Free Range Rottie

[porschea_mom]

We have been testing leaving Porschea (13mos) out of her crate while we are away from the house, and she has been doing very well in the 3-hour trials. We'd love to extend the testing for longer times, but it seems we're either away from the house up to 3 hours, or all day - no middle ground.

I was just wondering how everybody else "knew" it was time to try a full day without being crated.

[GenHannibal]

You would know when your pup is ready by her actions. I would wait awhile before going to full days. You did not say how long you've been doing the 3-hour test. If it has only been for a few weeks, I would wait. A lot of the times, it takes a while before the dog actually realizes and gets comfortable being out....then trouble starts. So, if she is good for quite some time then you can extend it. Should she start getting into things or wrecking up the house, then back to the crate. Since everydog is different, you'll just have to wait and see how she reacts.

[Patty1231]

I had Rocco out at night at 12 months and then between 14-15 months during the day. I don't think my trial periods were much longer than 3 hours. My longest times away would be when I went shopping and that was, at max, 4 hours. When he did good then, I thought it was worth a try. Although, in my case, my son was in and out depending on his college class schedule during the week so there was a check system at 4-6 hours.

[moondog]

My dog earned full house privileges a room at a time. First she was confined to one room for a period of time and if she proved herself worthy, I added the next room for a period of time and if she proved herself worthy, another room was added, and so on. The only room she never has access to while I'm gone is the room with windows to the street, because I have no doubt she would just love to spend the day telling passersby whose house it is, LOL. I don't want to come home to a broken window and an injured dog. The rest of the house is hers while I'm at work.

[Brooke&Ryan]

Originally Posted by moondog

My dog earned full house privileges a room at a time. First she was confined to one room for a period of time and if she proved herself worthy, I added the next room for a period of time and if she proved herself worthy, another room was added, and so on.

This is exactly what we did with Julius as well. We used baby gates to keep him out of certain rooms (& still do). He slowly gained priveledges to "most" of the house. He's still not allowed in the bedroom or music room & probably never will be while we're gone.


Brooke

[Patty1231]

Originally Posted by moondog

The only room she never has access to while I'm gone is the room with windows to the street, because I have no doubt she would just love to spend the day telling passersby whose house it is, LOL. I don't want to come home to a broken window and an injured dog.

LOL! For me, same reason but I keep the window blinds closed.

[porschea_mom]

We've been testing the 3 hour thing for almost 3 months now, and have only had 1 problem early on that hasn't happened since. She's been out of the crate at night since she was 5 months old, so she's fairly comfortable being free and unsupervised (at least, she seems that way).

Porschea's favorite places are the floor in the entry hall and the futon in my office - those are the places she naps all day when we're home on the weekends. I have a feeling that's where she'll spend 99% of her time while we're gone. Hrm, maybe I should set up a web cam to test that theory. :)

I wish we could do the room-by-room thing, but the house is one of those "open floor plans" (until we got the dog, I never realized how pet-unfriendly those houses are - except when she has the zoomies, it's great), and I don't think they make 12' + baby gates that are sturdy enough to keep my girl out.

I'm beginning to think next month might be the time to test a full day, but I was curious how everybody else has handled it for their dogs.

[JD102175]

We started out much like you did, Brodie was left out for an hour while we'd go shopping, then for 3 hours, etc.

Our house has an open floor plan also for the main level. Luckily though when we were "testing the waters" with Brodie we were able to baby gate him in the front foyer. So he had access to the foyer on the main level and the upstairs landing. We kept all of the doors upstairs shut so he would not have the opportunity to roam in the bedrooms or hall bath and possibly get himself into trouble.

Jaime

[ckrott]

Originally Posted by porschea_mom

I wish we could do the room-by-room thing, but the house is one of those "open floor plans" (until we got the dog, I never realized how pet-unfriendly those houses are - except when she has the zoomies, it's great), and I don't think they make 12' + baby gates that are sturdy enough to keep my girl out.

Thanks for this posting. We've been wondering about the same thing. Our puppy's too young still to allow her this much freedom.

And we have the same type of floorplan. It's a great place for entertaining, not so great for the dog.