# Trusted in the house or needs to be confined while your gone?



## GoldenShamus (Feb 26, 2007)

He can be trusted in the whole house. Somewhere around a year old we started trying it, slowly, and never had a problem. We do have a dog walker that comes midday though, and that may have something to do with it. But, he's not a destructive dog anyway.


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## Lego&Jacub (Jul 18, 2006)

I put restricted... as ours is still a puppy. But we will be giving her greater freedom as time goes on... and eventually she will have the whole house to roam while we are away.


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## moverking (Feb 26, 2007)

My two are 3 and 4 now and have had run of the house since about 6 months old each. Had some corners chewed off rugs, but that was the most destruction and a loonngg time ago. They have been excellent in the house....now having said that I'll go home to find all the knobs chewed off the cabinets probably:doh:


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## Carsonsdaddy (Nov 1, 2006)

Restricted for now... He's only 8 months-ish. As he get's older, we will start to give him more freedom, but not right now. He's not very destructive, except for wifey's sandals  , so I'm not real worried about that. We'll see how he does when he get's older.


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

Oakly has had the run of the house since he was about 6 or 7 months. I go home to lunch every day so he gets to get out and I try to play with him a bit before heading back to work. The first week I let him go free range I did check on him mid morning and mid afternoon just to make sure things were going well.


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## Angel_Kody (Feb 27, 2007)

Jester is one and still can not be trusted out of the crate while no one is home.  I think we will try soon to leave him out for short times and build up.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Robbie is completely trustworthy in the house. Katie will find things to chew up if I leave her out, like my Bible and bible study notebook!! Lilah has proven to be a little mischief maker if she is loose while I'm gone. She had emptied the kitchen trash all over the floor, and pulled empty tupperware containers out of the sink and carried them all over the house.

My girls are naughty!


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## Nicole&Zack (Feb 27, 2007)

Zack is trusted in the house during the day only, at night he is in his crate. I am not sure how to go about it leaving him out of his crate at night


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Well I picked both, because I have dogs I trust and dogs I don't!


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## justmejanis (Feb 25, 2007)

Mine are always loose. I have been lucky, never a problem. Murphy has not been in a crate since about 4 months of age. I have never crated Sampson.


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## Wilson's REAL Mom (Nov 10, 2006)

Wilson is almost 11 months old, and for the last 3 months or so, we've let him have run of the house (at least the same rooms as he has the run of when we're home) during the day. We've never left him for more than 4 hours, though, and he will probably always be in a crate at night...dh is adamant about that...but he's adamant about the kids sleeping in their own beds, too.


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

We've trusted Samson loose since he was about six months old. With Cosmo, I worked at home for the first few months we had him....and I just figured he would be fine loose too, now that I'm working out of the house... We've never come home to any surprises...


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## Chaucer and Mom (Feb 26, 2007)

Chaucer is about to turn 16 months. He chews and eats what he shouldn't right in front of me. I shiver at the thought of what he'd do all by himself. He's crated for the forseeable future though I can hope.


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## Oralia Schatzman (Jun 12, 2006)

When we first got Bentley, we crated him mostly because he could let himself out the front door. The first thing he did on the first day after we got rid of the crate, six months later, was to pee on our bed ... some sort of social statement. He's never done that or anything else wrong since.


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## Carsonsdaddy (Nov 1, 2006)

Nicole&Zack said:


> Zack is trusted in the house during the day only, at night he is in his crate. I am not sure how to go about it leaving him out of his crate at night


Carson is crated during the day also. How we do it at night is to leave our bedroom door ajar. We block it from opening all the way with the stool from our vanity. We would close it all the way, but kitty likes to go in and out during the night(food, litterbox, pull all the pens off the counter, etc). So he's out of the crate but he's only in the bedroom with us.


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

I trust my dogs more in the house than I do my kids.... In fact, while we were at Riley's baseball game last night, Ricky literally ripped our hand rail off the wall on our stair way. Our dogs have never pitched a baseball through a window (indoors) or caused baseball sized holes in walls. They've never punched a hole in the wall (my oldest daughter used to be good at that). The dogs have never spilled pop on the carpet. They've never lost TV remotes. Geez....I could make a longer list, but I think you get the point...


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## Selena (Dec 26, 2006)

I keep them crated when I am gone. I think I could trust Lacey. Maybe Hunter but all four of them loss in the house.....:uhoh: I don't think I would have a home to come home to.:uhoh: lol I would feel to guilty to leave one or two out and not the others.


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## Jazz's Mom (Feb 26, 2007)

When we're home Jazz has the run of the house, except for the messy kids rooms. When we're gone he's restricted to a few rooms. Today while we were outside he decided for the first time ever to go shopping in the pantry (door was partially ajar.) He took a granola bar from the box, but my husband came in the house and caught him before he even got it unwrapped.


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## sashac (Mar 13, 2006)

Charlie is totally trustworthy in the house, he just sleeps when we're gone. BUT, when we first got him, he had a nervous tic known as "let's hpp onto the couch" and also one known as "wonder what's in the trash". thankfully, the tics disappeared after a few days of getting used to the house rules.


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

I've just started letting Griff have more freedom when I leave the house - first it was just to walk my son to the bus stop - then a quick trip to the bank - I am increasing the time slowly and so far so good. He sits on my bed and has the biggest forlorn look on his face while he looks out the window. I haven't left him the run of the living room yet - there are plants in the window.


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## tintallie (May 31, 2006)

Wiggles is 13 months old (still a puppy) and while DH or I are home, he has free run of the place and he isn't destructive. He picks a spot and lies down or looks out the window on the stair landing as cars, people, dogs, and bunnies go by.

We recently moved him from the kitchen to our bedroom in his crate, and he chooses to sleep in there. The last few nights we have also left the crate door (not bedroom door open) and Wiggles just makes himself comfy in his crate. At some point, we'll gradually let him have free reign in the house while we are gone, but we are taking it slow.

My co-worker has a Jack Russell terrier that has left some nasty surprises on the carpet when he had an upset tummy while left alone.


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## Jcnbarb4RN (Mar 13, 2007)

Mollie was able to be left out early like around 9 months old. She's NEVER bothered anything. We taught her very young what was hers and what was ours. She has never ever chewed anything up that I can even remember. She's a really good dog. I guess we are VERY lucky to have such a wonderful dog. I sure hope we can train the new puppy this way. 

Barb


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## harlowsmom (Feb 25, 2007)

Around 8 months we gradually started leaving Harlow out, working up to being out all day (dog walker comes in the afternoon) She was fine for 4 months, didn't touch anything. Until last week, the day before her 1st birthday we came home to find she ate the couch


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

Keeping him crated for now. He was fine until about two weeks ago when he started to destroy everything...:doh:

So it's back to square one! He lost his freedom rights for now...lol.


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

Tinkerbell has always had free roam of my room at night (except for the 2 weeks we tried to use her crate and failed). She has als had free roam of the house since we got her. We do close my daughter's room because if all the little things, and my parents bathroom because my dad is always dropping pills. 

When she was 3 months old I started leavign her out while I took my daughter to school. I figured if I could leave her out while I take a shower she could be out other times for 15 minutes. The only time we ever used her crate wa when we were actually gone. We never used it because we were going to be busy with something else. I think that helped us actually because if we saw her start to do something she wasn't supposed to we corrected her. If she had been in her crate she wouldn't have done it and no correction would have been done.

She was about 5 months old when we quit using the crate unless we were going to be gone at least 2 hours. Since 6 months we haven't worried about it. At night I usually keep my door closed so she is in with me, but the door has a tendency to pop ope and she doesn't leave. When I am gone overnight she is allowed to roam free. But you will find her on my bedroom floor, or my parents bedroom floor.

the worst she has ever done is tear up paper. Which she does in front of me also. But if you put it on the table or counter she doesn't touch it.


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## z&mom (Oct 7, 2006)

Z can be trusted loose home alone, but we crate her just for her safety. When I run out for a quick lunch/errand, she is left loose. But when we know we will be away for more than an hour, she is crated. I did not vote because there is no option for both.


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## WoodysMum (Mar 13, 2007)

Woody has the run of the house. We use to keep him behind a stairgate in the kitchen, but we kept coming home and find him sleeping on the sofa. He was jumping it. We previously owned a dog with separation anxiety, so started of slowly with Woody, 20 mins then longer and longer. Yesterday was the longest, we went shopping and was gone for 5 1/2 hours, i was expecting the place destroyed. But kids came home before us and he was just asleep. "Bless" he's such a star. But he does have access to the garden if he needs to, "he goes through the cat flap". I bore people with how good he is, as we had such a bad experiance with our last dog. But normally he's only ever left for short periods.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

I learned my lesson this morning. I let Brady outside to do his business before my shower, usually I do it after. I did not want to put him back in the crate while I was taking a shower, and everybody else was still sleeping.

In that 10 minutes, he ate my shoe!


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## Abbydabbydo (Jan 31, 2007)

RickGibbs said:


> I trust my dogs more in the house than I do my kids.... In fact, while we were at Riley's baseball game last night, Ricky literally ripped our hand rail off the wall on our stair way. Our dogs have never pitched a baseball through a window (indoors) or caused baseball sized holes in walls. They've never punched a hole in the wall (my oldest daughter used to be good at that). The dogs have never spilled pop on the carpet. They've never lost TV remotes. Geez....I could make a longer list, but I think you get the point...


The dogs don't drink my beer......


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## Dog (Sep 26, 2006)

When we are out Amber his left in our big through loundge (on her settee) with the door open. She can only access the hallway where toys and more fresh water is available. She also has a sheet on the floor there near a radiator (but this is mainly use when we are home after she uses the garden during wet weather).

She is not allowed in the kitchen or garden when we are out (we close the doors) and luckily anywhere else is not a problem because she was never allowed to go upstairs or learned to climb up our steep stairs.

We are so lucky that the crate training worked well for us. She has never distroyed anything in our loundge. She obviously has tried more than once to jump on our armchairs but we dont go mad about it. We just keep telling her no and it is happening less and less... 

Overall so far we have been very lucky that Amber is such a good learner. She has never been to any classes simply because there aren't any closeby!!


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## WoodysMum (Mar 13, 2007)

I have a question which i expect your all say what a load a rubbish. But for those of you who crate train your dogs and find that they have done something wrong when given a bit of freedom, the question is this.

Are they like children if confined go a bit nuts and do naughty things, when given a chance and let themselfs down, but if given freedom can be corrected of such naughty behaviour. Just a question and im not judging the crates, its whatever works best for you,.


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## MILLIESMOM (Aug 13, 2006)

Millie is trusted but...lock up the dog food and make sure the garbage is empty.


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