When did you start letting your doodle "roam free" when you weren't home?

[Michele Kiss]

Fenway is a few days shy of 7 months. He is not a huge "destroyer" of stuff (all shoes are intact!), except for perhaps papers. (He loves to chew paper for some reason.) He has started barking recently but it doesn't seem like it's a huge issue. 

When we go out during the day, we do still crate him, though not at night any more (he sleeps with us.) He doesn't have potty accidents anymore except occasional "excitement tinkles" which are when he sees people, NOT just "oh I'm peeing inside." So I feel like we're pretty safe on the "bathroom" front. 

He doesn't seem to hate his crate (sometimes he'll whine a little but mostly settles right down.) But I feel bad that he's cooped up when he could be playing with his toys or finding other comfy spots to nap. For example, we went out of town for the weekend and I felt bad that he was basically in his crate ALL day except for the dog sitter giving him 2x walks/day plus being in our home 8PM-8AM. (Since we work from home, that's a REALLY unusually long amount of time for him to be crated.) 

We are considering allowing him to roam a part of the house when we're out (start small and gradually increase the duration.) We would keep him quarantined in one area, because we have a cat and we do NOT want them loose together, unsupervised. 

Is that the norm at 7 months? When did you start allowing your doodle to roam the house when you weren't home? 

[Kerry L]

We stopped kenneling Hank at 4.5 months. Which was earlier than most but he HATED his crate :( (he had a bad experience with his crate before we got him.) We started out leaving him out for an hour here and there and building up to longer amounts of time. He has gotten a couple shoes, but nothing too major. Now we don't leave him for more than 5 hours. We probably could but I feel horrible leaving him any longer!

[Rae]

Cassie is five months old and has freedom to about 50-60% of the house. We still keep the bedroom and bathrooms off limit and so far so good. We do make sure Tv remote, iPads, books, papers are up out of her reach. I think she pretty much checks everything out, figures out we aren't there then just naps. They have dog doors so going out isn't a problem and the neighbors say they don't hear any barking nor whimpering/crying. Rozee has had the run of the house since she was four months old with nothing destroyed so we started Cassie at the same age.

[Jennifer & Truffle]

Truffle still doesn't enjoy too much freedom, although we have been allowing him more of it over the past couple of months (he just turned one).  He still sleeps in his crate at night and we crate him if we're going to be out for more than a couple of hours.  If I'm going to be out for less than 2 hours, I'll leave him in the kitchen (we have a gate) and he's been fine.  When I was at my aunt's house a few weeks ago, I left him free to roam along w/ his two canine cousins for several hours and he was a good boy.  But I'm still reluctant to allow him that much freedom when he's at home... 

[Rebecca bratter]

We also started really early with Madiba.  She hated her crate from day 1.  We started leaving her out for about 45 minutes, then an hour, then two.  I'd say we started around 4 months.  We don't leave her alone for more than 4 hours, ever.  If we will be gone longer she goes to daycare or gets a sitter.  She has the same routine since we got here which is about 1.5 years ago now.  We leave, she sleeps, eats a snack, drink her water and goes back to sleep. That's all she does when we are gone.  Every time we come home she's on our bed.  I think it just depends on the personality of your doodle.  We were criticized by some on this website when I asked the same question and said that we were letting our girl roam free at 4 months but we've never ever had a problem.  In general we've never had any problem of any kind with this amazing fur baby.  Any problems we've had are caused by my worrying about her. 

[Laura]

My girl is 6 months old, and I just left her for 30 minutes for the first time today. She was sitting by the front door when I came home. I'm not sure if she heard me come in the driveway or waited there the whole time (which I can't imagine, but who knows). The house was still intact!
You know your dog and what he's ready for. Maybe start small and go from there? Good luck!

[Kerry L]

Hank did the same thing the first couple times we left. I felt really bad, thinking he would just sit by door and wait for us the whole time. Now, when I get home, I have to go find him because he's usually passed out on our bed or on the couch!! haha

[Michele Kiss]

Thanks all! Sounds like it's not uncommon to give them a little more freedom at this age (or earlier!) We're starting with a confined area of the house (especially since we need to keep the cat and pup separate) and will just build up the time slowly. 

[Christina]

Michele, we gave Oakley free roam about a month ago. Started also with confined space in laundry room with doggie door at about 4.5 months and then a month ago we just left the door open so he can roam. Knock on wood.... No issues yet. He seems to find his spot and stay there ( usually the college boys bed- think he misses him) I am sure Fenway will be fine. :)

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

We started leaving Yogi out in the kitchen with gates to seal it off when he was 6-7 months.  He did great,

so soon after we left him in the main part of the house with the bedroom doors closed.  I think it depends on the

dog.  Yogi is very calm and doesn't chew things, so I didn't worry.  Now as he turns one, he has full run of the house.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

We stopped kenneling him at night when he he was 3 months old.  

Hurley was about 5 months old when we started letting him roam free when we would be gone.  We started with short times, maybe an hour, and gradually extended the time.   When we come home we always find Hurley lying on the floor where he can be watching both ways into the house.   He has never gotten into anything when left for any period of time.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

We started letting Enzo have the run of the house, when we were out, at around 5 1/2 months. I wanted to be 100% she was housebroken and that she was secure enough to be left alone. We started by leaving her in the house, when we were working out in the yard. From there we went to very short trips.....we tacked on a little more time each and every time we went out.
Each dog is different and only you know your dog's habits. You never want to set your dog up for failure.

[Olivia & Chanel]

Chanel is about the same age as Fenway…upon our return from vacation recently, we found out that the dog boarder in an attempt o make things a little less stressful had been leaving her in a confined dining room with the crate door open for nights and that she had not accidents and did great.  We have starting doing this as well at home and actually notice that the "excitement piddling" is actually better.  In the last few days we have started leaving her crate door open for 2-3 hr stretches during the day as well.  She seems happy--she is gated off in a back playroom where she can't really get into too much.  We, like you, were worried when school starting and two working parents that she would have been cooped up in her crate for long periods of time despite having the dog walker.  

Good luck!