# At what age do you give your puppy free range of the house?



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

My guy was 9 weeks old when we started leaving him loose in my bedroom. That was when I went back to work and there were 3-4 hours stretches when there wasn't anyone available to watch him. 

He was about 4 months old when we started to give him free reign of the lower level of the house with the stairs blocked off. 

He was about a year old when he finally was trustworthy enough that the door to the rest of the house was left open when nobody was home. By that time he had a very solid understanding of his space and would generally stay down in my room to camp out. 

Until a puppy hasn't had an accident in 2 months I would absolutely keep him contained to a smaller room. It only takes one accident to undo all of the housetraining work.


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## Jax's Mom (Oct 16, 2009)

First of all, I have to tell you that pic of Ellie is incredibly adorable!! Once mine were potty trained, I gave them (1 at a time of course), full run of the kitchen and hallways while we arent home. Its a pretty big spacr, and to this day, when we leave the house, thats where they stay. It much less to worry about, but most importantly there are no wires or plugs we need to worry about. I suppose down the line as they mature, we would leave them with full run of the house, but our youngest is still only 12 months old, so we tend to be careful.


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

Most of my dogs made the out of crate transition at about 6 months. With very few problems. However Quinn our lab pup is now 20 months, and Gabby is 9 months and we are not even considering leaving them out when we are not home. 

I have left Quinn out when I took a dog for a walk, about an hour. She was unsettled when I got back. She LOVES her crate, she will sleep in it on he own, and it is 'her space'. Gabby is just not trustworthy with the other dogs. She is fine around the house, and I don't have to check up on her, but if she gets in her mind she is bored, she looks for entertainment, and it could be at the expense of another dog. 

My dogs sleep out of their crates all night about 4 months. As soon as they are sleeping through the night, I transition to in the crate with the door open. We gate off our bedroom so the dogs can't leave. I do this because we had an old dog who would go to the basement for a drink of water, the amount of movement stimulated her bladder and she would pee before returning to bed. Since we gated our room, they have water, and if they need to go out they wake us up. Never had an accident in our room. Unless we had a sick dog. 

My dogs can move about the house without supervision. They choose to be where we are.


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## OnMyWay2MyDreams (Feb 13, 2011)

It depends on the dog. Because she has been chewing on walls and baseboards I probably wouldn't so soon. Her teething has yet to really begun and that will up the chewing when it does and that can continue to 5 mos. old or older. 

My older boys are kenneled. We have tried to leave them out for few hours but they always find something to get into or do! I would rather crate them then have to worry about them eating something and then doing a surgery! This my thoughts but if I were you I would wait for a bit!


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## Stretchdrive (Mar 12, 2011)

Maxs Mom said:


> Gabby is just not trustworthy with the other dogs. She is fine around the house, and I don't have to check up on her, but if she gets in her mind she is bored, she looks for entertainment, and it could be at the expense of another dog.


Once again sounds like someone I know! LOL!


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

It depends on the dog. With mine, I start gradually... leaving the pup out if I am going to be out an hour. Then I slowly increase the time. Mine are often crated in my bedroom to an advanced age because they all like their crates. Basil, who was returned to me at 81/2 months from a kennel situation, was not house trained at that time... used the crate and confinement from the rest of the house to fix that. But oh was she a chewer(unlike the others before her)... window sills, oriental rugs, etc And she would chew while I was sitting there!! That all seems to be behind her, so finally at 2 she is not in a crate night or day unless she choses it.


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## Kerplunk105 (Jul 3, 2011)

It def depends on the dog. I've had some Goldens that can be left in a bedroom at 5 months and others that were a year or older.


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## paula bedard (Feb 5, 2008)

My Sam could be left alone at a very young age and I never had a concern. Ike had fits and starts where I could leave him alone for months and he was fine, then at about 6 months of age he decided to eat my walls like your girl is doing. He'd gnaw away at my drywall and actually ripped wall paper off my walls. He went back in his crate until I could trust him again, about a month or so. Fortunately, I'm a stay at home Mom and the longest Ike is ever alone is the time it takes to run an errand. Who knows what damage would have been done if I'd been gone longer than an hour. By the time he was a year old he could be trusted completely.


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## bioteach (Nov 13, 2010)

We started Nugget's freedom from the indoor X-Pen at 5 months (for an hour or so) and increased it by an hour for each additional month of life. Now we can trust him for a workday, and the X-Pen has been folded up and put away.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Depends on the dog. I'll say for the most part, never. I have had periods of using no crates, but in my current home, I don't have a big enough bedroom to leave them all loose, so I have to have somewhere for them to sleep other than my room, and I have two dogs that are absolutely NOT reliable loose. All but my almost 14 year old senior have a crate in this house, and they sleep in their crates, eat in their crates, and are there in the rare event I'm not home (I don't work outside of the house so we're talking maybe two hours per week that I go somewhere without them).


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

I agree, it depends on the dog, i had one i could trust from 4 months old, another was about one year.


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## Serawyn (May 23, 2011)

For those who let the dog roam free around the house at an early age, how long was the dog at home? We will have a full 8-9 hour work day. We are planning to either crate her for 4 hours, have someone stop by mid-day for an hour to play and take her out, and then crate her again. Is that a good schedule? I wonder if it's a good idea to leave her outside of her crate since she really is not destructive (that we can see of). She's been very good about not getting into things and we've puppy proof the house. Hmm.....


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

My 4 month old , that i could trust, was spencer, and it was about three hours.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Serawyn said:


> For those who let the dog roam free around the house at an early age, how long was the dog at home? We will have a full 8-9 hour work day. We are planning to either crate her for 4 hours, have someone stop by mid-day for an hour to play and take her out, and then crate her again. Is that a good schedule? I wonder if it's a good idea to leave her outside of her crate since she really is not destructive (that we can see of). She's been very good about not getting into things and we've puppy proof the house. Hmm.....


My suggestion is to start building up that time right now while you both are still home with her. Get her used to having downtime in the morning for an hour. For two hours. Before you go back to school, you want her to be able to be quiet and nondestructive for four hours without interaction from you or running out on errands.


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## Serawyn (May 23, 2011)

Megora, 

Thanks! That's a good idea. I think I'll let her lose while I run out on an errand and see how it goes. I'll probably start with a room for now. She normally has down time in her play pen where she is just by herself for up to 3 hours. I have no doubt she'd be able to stay in there even longer if I was away. Let's hope she doesn't tear up the room when I come home each time!


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## Ivyacres (Jun 3, 2011)

By 4 months old Honey could be left in the kitchen/living room for a couple of hours. Recently at 8 months she had to be left for 9 hrs (we were out of town at a funeral). All was fine. We've been so lucky, she never pooped inside, house trained by 4 months, has only chewed up her toys. She's a real sweetheart! One exception, she chewed 1/2 a bounce sheet & we were here. An emergency trip to the vet & $100. later and she was fine. BTW, I'm switching from dryer sheets to the bar.







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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

3 of them by the time they were 8 months old, the other one is 4( Ive had him since he was 8 weeks old) and he's still crated.


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

Maggie used her crate for the first year. I then did a gradual weaning from the crate. Increasing time alone at home and confined to the kitchen and family rooms, using gates. She was weaned completely from the crate at 18 months for the full day program, still confined to the downstairs of the house. I gate the stairs when she is home alone. I don't want her finding any socks, as she is the 12 step recovery program for sock eating and I don't want her to relapse.


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