House freedom during the day - When and how did you begin?

[Christine & Shelby]

Hi Everyone!  I am hoping to transition Shelby to house freedom during the day.  She is 7 months old, reliable on her house training and has demonstrated NO destructive chewing (toys and funiture) at this point.  She has had full house freedom at night for about 2 months now and has done really well with it (no incidents).  During the holiday weekend, I did a few test runs and she did just fine... however she wasn't feeling great and her energy was low - except yesterday when I went grocery shopping she was feeling pretty good.

 

I have been fortunate that I have been able to come home from work and let her out to play, etc. since I brought her home in December, although - it's getting tougher to do (takes 2 hours) and I am feeling bad that she is crated so much of the day.   I would love to transition her to house freedom (with certain rooms not accessible) this summer - ideally by mid July.

 

I would like to know from you a few things....  (granted I realize not all doodles are the same!)

    

    1.  At what age did you start giving your doodle house freedom (I am particulary interested in responses from those who had their doodle crated during the work day.  I am a single doodle mom and Shelby is my first dog!!

 

     2.  Any advice on transitioning.... how to go about it?

 

     3.  Have any of you experienced different (out of character) doodle behavior when you began giving house freedom.  Doodle never showed bad chewing behaviors prior to feedom, but started when given unsupervised freedom during the day... chewing on furniture, regressed in potty training, etc. 

 

Thanks in advance for your responses and thoughts... I am not opposed to crating Shelby, but since I am a single doodle mom and solely responsible for her care - I think she may be crated more than the average doodle.  While I try to minimize it... it is hard during work hours.  I love my doodle and want the best for her... and think she would enjoy being able to roam, sleep on her bed, look out the front window, etc.  I do believe she sleeps quite a bit during the day (at least she does on weekends).  We do spend lots of quality time together... I'm just struggling with the work day!

[Doris]

We adopted Bodi when he was two. He had always been crated during the work day. After about 6 months we started leaving him out when we when to church (about 1 1/2 hours) when we went grocery shopping etc. We did not have any problems.There were times he would empty the office trash can, but that was as bad as it got. Then on spring break we put the crate away for good. We were around quite a bit, but in and out alot too . . . .he did fine and we never went back. Good luck!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

We crated our lab years ago for about 1-1/2 years. She hated the crate and like your dog, was not destructive in any way. One day, I just left her out while I ran an errand and just starting doing it for longer periods. Never crated her again. She was a counter surfer, so we had to make sure everything was off the counter. Good luck!

[Laura & Chewie]

I started leaving Chewie out of his crate during the day when he was around 8 months (he's just over a year) and he has been perfect. I close the bedroom and bathroom doors, so he has the great room, dining room and kitchen. I started with short periods of time...up to one hour and gradually increased. The longest he has been alone is about 4 hours, but only because I haven't had a need to be gone longer (I don't work).

On the other hand, I still crate him at night. I would like to start leaving him out at night, but he sleeps so good in his crate and is so patient in the morning until I get up (7:30-8:00) that I hate to upset a good thing. When you transitioned at night, did you do it gradually?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We began leaving the crate door open at night but making sure that our bedroom door was closed. At first Ned stayed in the crate, then he rarely got in the crate, and now he gets in it at some point almost every night. Ned moves several times during the night even now.

[Christine & Shelby]

I did not technically.... Shelby was waking up around 6:00am every day - which on a work day was fine. I then tried bringing in from her morning potty and letting her stay in my bedroom (not crated) and she would let me sleep another hour or so. At 5 months - I wanted to test it out... and just went for it. First with the bedroom door closed, but then it became evident that Shelby wanted more. She would wake me up (for a drink of water!). So after about of a week of in my room only - she graduated to full house at night. I was nervous the first night - hearing her walk around, but when I wake up she is right by my bed... no problems. I bet Chewie would do just fine....especially since he already behaves so well with daytime freedom

[Leigh & Allie]

Allie is 9 months old now. I believe last month was the first experience without the crate. She started out being crated all of the time when we were not around. Then my husband suggested we leave her out in the kitchen and den while we were gone for a while We had this area baby gated off. I was totally against it. I thought she would have an accident or destroy something. We get home and she had destroyed a magazine. I was "I told you so!!", but looking back it could have been a lot worse. Whenever I would leave I would put her in the crate. Whenever DH would leave he would leave her out. She never did anything else bad so one day we took down the baby gates. I was REALLY nervous about that. I thought she would find some place to have accidents and I would not find it. I soon realized she sticks to me like glue and she is really never out of my sight (even when I go to the restroom;0). She had never really used the bells on the door to go potty and I had really given up then I realized she started using the bells totally on her own. That is really the only time she is out of my sight. If I don't see her around I know she is by the door. The only thing she has done since she has been totally in the open is get into the bathroom garbage can. Oh and she tore up some TP (she thought it was snow). Now I just put the garbage can up on the counter when it is getting full and I close the TP container. She never has chewed on furniture. Ever. No more problems at all. I think she sits at the front door and in my closet most of the time when we are not home. I do leave a T.V. on when we are gone. Animal planet. I would start with a few hours at a time before I went for the whole day. Good luck.

[Gwen and Hoda]

I started giving my doodle full house freedom when she was 8 or 9 months old. She never chewed or made potty mistakes. I started to block her in the kitchen ( only 2 or 3 times) and when she didn't chew on cabinets I figured we were safe. She has the run of the house while we are gone and is an angel. It sounds to me like yours is probably ready also. I think she would be much happier not being cooped up in a kennel all day. Good luck : ), oh by the way make sure she has plenty of toys to keep her busy and turn the tv on for sound.

[Melissa & Porter]

At about 7 months. In my case, I am gone a max of 4-5 hours for meetings once a week and work from home the rest of the time, so it was not a big step for us. Nothing is messed with while I am gone (knock on wood). He misbehaves only when we are around--looking for something to get our attention with if we ignore him or he is not properly worn out by exercise.

Like Laurie's lab, Porter will eat food he finds or lick dishes that are left on the counter. Even with his current pulled muscle, he makes it happen. I found him stuck on top of the kitchen table last week with a bagel in his mouth. He was in too much pain to jump down...and getting up there must have killed him, but he had his catch and was drooling everywhere. I carried him down (63 lbs) and let him hobble over to his spot under the dining room table to enjoy his prize.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I guess Porter was hungry :) I might do that for a bagel too. Our lab, Hershey, once ate an entire Peach Praline Pie off of the counter. She opened the box, was extremely neat, and ate every bite. She threw up for three days after that on every floor of our townhouse. Another time, someone gave me a beautiful box of Godiva chocolates and I put it on the counter and we went to Christmas Eve services. All through church, I was thinking about coming home and having some of that chocolate. Well, when we opened the door, Hershey had unwrapped that gift too, opened the box, and ate every piece. I was yelling, the kids were saying the dog could die, and I was thinking if the chocolate doesn't kill her, I might. I do have to give her kudos though, she was a neat thief. The funny thing was she never countered surfed when we first stopped crating her. It started up about three years later.

[Camilla and Darwin]

We will leave Darwin out on occasion if we are going out for less than a couple hours. We are hoping to transition him to free roam, because his crate his huge and our apartment is small. It takes up half our living room! Another thing is that we can't transport his crate when we visit my in-laws, and it would be nice if he was used to being left out while we were gone.

On the other hand... he really loves his crate and goes in there all the time to nap and relax. I wish I knew what was the better choice!

If she has never had any problems, it seems like you are well on your way to free roaming her. Just gradually work up timewise.

[Nick Pietras]

We started with Gus at about 8 months, although he has been free of the crate at night since he was 5 months old. The most he has been out is about 5-6 hours. Gus is almost 10 months now, and we started by having the dog walker leave him out of the crate after their mid-day walk. This is working great. I think it also helps to break up the day for Gus...he gets his nap time in the morning and play time in the afternoon. We're still doing this. And then, if we go out for any reason, he stays out.

Gus has never had destructive behavior, and hasn't had any since letting him roam free. He hasn't had any accidents either.

We struggle with the work day as well. My partner and I used to each have a work from home day, so Gus was only alone 3 days a week, but then I started a new job and lost that benefit. So now, he's alone 4 days and it kills me. But, we haven't had any problems. I know that he obviously prefers when we're home, but when we are home during the week, he tends to sleep during the time we'd normally be away, and is up when we'd be home anyway. Sounds like the time you are with Shelby is great, so that's what counts!

[Meridith and Lola]

Lola never liked the crate - especially in it so at 4 months, I let her sleep in my room uncrated. She had a bed but usually slept at the foot of the bed on the wood floor but would end up on her bed in the morning. She was amazing and would wake me up with a little yelp when she needed to go out. By six months she had full access to the house at night - with no problems of any sort. She is a bit of a roamer but always end up in my room in the morning.
I am also a single dog owner with a full time job so I was crating her during the day but had a dog walker come twice a day. At six months I stopped putting her in the crate during the day (for the same reasons you mentioned) but would be behind gates in the living room area. By nine months she jumped over the fairly high gates (and she is a mini) so I left the gates open but closed the bedroom door for a couple of more months. I kept up the dog walker twice a day until 10 months. I would try to give her an hour of exercise before work and on the those days she did great but on some rainy days without the exercise, she seemed a little more restless and a few times chewed on a rug in the foyer which is probably where she hung out most of the day waiting. (I had to have a good rug repaired and replaced with a $100 rug from Overstock (which I actually am quite fond of now)!! I also bring her to daycare once or twice a week.
I think you can trust your instincts but maybe prepared for some mishaps at the beginning. I like Nicks' idea of maybe having the dog walker leave her out after her walk as a starting point.