Roaming certain areas of the house?

[Sara Schultz]

We're now giving Lucy (14 months) "free range" of the den/kitchen/entry hall dining room, after mostly confining her to the exercise pen in the past unless someone could watch her very carefully.

We close the doors to the hallway and bedroom so that she's mostly within our line of sight.

I did discover that as long as there are no tennis balls that can roll underneath the sofa, she doesn't chew on the sofa edging. So that's good news. Now all tennis balls stay outside for playing fetch.

We're still crating her when we leave the house. What to do when we need to go upstairs to do school work (we part-time home school). There are legos and things on the floor up there that are hazardous to a puppy.

Overall, it's going well. But still, it feels like a big and stressful change. Any tips?

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

How do you invision Lucy's behavior in this area? Do you want her to lay calmly on her bed during school time and wait for you to finish? Do you want her to be able to be with you during that time? If that is your goal then start with little steps to achieve that end.

Over time we introduced Tara to one room at a time. The main rooms of the house are just an open floor plan so she already had 4 rooms to navigate in. But with the bedrooms and baths we took her on leash to spend time with us each day until she was calm and comfortable in one room (and knew the rules for that room). Then she was introduced to the next room. This worked really well for us and Tara learned very quickly what was expected of her in each room.

Depending on Lucy's maturity level, I am thinking she is old enough to at least start learning how you want her to behave in the schooling area. Could she come with you to the schooling area on leash either attached to you or tied to a door or something, then she should be out of harm's way. Bring her bed and give her something to do during that time-a bully stick or kong toy to work on. If she misbehaves you can always return her to her crate and try again the next day. Soon she will learn that if she is calm she gets to stay and if not she goes to the crate.

[Sara Schultz]

Thanks Camilla and Kaytlin.

I do think we could crate her while we do school - she just tends to bark a lot when she knows we're home but isn't allowed to be with us. This is actually why I am trying out giving her freedom. It is helping in that she's barking much much less now. :) I just got a second crate for her to sleep in upstairs in DS's room. So maybe we can try that; since he will be in his room perhaps she wouldn't bark even if crated.

We have an open plan, too, Kaytlin, hence a baby gate wouldn't work for us. You are right. Baby steps. Maybe the boys will decide it's worth cleaning up the legos if Lucy can be with us during school time!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Can you still crate her while you are upstairs doing home school? Or use a baby gate to restrict her to one area of the house, like the kitchen?

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

I recently started letting Cooper (1 1/2) roam free when we are at work. We were leaving her in her xpen but then moved house and didnt have the space for it. During the evening she has the whole house, but when we arent home she has the lounge/computer area, kitchen and hallway (which is open plan) and sometimes the bathroom (she loves napping in there). So far we have only had a few problems with her destroying things - toilet roll, garbage from the bathroom, a plant (I made sure any that may be toxic are out of her reach). Sometimes she will get something she shouldnt, like a sock, or the cats toys, but she can only get these when we are home so if we dont see her for a while (she often paces the house) we know to look for her incase she has something she shouldnt

id love to give her at least the spare room which is our den (but not our bedroom) but in concerned she might chew my books (not that she ever has, the only parer she destroys is the mail - ive been told she much like to glue on the envelopes).

Maybe eventually i can give her the whole house. the cats like to go in the bedroom and spare room so id like them all to be together with the whole house to roam in. Baby steps! Allow 1 extra room at a time. You can always have 1 room where your dog isnt allowed (eg bedroom where the toys are, or the playroom if you have one)