when can you start trusting your pup?

[Lucy & Ellie]

So we're still keeping a very close eye on Lucy when she's not in her pen or crate.  Mostly because I want to catch her if she has an accident but a huge second reason is because she will grab anything and chew it.

I realize that anything we haven't put away is fair game but when and how does that stop?  Does she just need to mature?  Or be trained? 

We are all excited for the day we can just let her out and about with us!  (Just to be clear, she's always free in the kitchen, and we are all in there a ton, so she does have a lot of time with us... just not in the rest of the house). 

[John Wang]

We were evil and left items out on purpose that we didn't want our puppy to nab. He used to play with our slippers a lot, but we would scold him ("drop it!" "leave it!" "no!") when he picked them up, and immediately give him treats when he dropped them, and then the correct toy. Same thing with our house plants and other items that might be within reach (tv remotes, pillows). It took a few weeks, but he finally lost interest in them and only plays with his toys.

If she doesn't listen to your commands with leaving specific items alone, as soon as she starts playing with the wrong item, put her in her playpen without any toys for 30 seconds or so, then let her back out. This will let her know that certain actions will put her in time-out. We did this with Boomer when he was too excited with visitors and now we don't have any issues (unless they excite him a ton, then all bets are off..)

[Sheryl & Safiy]

Safiy is 7 months old, I'm still watching him for the same reason! He loves to go find my daughters toys and prance around me (which means come get it!) I made the mistake of thinking it was funny and cute (which it is) and played his game... Of course that's his favorite game (but not mine) I don't play it with him (although he may still think I am) especially when I had to chase him around our tree trying to get something (I can't even remember what it was now) but I was ticked as I was barefoot and cold at the time. When it's his toy he comes to me with it and gives it to me or nudges me with it to play. He's the cutest, funniest dog I've ever seen. But he has ate 2 socks and a baby wipe (that's what I know about) so if you find the answer please share! I can't wait till he is just hanging around like a typical family dog. I too have to keep him mostly in the kitchen area and I have to manage my time of taking care of family and making sure he is a part of our lives in the house.

[Missy]

I think it is a combination of maturing and learning.  We also watched our Teddy like a hawk if he was out.  He gained access to more rooms in the house as he learned commands. DROP, NO, COME  And as John Wang said, we corrected with an appropriate toy. we had lots of toys.  I would only have a few out at a time and would rotate them thru the day. My thought was to keep him interested in the toys.  By not having access to all of them all the time, he looked forward to the changing of toys thru the day-I think pups have short attention span and the changing out of toys was like how you change out activities for kids.

we are now 14 months old. He can be left out in the house while I am running errands. But we still have our days of the counter surfing, so if I don't have the trash contained or dishes cleaned up, I will return to find items scattered. So, I try to have kitchen clean and trash contained and NEW toys released from the bin and that has been successful for us. 

I find that I still do the training. Always reinforcing commands with treat rewards. I think it reminds him that I am in charge. Keep working with Lucy, it is time well worth it!! We so enjoy having our pup in control and able to travel to other people's houses without having to constantly correct him.

[Kate, Mel, Tenley & Harper]

We left most stuff (except stuff that could really harm him) as it was in our house when we brought Tenley home. 

Naturally, he had some curiosity and tested out his mouth on a few of the things - but we were always close by and keeping an eye on him, so corrected him and redirected his attention to a different object that he could put his teeth on (a toy). After 3-4 weeks of doing this, he has never again tried to put his teeth on anything that wasn't his. Thus, he's never destroyed anything or really even made a "dent" in anything.

I would start setting aside time every day to take Lucy into other areas of the house where there is stuff she can get into. Bring a few toys with you. Let her explore and correct her when she is doing something she shouldn't be (we use the sound "ack!"... think wounded duck) and redirecting her attention to a toy. This will teach her to live in those areas and ignore things she shouldn't be touching. It's important that when you're sitting there, you are ignoring her so she does things that she wouldn't do if she knew you were watching. So, go into a room and read a book or something (while always keeping one eye on her). Make sure she's not too tired. And voila! Over time, she will learn but you have to show her :)

[Jen W]

I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I leave things within Dory's reach without thinking about it and testing it first.  I'm okay with that.  I can leave my 18 month old alone in the house and she won't chew up the furniture or have any accidents, but if there's chapstick on the nightstand she'll chew it up and I see that as my fault, not hers.  There was a time when I needed to keep everything out of reach (remotes, plants, books) but she has gotten much better with all of that stuff.  Who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to leave chapstick out, too.