introducing more freedom

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

Maggie will be 12 weeks old this sunday, shes growing so fast! :D but we keep her in her play pen most of the day right now, me and my husband talked about moving her out of it and using it as a gate to give her limited access. I think it's a good idea to start it soon, but I dont know, I feel like she's still so little!! Maybe it's just me being a nervous doodle mom. what age did you guys start introducing more freedom?

[Tammy and Violet]

do you mean freedom when no one is home ?

Violet is 15 months old and she still goes in the crate at night and when I am not at home....I think each pup is different I am reading here...if she is good ..no chewing....potty trained...ok if there are other animals and you feel like she is ready...try it and see ?

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

no not when no one is home, she is far from that! LOL, she is in her crate when we leave. we have a rather large house and while shes been little we've been putting her in her ex-pen while I'm home and not able to keep my eyes on her at all times, but now that she's getting older I'm thinking of expanding from the ex-pen to whole rooms at a time. I was just wondering if anyone else had this sort of set-up in their routine. 

[Tammy and Violet]

I was gonna say !! :)

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

when you asked that I LOL'd at the thought of her alone in the whole house!!! Jace doesn't even get the whole house for long periods of time!!! I wonder if there are people who really leave their puppies alone like that, I shudder at the thought! :P

[Tammy and Violet]

it will be interesting what others say here too ,...I am over protective I think ....

[Kelly & Zoe]

I'm likely one of the people you shudder at :-).  We started letting Zoe out of the crate at night around  3.5 months when she was fully potty trained.  We have a large bathroom adjoining the master bedroom and we put the crate in the pocket door so she had the option of either sleeping in the crate or in the tiled bathroom - she loves the coolnees of the tiled floor.  She's almost 6 months now and sleeps either in her bed in the bedroom or in the bathroom and rarely goes in her crate anymore (but we keep it available in case she wants to).  It's never been a problem for us.  During the day when I'm home, she has access to most of the house (we have dog-proofed it rather well), and I occasionally get up and see what she's doing - shooing her off furniture sometimes. When we're gone, we have a gate that gives her access to the kitchen and living room, and to dog doors outside to our backyard (which she loves - msot often than not, she'll just be laying in the grass in the backyard when I come home).  She's a very well behaved dog though - only a few things have been mussed with - a full box of kleenex (when I was home!), a magazine cover and grabbing an article of clothing to gum (never had her rip anything though - but it can be slobbery when I retrieve it).  We're very lucky she has a mellow temperament and can give her such access.

I'd say just start giving her access to a new room one at a time for a week or so and see how she does.  That's what we did - for every week of no accidents in the house, a new room opened up.  If she starts to regress, you can always go back to restricting.  I think using the play pen as a gate to give her more access is perfect, exactly the way to go.

[Jeff and Laura McCanlies]

We just recently started giving Hazel  (6 months old) free access at night since she pretty much wanted out of the crate at 5:30am most mornings.  She hates, hates, hates her crate and is a slobbery mess, and shreds any towel or blanket if we leave her in there during the day.  She didn't have much problem at night except for getting up early.  She is still in the crate when we leave for the most part, but it isn't more than three hours max.  She comes out completely dehydrated and drinks a whole bowl of water when she gets out.  Yes, we leave water in the crate for her, but she will have nothing to do with it.  Treats in the crate do no good either.  She can be a little b sometimes.  So we are experimenting with just puppy proofing the house and blocking off an area for her when we are gone about an hour. So far, so good and hopefully we can leave her for 4 hours in the house until we get get home for lunch.  Every dog is an individual and ours pushed us into making other choices for her. Laura's mom has been a great babysitter and has been a lifesaver on more than 100 occations.  I know a lot of people don't have that luxury.  Did I mention she hates, hates, hates her crate?  :o)

[Tammy and Violet]

I am soooooooo glad Violet does not hate her crate...that would be hard for puppy parents I am sure :(

[Tait & Finn]

Finn always had free run of this level of the house but I'm home all day. At four months he was free of his crate. I feel lucky with him. He's been a breeze. He is 10 months now.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

We've never contained Enzo, other than in her crate when we are not at home or at night.  Even now, at 5 months, we leave the door to the crate open at night and she had freedom in our bedroom.  We've been doing this for about a month now and have had no accidents.  She sometimes sleeps in her crate, but for the most part, is on one of her beds.

  We are home most days, so Enzo is always with us.  Have never closed off any rooms ( other than my closet, since she loves to lay in MY shoes, not chew, just lay!)  She learned very quickly electrical wires are a no-no and she has never attempted to jump up on furniture. 

 I have mostly tile floors, so I didn't need to worry about her peeing ( or worse) on any rugs.  Thankfully, we are considering her housebroken.( crossing my fingers I just didn't jinx us!!!!)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

You can expand her area when you can be with her - like in the same room with you while you do whatever you do in that room.  I wouldn't leave her alone in a room yet.  Once she has 'mastered' an area, you can expand to more space.  Do NOT rush the process or you will just set her up for failure. 

[Gail & Bogey]

Fortunately Bogey does like his crate. He's in it right now but the door is open (his choice to be in there. I did start leaving his crate door open at night at about 5 months but I've gone back to closing him in at night after I got up one night and stepped on him, decided it was safer for him and me if he stayed in crate at night.

He is 9 months now and has free reign of a portion of the house: familyroom, kitchen and our bedroom ( where he sleeps too). We have invisible fence with an indoor unit that keeps him out of den and dinning room. I keep him out of those rooms because they not as visible. Actually I just have a fake flag by the entrance to the dining room but he doesn't know it's fake. He's so well trained with the invisible fence that I just have to put a little white flag and he won't go there. I'm hoping this trick will work for the Christmas tree too since this will be his first Christmas.

I have also started leaving him alone if I'm only going to be gone a very short time, like 1/2 hr. - so far so good. He's usually still in the same place I left him!