I have a Houdini...and a big dilemma...on my hands...

[L.M.]

Our goldendoodle Seamus is 14 months old.  He is fully housebroken/ trained and well- behaved in the house, etc, and, up until this point, crate-trained.  Here is the problem...Seamus, within the past month or so, suddenly hates his crate.  (I should tell you that my husband and I are teachers and of course have been off the past month for summer vacation, so Seamus' crating schedule is very different now than it is from Sept to June.  He is not in there nearly as much now that we are home during the day aside from occasional day trips and outings.)  Well, my husband and I just returned about an hour ago from the store to find Seamus aka Houdini out of his cage and just hanging out in our finished basement where his crate is.  No mess, destruction, stolen items, etc...just hanging out wagging his tail.  This is the third time he has done this and all three times, there has never been a mess or anything.  Is my Houdini here telling me that he is ready to be trusted on his own without a crate??? I am so torn about this because during a normal school day he would be alone for 8 hours....that's a TON of time for possible destruction to take place.  My other concern is where do I let him have free run?? He loves to look out the window and sleep on the kitchen floor upstairs...but that means trusting him in my living room, kitchen, and dining room.  Gating off certain rooms is not really an option, as our house is a very open 1 level ranch.  I'm worried, however, that if I contain him to the basement, he will be anxious and nervous as he cannot occupy his time looking out the window and he normally does not sleep or relax in the basement...the basement is our hang out/play room.  Sorry this is such a long post...any ideas/experiences/suggestions would be really appreciated.  I figure I have what is left of August to determine what to do with Houdini before we are back to school and he is potentially let loose in my newly furnished house... Eeekk!!       

[L.M.]

I should add that the way he gets out of his crate is by knocking down the front panel of it...I'm assuming this means he throws himself against it. I also know that he now fully understands exactly how to get himself out of the crate. (These doodles we have are smarter than we think.) He does also now cry upon being put in the crate before we leave and will run away from us when he knows he is going in. (He never used to do this when he was younger.)

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Maybe it's time to use the next few weeks before school starts to teach him to be out. Start with short time periods, give him something like a filled kong and gradually increase his time out. If you don't do it now, you will have to do it during the school year with much longer time periods. Oh, and leaving a radio or TV on, helps, too.

[shelly]

Lindsay - what type of crate is it? tori is in a wire crate and I can't even figure out how she could knock down the gate. Ours has 2 slide bars that you close.... Maybe Houdini - eh Seamus is trying to tell you "he's a big boy now" and may not need the crate. I'm a teacher too, and I know the adjustment is always hard (for ALL of us) those first couple of weeks back...Have you tried a large ex-pen? I know what you mean by closing him in the basement.... we had a golden that chewed thru' and busted thru' our basement door one 4th of July. (we put him in the basement so he wouldn't hear any fireworks... guess that didn't work out well). Tori does have free run of our house now since I'd say - last summer (she's now 2yrs 4 months). BUT we MUST make sure all shoes, paper, toys, etc. is out of her reach as she does still search and destroy these things...maybe start now with the expen and see how he does. I know - it's scary leaving them - especially in a newly done home! Good luck with Seamus (AND the return to work - I shiver as I type that - lol)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Lindsay, I've had dogs all my life and they have all had the run of the house 24/7 from the age of 6 months, if not earlier. Jack was 14 months old when I adopted him from the shelter, and even he had full run of the house and was left unconfined by the fifth day he was here. A housebroken adult dog without issues should be fine unconfined at home. He's already proven that he isn't destructive when he "escapes".
I agree with starting to leave him unconfined for longer and longer periods prior to returning to school. I'll bet you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Guinness is 16 mos and Murph is almost 8 mos, and they both have the run of the house...the crate is gone (yea!!). They don't do anything in the house that they wouldn't do if I was right here. I do make sure they have plenty of antlers (that's their favorite chew toy), and everything is picked up that could get them into trouble...shoes, paper items, waste baskets. I'd try leaving him for longer and longer periods over the next couple of weeks to be sure, but if he's not getting into trouble normally and hasn't on the occasions when he "escaped", he'll probably be just fine (and very happy).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good point about dog-proofing the house.
Close the door or of any room that has one, except maybe your bedroom; Jack finds comfort in lying on my bed when he's home alone. Many dogs are deeply comforted by their owners' scent. Make sure he has no access to any trash cans or wastebaskets, and that all food & medicine is put away out of his reach, along with the items Jane mentioned. Leave him a good chew treat, as suggested, and you should be good to go!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Remember to watch out for rugs...Peri is terrible with rugs. She also found the one new item on the lower level of my bookcase last week - my new Ireland photo album. I came home to it destroyed. I think they "seek out" things that are new or out of place....she had not been left long at all.
Not all dogs get out of the chewing habit so quickly. My Peri is very happy and well adjusted, but she chews. We do small bouts of free reign and mix in the crate as well. Just try it and see how it goes!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

It does seem like he might be ready for a little freedom and you have an opportunity to test it some before you go back to school. What we did from the time our girls were about 3 months was turn one of our bedrooms in to a doggie room. We removed the door and put up a doggie gate so they can see out. Also has a window and all of their things are in that room (toys, beds, water food etc.) That way they didn't have to be crated, but didn't have the run of the house. They are now just over 2 years and unless I'm only going to be gone a couple hours, they go in their room when we leave the house. I've been testing them leaving them out with the run of the house for longer periods, but they really just seem to prefer to go in their room. The best part is they go willingly. They also sleep there (their choice). I think they feel safe there. It has pretty much gotten to the point where they know during the day if I ask "Does anyone have to go potty", that that means they either go potty or go to their room because I'm leaving. If they have to go potty, when they come inside they head for their room because they seem to just know. Short of trying something like this, the only other suggestion is a stronger, larger, crate with better locks that he couldn't get out of.

[Leigh & Allie]

First I would ask, what if anything has Seamus destroyed so far. Allie will be 1 this month and she has had free reign for about two or three months now. The only thing she destroyed before we gave her free reign is paper. Magazines, toilet paper and other paper items were destroyed if they were left on the coffee table. She has not gotten anything from anywhere else (go figure) (I probably should not have said that.......I retract that.LOL). Since she has had free reign, these are the only thing she has gotten into also. It is wonderful to see her run down the stairs and peek out the window when we drive up. It is definitely worth a few magazines.

[L.M.]

hehehe they all seem to love paper don't they!!? The 3 times Seamus has broken out, he destroyed absolutely nothing. We simply found him waiting for us by the door/window or, in today's case, the basement steps. My concern is just this...if I confine him to the basement he has no window to see out, which he LOVES doing and I think watching things out the window gives him comfort. With no window outside, I often think he gets anxious and nervous. If I let him have a window, that means he is in the living room with LOTS of stuff to destroy lol. I was thinking of starting with the basement and then we will work our way slowly to having free reign of the upstairs too.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If you do try leaving him loose in the basement, I would put up a gate at the doorway rather than closing the door. Many a dog has tried to chew through a solid wood basement door!

[Donna K & Quincy]

Quincy is no longer crated when he is home alone. He doesn't get into anything at all when we are not home, he just lays by the door and waits for us to come home. He doesn't touch his toys, food or water. The longest he has been alone is 6 hrs. On the flip side when we are home he gets into everything, no shoe or peice of paper is safe. When we go out we can leave him with our best pair of shoes and he doesn't touch them. Do you have any idea how long he was out of his crate unattended? Did he have access to things he could have destroyed and didn't touch them? If the answer to the last question is yes, then he is probably ready to go crate free.