Partial free run of the house when not home?

[Sharae & Winston]

I'm wondering when all of you started giving more freedom in the house to your puppy when you are not home to supervise. We currently baby gate Winston in the kitchen when we leave and he is left up to 4-6 hours at a time and is fine. I'm a little concerned because we moving and the way our new apt is set up, we won't be able to baby gate the kitchen. We basically have two options- gate the hallway and either give him run of the living/dining/kitchen area or the bedroom/ bathroom area. I don't feel like I can quite trust him yet as he still has an affection for chewing things especially blankets, rugs, bedding, pretty much anything soft. Case in point- we removed our kitchen rug when he was just a little pup because all he did was chew it. I thought he was past this stage so the other day I decided to put it back. Well I turned my back cooking for about 5 mins and he was back at it chewing the darn thing. I told him "NO" and replaced it with a chew toy 3 different times but eventually had to put it away again. Also worried that if he has access to carpet when hes by himself for periods of time he might pee since he is used to being confined on hardwood when were gone now. Anybody have any suggestions/ advice for this transition? Btw, Winston is 8 months now.

[Pat and Traveler]

I know Trav was under a year when he got full freedom in the house when I was gone.  As far as I know, he just stays on the bed and watches the driveway--at least that's where I've always found him.  I think the most time he's been left alone is about 7 hours.  Like others, I started slowly--doing yardwork for a half hour or so, then maybe a quick run to the store--gradually learning I could trust him to stay alone in the house.  He's never chewed anything or gotten in any kind of trouble when he's been alone--and I feel very fortunate!

[Sharae & Winston]

Sounds like the consensus is: it depends on the dog. But err on the side of safety. I liked the idea of putting him in the bathroom but just gating it so he can see out, hopefully that will work. If that doesn't work with the setup of the bathroom I may have to resort to crating. I was trying to get away from that because I eventually want him to be able to stay home alone and have the house to roam, so I feel like I might be taking a step backwards. I also feel kindof bad about leaving him confined in such a small space for 5 hours. However, he seems like he will be a "late chewer" until he's probably two years old so that may need to happen for a while lol.

[F, Calla & Luca]

My crates are quite large. My dogs can practically do back flips.

[Oliver & Elizabeth]

Oliver is just over a year old and now had free roam of the house, except for the bedrooms and bathrooms as we keep those doors closed. Oliver isn't very destructive, but before leaving for work I always pick up anything valuable or tempting just to make sure he stays safe while at home. Perhaps you could just puppy proof your house before you leave, or just put the tempting items in storage until Winston gets a little older. I know we don’t have a lot of decorative items around because Oliver always mistakes them for his toys.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We use an ex-pen across doorways that are too big for baby gates.  We block our living room off and the opening is 6 feet.  Could you block him either in or from an area using the pen as a larger gate?

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Rooney is almost a year and a half and we still do not give him full access to the house even when we are home. He is allowed on the main floor only (we have a gate to the downstairs and a door at the top of the upstairs so he can't get to either the bottom or top floor). If we are home he has access to most of the main floor (although we still usually gate off the living room and dining room) but when I am going to be gone for a several hours he is confined to just the kitchen and family room. It used to just be the kitchen but now we feel he is trustworthy in the family room too as long as we have it picked up with nothing too tempting out.

I would love to get to a point when he can roam freely in the house but we are not there yet. He would definitely still chew up my daughter's stuffed animals and other toys given the chance. Not sure when or if we will get past that but I do hope we will eventually. She would love to have him sleep in her room but we aren't there yet...

[Sharae & Winston]

I feel like we'll have to go down a similar path with Winston. He respects boundaries in that he's never escaped the kitchen (and he could easily jump the gate), chewed the cabinets or gotten into the garbage which were the main things I was worried about when we stopped crating him. It's just those tempting items like shoes, blankets, bedding I worry about. I suppose most of that could be puppy proofed and I would just have to worry about the couch being chewed lol. My other concern is the peeing on the carpet. He hasn't had an accident in quite some time but I still don't fully trust him on carpet. I guess we'll have to try short amounts of time- like maybe 10 mins here and there and then gradually expand that time.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

At about 8 months old, we confined Luna to our room instead of the kitchen inside a playpen with her crate.  Then at about a year old we started letting her have free run in the house.  Once or twice we had to "scale back" and put her back in the bedroom (if she destroyed something while we were gone).  

Ever since she has been fine with access to the whole house.  That doesn't work for some dogs though!  Luna doesn't have separation anxiety issues and doesn't get into mischief.  We have even left things like bags of chips on the floor and she just leaves them alone.

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

We are in the middle of expanding non crate time to when we are not home.  We just had a bit of a set back- but that was while we were away and staying in an apartment that was upside down since we were moving my son out of it.  I just wrote a blog-it should be up soon.  A little too much too soon, in our case.  It has not discouraged me though. We are still heading in the direction of free roam.