When did they get the run of the house? - Page 2

Pooch72 · #11 09-25-2002, 05:49 PM

I was leaving in a rush one AM and didn't get Prue's latch shut tightly on her crate. I came home to an awful mess. She had shredded her bed in the den. She ate two crocheted coasters and 1/2 of a wooden coaster. She wet by the door to go outside, she threw up twice and had diarrehea(sp) 3x on my dining room carpet. The house smelled awful when I opened the door. But here came Prue kidney beaning all the way with a "Hi Mom.. I'm a good girl at least I didn't chew up anything big that belonged to you...look on her face!"
She is 7 1/2 months now and needless to say it will be a long time before she is uncrated. Plus, she will wet or poop if you do not let her out immediately when she bangs the door. Even if she has just been out 15 minutes before.

Jazz is ready to be weaned off the crate right now. I 'm not sure if Prue can handle her being out , all day will have to wait until I can trust Prue too.

My first rescued off the street boxer chose when she would be uncrated at 15 months. I came home one day and she had destroyed the crate. She never touched a thing in the house from that day on and was never crated again.

I vote for going by the dog and how their behavior is. Work up to it gradually to test them out.

Patty

ColleenAus · #12 09-25-2002, 06:07 PM

Shelby is 12 weeks - well 13 weeks this coming sunday! anyways - when we arent home she is in her bedroom with the door open but a baby gate put up - and not once has she attempted to escape. And when we get home i suppose u could say she has basic run of the house - she sleeps half in our bed half in her bed - literally sometimes - head on my pillow bum on hers hehe CUTE! and when us mummys are tired and sleep through her wiggling she goes and sits in the lounge and looks out the window or plays with her cat - no accidents on carpet just the vynal and only when she HAS to go, i would also love to know if your baby just has full run at night and during the day is kept under wraps?

- love colly

chloedog · #13 09-26-2002, 05:22 AM

We just decided one night to leave the crate open. We were getting her up twice a night for a long time to go out to the bathroom. We then backed off to once a night. But, everytime we woke her up to go out she looked at us like we were really interupting her sleep time. So one night we decided to just not take her out! She did fine. We did that for a few nights and eventually just left the crate door open all night. She still stayed in there all night though. Every night before bed we would go out to potty, she would come in and go right into her crate while we got ready for bed. I don't even think she realized the door wasn't shut for a week or so. Then she would start out in her crate and by morning would be out on the floor. Now she prefers the couch at night.

Sometimes she will come into our room at about 5am and lick us to wake us up. We think she needs to go out so we get ready and start to go out. She then hops back on the couch and goes back to sleep.

It's as if she says "Hi, I'm out in the living room if you need me!" We are trying a half day out of the crate again today. Wish us luck!

Barb_IA · #14 09-26-2002, 08:07 AM

My job is here at home so, my babies always have had the run of the house.

Bosco'sMom · #15 09-27-2002, 08:44 AM

Bosco is 16 months old and still has not earned run of the house. Just a few weeks ago he chewed the corner of my husband's gun cabinet while I was in the bathroom! He has a very short attention span!

jpkj · #16 09-27-2002, 09:30 AM

So far so good. Kona has had run of the livingroom, diningroom, and kitchen while we are away for about 1 month now. She hated being crated, would fight with me to get in it. She had a few pee accidents at the begining, but now when we come home, she goes on a "hunt" with us to see if she had any, and her little stub just goes crazy when we tell "Good Girl". It's like she wants to show us that she was good. So far we haven't had a problem with her chewing on things that aren't hers. She just truned 4 months yesterday.
Oh yea, and she isn't alone for more than 3 1/2 hours at a time.

jess · #17 09-27-2002, 09:47 AM

Biscuit was 18 months old when she got free run of the house. We got her when she was four months old and the first night we had her home she ate a hole through the bedroom wall. She has never been crated at night just while we were out. We left her out for short amounts of time at first and increased the time away slowly until we knew she could be trusted. Our beagles on the other hand will stay in crates while we are gone until they go to the bridge and I'm thinking it'll be the same with Gussy our German Shorthaired Pointer. I think it depends on the dog some can be trusted at a very young age and some can never be trusted out of a crate when their people are away.

Jelly · #18 09-27-2002, 09:58 AM

Lucy is almost a year and I don't ever leave her out of the crate when we aren't there. She loves trash and has at least one accident everyday

We are despirately working on the potty training. She is a rescue and was doing really well until we got our second dog- Dixie.

Lucy will let us know(most of the time) if she needs to go out, but Dixie doesn't have a clue

chloedog · #19 09-27-2002, 10:30 AM

I thought I'd give an update on the status of Chloe having the run of the house. We've done it a few more times and there have been no accidents and nothing was tore up. I take that back, there is one exception. It's kind of ironic. Here's the story. We have a coffee table in the living room where she has free run. We push it up against the wall sometimes to have more play room. When I came home from work yesterday there was a piece of paper chewed up on the floor. As I got closer to it I realized it was sitting on the coffee table when I went back to work after lunch. Here's the ironic part. The paper she chewed up was a $30 discount coupon to get her spayed! Of all the things she could have chewed up, she went out of her way to climb onto the coffee table and get that paper so she could chew it up. I guess she's trying to send us a message that she doesn't want to be spayed.

the busbys · #20 09-27-2002, 12:17 PM

Boomer has the run of the house at night, but usually ends up in bed with us. He is really clingy, so if he's not on the bed, he sleeps right next to it. As for letting him have the run of the house while we're away, never! We tried the baby gate when he was about 8mo old, and he would bang against it until it gave way. Then he proceeded to destroy the whole house. The last time we tried the baby gate (at 13 mo), he completely destroyed it. He bent the metal parts, broke the plastic parts, and chewed the wooden parts to bits. Oh yeah, then he proceeded to destroy the whole house.