When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

My dog is turning 1 next week and we want to give him more freedom when we are not around. How do you know they are ready? Right now we keep him in the kitchen with a baby gate up.

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

me again.. cody was allowed to have run of house when we knew he was able to ask to go out when he had to go bathroom. First we would let him have run of house when we were home. Once he got used to everything and everything was no longer new to him. We just took the chance. At first we only let him alone for a short time and then gradually increased it.

Message edited 4/6/2008 9:29:23 AM.

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

We started out gradually...left Casey out when we went grocery shopping or to the movies...then moved up to half a day (come home at lunch and let her out)...then when she was about 2 we went to leaving her on the first floor free.

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

I dont think my dogs will ever have the run of the house. I keep lucky gated in the kitchen and porter stays in his crate. If we go out for like 2 or 3 hours lucky can stay in the living room and porter in the kitchen

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

She always had run of the house , But I was lucky- she was trained within 2 weeks

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

When she stopped having accidents in her "area". Once that happened, we introduced one room at a time, until we knew she wouldn't have any accidents, chew up anyting in there.

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

We did the start out small and work our way up thing too. We took the gate off the kitchen doorway and left them like that alone a few times while we went out to grab dinner for about an hour or something, then when we saw they they didn't do anything bad, we'd try for half the day on the weekend if we were going out, etc. They were fine, so we put the gate away.

Disclaimer: I do still shut the doors to the bathrooms and bedrooms when we leave for work, because they like to chew things and I don't want them possibly getting into anything dangerous (computer wires, bathroom cleaners) or important (books, papers in the office) or destroying my shoes (again).

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

My Pup is 5-months old and we were thinking the same thing. Right now we crate her when we are not home. I think it is way too early for one she needs to learn to go outside first since we started her on the wee wee pads when we first got her.

When we are home, we pretty, much let her roam freely and if she is gone for more then 10 min's, we yell for her and she runs right to us. She never has an accident in the house, which is good and why we can let her roam around when we are home.

Once we train her to go outside and we know she is 100%, we can then take it from there but right now we are def not comfortable while we are at work to let her roam freely.

Re: When did you know that your dog could have the run of the house when you weren't home?

I have the same problem. Our bullmastiff is16 months old and he has been housetrained since any early age,but we still have to crate him when we go out becasue he chews our things. Shoes, remotes, clothing, towels, paper, etc...When we are home he is fine. We tried leaving him loose, and we had some good days, but the chewed the sofa cushion and that was the final straw, back to the crate! What to doooo!!!??????? I even leave him with nylabones so he can chew those , but he prefers our things to destroy!