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?

[Lindsey, Lee, Whopper and Simba]

Whopper never really took to her crate and we never had any major issues with chewing. After a few weeks in the crate, we let her sleep on the futon in our bedroom and we all began sleeping better and this was just over 3 months or so. Since right around 4 months she stopped going in her crate at all. Initially we just left her in our bedroom making sure the bathroom and closet doors were closed but now we leave her out in the kitchen/living room with access to go up and down the stairs and in the hallways. Every now and then our bedroom door gets left open but we haven't had any issues. We do make sure she has her toys to chew and play with and she seems content. If we don't give her a distraction, she'll sometimes follow us down to the bottom of the stairs and when we return an hour or two later we've found her still down there. A definite advantage is now when we get home and she's not down there, we can just call her and she'll come down to go potty rather than having to go up and down all the steps in our townhome.

[fergie11]

I only used a crate when I'm gone for about a month. After that I put them in the small back hall. Never had any accidents with Fergie and I even tried it with little Lucy and she didn't pee or poo in there either. That did surprise me. I don't like them to be in a small little kennel for long. Fergie was never in the kennel at night. Lucy is right now and she's good in there. Fergie hated it. I'll keep her in it for awhile but I'll probably move it out by the time Lucy's 4 months. At about 6 months I let Fergie have the kitchen and living room when I'm gone. She does pretty good. Every once in awhile there will be a magazine or paper chewed up. I've not found any accidents from her since she was about 6 months - she's now 13 monhs.

[GBK]

The Baby gates could not hold Buddy in past 4 months lol. So no choice but to free the boy :) He learned how to use the doggy door and never touched a thing while we were gone. It was another story when we are home, he loves to SHOW us what he steals, does a cutesy dance, then runs, too bad the Marley and Me book wasn't out yet the name would have fit. Kona was out about 5 months, she hung out with Buddy and was not a problem child at all.

[LeAnn, Lucy & Rusty!!]

I started leaving Lucy alone in the house (the entire house) when she was a year old.... I have a doggy door so there's no need to worry about pottying. She never messes with anything she's not supposed to. I started by leaving her for 10-15 minutes to see how that went.. then gradually extended the time. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the same with Rusty but a little earlier - maybe 9-10 months?? August in Oklahoma is HOT HOT HOT and I would feel so much better if I could leave the doggy door open so they could come in and cool off during the hottest part of the day. We'll see... Oh, I remember one problem I did have with Lucy the first couple of times I left her.. she'd chew on a decorative doodad I had hanging on the doorknob to the front door. No biggie, I replaced it with a fleece toy tied to the door knob and she'd pull on that instead of the decorative doodad (that i removed). Small price to pay.

[Cami Jacobs]

I use to worry about this and then I got a petcam . All three of my dogs were kept in the laundry room during the day with an open kennel and several beds on the floor. I started to feel bad for them as my goldendoodle started to get larger. So I decided to let them have the laundry room and the kitchen. Because I’m a crazy doodle owner I got a petcam so I could watch them at work. The first day of the expansion I eagerly awaited their joyful romping in the larger space. Imagine my disappointment when all three of them headed into the laundry room and all three got into the kennel together! Every now and then one might venture out to a bed on the floor but that is the extent of the romping. From 8am to 3pm every day they sleep. I can honestly tell you I have the most boring footage of sleeping dogs ever. Even a Kong Time doesn’t keep their interest. They wake up to the beep collect the treat and go back to sleep. I now completely understand why they are so hyper when I get home. Needless to say I decided they are fine right where they are.