out when i'd do errands. Then i started leaving him for about 3 or 4 hours while i was at work and would come home for lunch. There was never any problem with it. Once in a while, he'd chew a ballpoint pen or some little thing, my fault for leaving things around, but generally he would leave them alone so i'd not think about it, he never peed or pooed in the house, he would just lay in once place all night when i was sleeping, but he would do some playing while i was gone during the day, he has lots of toys.

At some point, i started leaving the gate to the upstairs open so the cat could come up and down while i was at home, and that was OK for many months. Then one day, he had catbox breath, it was the worst and it lasted for a couple of days. So now i keep that gate closed and just bring the cat out when i'm here.

Before i started leaving him out, i transitioned him from just the crate, to the crate surrounded by an xpen in the kitchen, to just being in the kitchen with baby gates, and then finally, free in the downstairs. He hated being put in the kitchen so much, he acted depressed. I was happy when i was able to leave him free in the house.

[Lindsay]

At the age of NEVER

Spencer does fine by himself, but I will never be able to trust Izzy. She has a destroy-fest on my couch cushions when I leave the house. It just depends on the dog. Spencer was able to stay out by himself and behave when he was about 8 months.

Good luck!

[aleethomas]

Like I said she's still too young to be trusted. She's 17 weeks old. I've only left her a few times when I know she doesn't have to go potty and I need to run to the car or this morning when my boyfriend drove me to work. (he was gone 15 minutes). Our place is totally puppy proof and she's still not big enough to get on the couch by herself so she can only play with her toys or hang out in her crate. (as you can see we have a very exciting place!) She hasn't had an accident for about 2 weeks so I'm hoping we're getting close to being potty trained. Although she still doesn't let us know when she has to go, we know and she will potty on command. I've started leaving her in a gated off hallway for half the day and no accidents in there yet for being left for 5 hr period. I think we'll continue with this since its working and when she gets closer to 8 months or so start increasing her time out alone.

[laurenlyn1]

i don't think i'll ever be able to leave brady out by himself. i have stuff out that he can get into and he hasn't trained me well enough to put that stuff away. i just feel better if he's in his crate and i know he can't get into anything that can hurt him. if the kitchen was cleaned up nice and i knew he'd be fine in there i might be able to let him stay in there while i was out. but it's not clean and there's stuff that he can chew that i don't wanted chewed. oh well. he gets free roam when someone is home though. sometimes we block off the stairs so he can't up upstairs because then he'd probably come running down with some underwear or tissue.

[Alison_Leighfield]

To this day none of my dogs have the free run of the house when I am out.

Not because they can't be trusted but for their own safety.

I normally settle them down in their beds and give them the kitchen/breakfast room/conservatory space only. I leave a few "safe" toys and also their water. In that area I know they can come to no harm for a few hours.

They know and understand the routine and seem happy with it when ever I go out.

Alison.

[Linda'nQuincy]

Quincy is 10 1/2 months old, and we still leave him in the x-pen, in the kitchen, when we leave for a few hours. He has his bed, toys, a treat, and water. Although he is 99% accident free, I would still be concerned about what he might find on his own while investigating every nick and cranny of the house during our absence. He never seems at all traumatized when we return--just sits up in his bed, yawns, and then walks over to the x-pen door to be let out.

[Karlin]

Like Alison, I never give my dogs free rein in the house either.

As for dogs loose in the house -- -- as most dogs are not fully reliable (eg housetrained) until close to a year this is when I allowed the dogs access to the whole house when I AM home. However I never give them full access when I am out of the house -- not with all the things they could get into. Also Jaspar is too anxious if left with the whole house to run around in. He is very happy in a single room.

So when I am out, they all go into one dog-safe room. I give them all a treat and leave them chewing that as I close the door. They happily run to the room when I get out vertain treats on the assumtpion that I am ging to leave them.

A dog much younger than a year (and even well over but this is especially true of a dog under a year with puppy behaviours) can chew cords, get into cupboards, catch its collar on something, knock over something... too many things for me ever to trust a dog with the whole house.I even know of a case though where someone's dog jumped up and knocked over a 50 gallon aquarium. Others may have a more dog-proof set-up than I have.

There isn;t really such thing as a puppy or dog proof house though. You'd be surprised at what they can get into -- and what can make them seriously, or lkethally, ill -- anything from pulling strings out of a carpet and eating them to chewing up a sock to medications to electrocuting themselves on a cord or socket... I had enough close calls with Jaspar to totally revise my sense of 'dog-proof'. A truly dog proof house is one with nothing in it, like a kennel with just a few safe toys.

Also just be aware that at 17 weeks she is very unlikely to be anywhere near to housetrained. But she is doing well to be accident free for two weeks. It will be at least 6 months more likely before she is say 90% housetrained and in my experience you can expect accidents up to around a year and the occasional 'oops' throughout their life -- if they are ill, or you forget to take them out, or are on medication etc.

[ppotterfield]

First, I have to laugh with Judy because I have the same problem with the cat food. I cannot let my two free in the house even when I am there because they make a beeline for the cat's food. Buddy and Hadley both love his food. The cat is 16 years old and can no longer jump up so while I used to leave his food on top of a counter away from the dogs, it now has to be on the floor. Given his age I do not want to confine him more than I have to since he has really never been confined inside. Second, even if I did not have the cat food problem, I would never leave my dogs free in the house when I am gone for their own safety. They are left gated in the kitchen and the "dog" room (which is a small room, meant to be a pantry or utitility room, next to and opened to the kitchen). There is plenty of room for them to move about and their crates are right there. That said, I live in an older home, which has three floors and a basement, with lots of things that could get them in trouble, safety-wise or with me. If I lived in a smaller space or could more easily "dog proof" the space, I would consider increasing their territory. JMHO,

[molly]

Mine range in age from 1.5 to 7 yrs. old. We have baby gates across a couple of door ways so that when we go out we can restrict them to just the kitchen/laundry room and large hall. Gives us peace of mind that they are safe and if they do get sick, no carpet. Like Karlin, ours were about a year old before they had free rein when we are home.