Home Alone!

[Megan]

Hi all - curious as to when you felt comfortable leaving your Doodle out of its crate while you were gone? Brooks is 4 months - way too young to be roaming free, but I would like to practice leaving him in a confined space like a bathroom for awhile to see how he does out his crate. Or, should I just stick to the crate until he's old enough to roam free. My husband and I both work and for some reason I'm just feeling guilty about leaving him in there even though he does fine. Any thoughts?

[Belinda Stevens]

Stella is just over a year now and I have started to leave her out while we sleep and while we are gone. I think it's a personal thing and you just know when they are ready. Our Dachshund still stays in his create. He just loves it in there. It's his little cave.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Our last dog was not allowed upstairs until she was 1 and not allowed free roam of the house until she was 2. Not that she ever gave us a reason for the amount of time to leave her, we just did. That was 20 years ago.
Samantha was sleeping on our bed at 4months. She NEVER ate anything that didn't belong to her - no socks, shoes, etc. If we had to leave her home alone, we have the food fortune to have our laundry room off the kitchen. It doesn't a door but we put up a gate to keep her confined. She never did any damage or had an accident in there. After a few months, if we left her home alone, she had free roam - again, she has never given us any reason to regret our decision. Thegate is down and put away.
I guess it depends on you puppy. If you can put a gate in front of the bathroom, try it as long as she is housebroken without any accidents.
That is my advice. It worked for us.
Good lock.

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

We got Dexter as a 9 week old puppy. When we went to work, we puppy proofed a corner of our kitchen and enclosed it with a xpen fence and he would stay in there. I felt badly keeping him in a crate for so many hours a day. As he got older and was potty trained, we moved him to our basement (it's finished and has heat/ac) which we also puppy proofed. It's a much larger area and I felt he would be happier with more room :)

When we got Kirby, he was crated initially and then left in the basement with Dexter. Once they were comfortable with each other and we were confident they wouldn't destroy anything, we started leaving them loose in the house. We did this by first leaving them for 15 minutes, then for 30 minutes, then for an hour, etc. Eventually we worked up to 6 hrs and we figured if they can do 6, they can do 9 when we're at work :) So therefore at 2 yrs they got total free reign of the house and have been fine (knock on wood).

Funny thing - Dexter only does bad things when we're home - never when we're away. I think he just wants attention.

[31oxy7u3tb5dk]

Gus still stays in his crate when we aren't home and he's 2 1/2. He would eat anything that wasn't nailed down when he was a puppy. When he was 4 or 5 months old, I started giving him a treat for going into his crate (got tired of chasing him). Now he watches for signs that I may be leaving the house and goes into his crate on his own and waits for a treat. Once we didn't close the crate door completely and he met us at the door when we returned. I was terrified to go upstairs to see what awaited us (he was still a puppy at the time and had been known to chew shoes and jeans). No chaos at all! I also think he may only pick up things and carry them around in his mouth as a way of getting attention. A paper towel, hair clip, pen, bottle cap...anything he can find. I think it's a game. He picks up something, I say "drop it", and then we do it again. Fun! ;)

[Gail & Max]

Max is 10 months old and comes to work with us every day, so he wasn't ever home alone, until Christmas socializing came in to play. At the beginning of December I would start to leave him at home for 1/2 hour or so at a time a couple of times a week and no problem at all. He was alone for 3 hours on New Years Day and no problem at all. He is definitely good when we are gone, but he has his moments when we are home!

[diane silver]

I was crating Emma when I wasn't home and she's crated at night, also. She's now 7 months old, but I noticed that when she was about 4 months old, if she had been crated during the day at all, she didn't want to go into her crate at night. So, now when I leave her during the day or evening, she's confined to our kitchen/family room which is gated and she does great. She's never chewed or destroyed anything in there and though I do feel she's housebroken, I don't feel comfortable giving her the run of the house yet. I probably won't do that until she's about a year old.

[Cam & Oski]

Oski was crated-trained from when we brought him home at 8 weeks. When we moved to Portland this summer he was ~9 months & we decided to try him without the crate. We still keep the crate open in the basement for him to use if he ever wants to (sometimes he would go in on his own if he wanted to nap or if he had been scared on a walk by the garbage trucks) but he hasn't shown much interest. Basically since the abrupt switch from crating whenever we weren't home/at bedtime to free range of the house he hasn't gotten into any trouble. He likes being able to sit on the sofa & look out the window at people walking by when we're gone but that's another issue....LOL

[katherine willis]

Someone already said it depends on the pup and I think this is just right. Our last dog was a lab who never chewed anything except he had a yen for videotapes if they were hanging out of the player. Thank goodness videotape days are past. He also loved his crate and would wander in on his own.

Our doodle, now 7 months, is an active chewer--furniture, shoes no problem. Consequently, I expect he will be crated for some time. Fortunately, we are home a lot and can watch him. I also take him at least twice a week to a puppy play group.

This is one of those decisions you have to make by being as objective as possible about your doodle.

[Tammy & Gracie]

I live with Gracie a min GD of 11 months. She can never be left alone, terribly destructive to anything that can be reached. She goes to doggie daycare daily while I work to burn off energy. On my days off we always power walk and/or go to the local dogpark for exercise. She can begin to destroy a kong in a matter of minutes. I wish there were "Gracie" proof toys. Hopefully she will become a little more calm with maturity.

[Adina P]

Thule graduated from the crate around 1 year...she didn't "deserve" to (she was mostly 'kicked out' of crate school) because she was destructive (slightly...no major house or dog damage) but was SOOO horrible and anxious in the crate it just wasn't worth forcing her through it after a while. However, she was house trained and felt safer with that bit of freedom and had our other dog Cass to keep her feeling comfortable and calm.

Rosco didn't graduate completely until he was 2. He spent short periods alone uncrated, but nothing more and continued to sleep in his crate until he fully graduated...he was quieter in there than roaming.
While he was not destructive I saw no reason to give him freedom earlier because he was okay with being in a crate. I wanted to be 100% sure I could trust him.

Here's how I look at it. Dogs (at least my three and each is totally diff in personality/energy level) pretty much tend to sleep their day away---my husband works from home and this is his observation from watching them. It's also how they are on the weekend when I'm home in the day time.

They nap and nap some more. Freedom around the house doesn't mean they'll watch tv, knit, or read a book, play cards or practice tricks. They will either nap or get into trouble... If a dog had separation anxiety the napping would not be the case, but otherwise often is.

So...SINCE they sleep anyway...I see NOTHING wrong with having them sleep their day away in a crate until they have proven themselves past the teenage stage (6-12 months). Sleeping in a crate really is no different than sleeping in a small room. They just turn around, flop over a new direction, and sleep some more. They can't pee or poop or barf in the house. They can't chew up the remote, they can't be naughty at all. So it's a great deal all around.

Hence my position that unless the dog has a particularly hard time accepting the crate... Crate away until you are completely sure it is unnecessary. No reason AT ALL to feel guilty for controlling where they nap =)

[Leslie and Halas]

I started slowly with Halas. When he was probably 10 or 11 months old, I just started leaving his crate door unlatched. He never left the crate. Then I started leaving it open a couple of inches. Still never left the crate. Then I left it open enough that he could get out without pushing the door at all. Even then, it still took a couple of days before he would leave the crate. But once he did, he was a really good boy. I had a baby gate up at first just to keep him confined in a couple of rooms (and not make him worry about having too much space), but that went away after a week or 2. He's never destroyed anything while I've been gone. I think that starting with crate training really helped him. He knew that was his safe place, and he knew that he was really just supposed to relax and sleep when I was gone. So, now, that's what he does. He just goes to sleep in my bed instead of in his own crate.

[Ali]

Hi Megan,

Right now I am stuck on the same question but Lola is almost 7 months old. I was a student and worked a lot last semester so at least once a week she would be home alone for about 8 to 9 hours, I felt so guilty. She did fine and it made me feel better to think that she was just sleeping. However on these days I would put her in my bathroom and not her crate. Just in case she wanted to move around, stretch out more, etc. This was also her bedroom at night since it is connected to my room, so I felt very confident that she was comfortable in this confined area. I put a baby gate up instead of closing the door on her, because leaving a dog in a close space can make them go crazy and give them bad anxiety. To also help them ease anxiety I would leave the Tv on at a low volume because I have heard that dogs should not be left alone for long periods in complete silence. I also would leave water out and sometimes food once I knew she was potty trained, she only had a couple of accident when she had diaherria. I would leave puppy pads out when I knew she was sick, but any other time I would not suggest it, they just chew it up. I also left a lot of toys out and a treat dispensing toy that would roll out her puppy kibble and a small kong filled with peanut butter to keep her busy. Not all of this is necessary put it put my mind at ease and I think it worked. Just make sure you take everything out that is laying on the floor, garbage cans especially. My little lola love ripping up my kleenex whenever she can.

I feel doing this has helped with Lola's progress and I am now starting to leave her alone for short periods of time with her crate open. Last night was the first time, and I left her alone in the house for 45 minutes while I ran to Blockbuster. I have a window that looks into my living room so before I left for real I looked in to see what she was doing, she just lied down by the front door once I left. Then when I came back I looked again and could not find her, so I had my bf unlock the front door to greet her while I watched to see where she came from. She put herself in her crate like a good girl, and I could not see this from the window. I was so proud! I might leave a video tape like 30 minutes to see what she does when i am gone. Haha