When do you give your puppy access to more of your house?

[dal]

Cooper is almost 11 weeks.  We keep him in the kitchen (tethered to the door), his puppy play pen or his crate.  We were giving him more freedom when he first came home but had to take it away to better house train him.  He hasn't had an accident for a few days now and I think he's really gotten the hang of it and knows he has to go outside to relieve himself.  I would like to give him a little more freedom to roam but we have an open floor plan so if I let him roam, I can still close the doors to our bedroom and laundry room but he would have access to kitchen, living room, family room and dining room (I can't really close off any of those).  I can gate the stairs to keep him downstairs.  At what point do you think I could do this as long as the house is puppy proofed?  I feel bad keeping him so contained especially since he is leashed outside until we get a fence as soon as the ground warms up enough to install a fence.  Also, in the evenings I play with him until bedtime and while for some reason I don't mind playing with him in the kitchen or sitting in his pen during the day, it would be nice to be able to play with him while watching tv outside the pen LOL.  I sit in the pen with him in the evenings right now...

Thanks in advance for any advice! 

[Tara]

My home is an open floor plan too.  We gated off the kitchen and kept Pickle in there most of the time.  When he gained more access what worked for us was to keep pup tethered to us, or a piece of furniture near us--the computer desk, for example--and/or keeping puppy near us on the floor.  We didn't take our eyes off of him for the first few months.  Now, at 5 1/2 months, he is considered potty trained--hasn't had an accident in 2 months--and can be out of the kitchen when we are in the same part of the house but not right next to us.  

[dal]

Okay this sounds good, I can tether him to me so I can at least be out of the pen for the evening!  Thank you!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I had to chuckle when I read Cooper hadn't had an accident for a few days and you think he's house trained. I've read that you can consider a puppy trained if it is accident free for at least 28 days. I can't tell you how many times Oscar got so close to that 28 day mark and then he'd have an accident and we'd have to, 'reset to zero'. It was very frustrating! He finally made it at about 4-1/2 months.

I see no reason why you'd have to sit in Cooper's pen to watch TV. As long as you can supervise him while he's out, that's what counts. If you think you'll be distracted and fear he'd run off unnoticed then tether him to you or a piece of furniture nearby. When Oscar was that age I'd give him, 'play dates' with his big sis throughout the day, without any kind of restraint, but I made sure I could watch him like a hawk while he played.  Any other time, he was either tethered to me or in his crate. That's really the only thing that made his potty training progress fast. Any kind of unsupervised freedom was an invitation to an accident, and I was so determined to get to that 28 day mark! Good luck, you'll be through this stage in no time.

[dal]

Ha ha I know, I'm sure he'll have an accident now that I mentioned how good he was doing!  But yeah, that's why I was asking how to let him roam while I still can't trust him not to pee inside.  Okay, I will tether him to me tonight and see how that goes.  Has to be better than watching tv through the pen!  Thank you!

[Nadini & Moeka]

I would agree with you as well!

With Moeka, we had thought she was doing fairly well at the 6 month mark and gave her full access to the main level of the house. She was never a big chewer, even when she underwent her first teething phase and she doesn't have accidents unless she's unwell. Lol, then one day I came home and she had practically eaten a corner of my coffee table because I didn't realize there was a second chewing phase that they undergo around the 8 month mark. She's a year old now and we still restrict her access to some of the house, although she's never shown an interest in chewing anything since.

 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I would keep his house area restricted for months.  I would tend to keep him where you are.  Definitely block off all areas you can.  We have stretched an ex-pen across areas and a 'baby corral' across others to block off carpeted areas in our open floor plan.

[dal]

Thanks for the replies!  I kept him tethered to me last night and he did great on the floor next to where I was sitting on the couch.  :)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

:-}

[Michele Kiss]

Even at a year old, we still use gates to restrict where Fenway goes. We have a four story house and I just don't want him getting in to trouble and us not realizing because he's too far away to hear. 

[Tina, Tucker & Bailey]

I agree with everyone about keeping your puppy with you & watching it like a hawk. I would like to mention one thing that will help you immensely with the potty training. Hang a bell by or on the door, and every time you take them outside (for anything) show it to them & ring the bell.  Don't forget to praise them & or treat if you like to show them that they did a wonderful thing. You will be surprised at how fast they will pick this up. I leave the bell on my door even when they are grown, they will ring it when they want to go outside and I can here it no matter what part of the house I am at.

[Kelly & Zoe]

We did the same thing and have a fairly open floor plan.  We just baby-gated sections of the house and let Zoe into a new area every week or so when there were no accidents- sometimes she lost privileges to the new area, but by 6 months she had access to pretty much all areas of the house with the exception of our office and one of the spare bedrooms.  IMO, once potty trained and if you are good about puppy-proofing, I think giving freedom is a good thing.  Now when we take Zoe to others homes, she's good about not getting into things.  I'd watch electrical cords, and if you have a larger doodle - the counter surfing!