Big Milestone for Shelby!

[Christine & Shelby]

Shelby is my first dog ever and I am the only one in my household, so crate training was a must. Since the day I brought her home, she has been crated while I am at work and at night. I've been coming home for an extended 2 hour lunch each day... we go for a walk, do some training, burn some energy and then go back to the crate until I get home from work. Shelby and I typically go to bed around 10:30pm... and sometimes she has been getting up a bit too early for my taste... 5:30am! So, I had tried bringing her dog bed into my bedroom by my bed and she would curl up there and sleep for another hour or two.

So last night... I decided to move the dog bed into the bedroom (her crate is in the living room) and see how she would do on her own for the night. Shelby is 5 months old... and hasn't pottied in the house since her 2nd or 3rd week at home. I did the same bedtime ritual... but she got her kong at her doggie bed rather than her crate.

I will admit I was a tad nervous, just because I have never had a dog before and most of my friends got their dogs at 1 year or older so they haven't had much puppy advice in this arena. She wandered around a bit and eventually laid down on the tile in my master bathroom. Periodically at night I would hear her (tags jingling or when she rolled over in her bed and paws hit the wall). This morning she woke me up at 7:30am - paws up on the side of the bed face at my face... saying Good Morning Mom... I was a good puppy! She then went and pawed at the bedroom door, so I got up and let her out to potty.

While she was out in the yard, I did an inspection of the bedroom and all is good! I am so proud of my Shelby and feel good that this was a success as I wanted to give her more time out of her crate. Next big step will be some freedom during the daytime hours. Any suggestions on what age is good to start this and how to go about it? I live in a new home and while Shelby has only periodically mouthed furniture, but quickly stopped when told and with some bitter apple spray, I really don't want to move to quickly and come home to chewed up furniture and/or kitchen cabinets.

Hope you all are having a great day! Shelby says Woof!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Wow, Shelby did great! Guinness was 7 or 8 months before we let him be free at night. There was never a problem. At this same age we started leaving Guinness out of his crate when we went out. We started slow...a half hour, then an hour, then two. I think the longest we've ever left him was 3 to four hours, but that is very rare. Never any problems, but he is confined to two rooms.

[shelly]

That's great! Congratulations Shelby! You're a Big Girl now! We started by leaving Tori out only for very short periods, but I was very lucky, I had my mother in law close by to check in.
I made sure NOTHING was around that she could get a hold of. She was/is a chewer and would get anything from napkins to tee shirts... It was funny. I thought she would roam all around, but she basically stayed in one area or went from her open crate to the windowsill. Good luck! And Bravo to Shelby!

[BG and Gavin]

We started three weeks ago with Gavin in the spare bedroom at night with the crate door open and his dog bed and a baby gate across the door. He did fine. I did find him one night lying on the bed (all furniture is off limits!) It was so comical however (uhh what? what are you looking at? I am not really on this bed), I did not correct him as quickly as I should have. We also had company one night so used the baby gate on the bathroom door. This week we started leaving him for a few hours in the hallway with bathroom access with the baby gate. I left a loaded Kong, a tricky treat ball and a large bone and his bed. He did not get into any trouble. He is just under 8 mons old by the way.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I would say just introduce one room at a time, slowly. Too much freedom will result in them getting bored and destroying things. Believe me!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Congrats!!! Isn't that great? Peri was just a tad older when I started letting her do the same. They like the bathroom floor....and I love waking up seeing her "paws up" wherever she is!