Question about leaving dog out of crate

[karenz]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me at what age their dog could be trusted out of their crate. Xander is 9 months old. I am pretty sure I can't trust him home alone out of his crate yet. But at some point I would hope I can. Can anyone tell me about what age I can expect that he might be able to have some freedom when I'm gone. I know I will need to start off with short times at first but eventually I want him to be able to make it a few hours at the time. Thanks for y'alls input.

[johninny]

i have only had to crate 1 dog when i leave the house for awhile - and that is my newest puppy [he liked eating any papers/documents like from my desk that interested me lately]. i stopped doing that at about 9 months - grocery trips at first - but have had at worst a paper on the floor on one or 2 occasions. and now i would not put a time limit on him, so i simply do not crate him.
my 1st DS was never crated, but did pretty wild things when left alone for LONG[!!] periods. explored like a cat, but managed to do no damage [ rather miraculously ]. [ i mean nose smudges and paw-print traces on mirror 8 feet up next to a cabinet!] also would re-decorate in harmless and funny ways. i think that was all ended by the time he was 10 months.

[karenz]

I hope I'm that lucky but I have a feeling I won't. He can't even stay out of trouble long enough for me to take a shower. He CONSTANTLY feels the need to have something in his mouth. He even sleeps with toys in his mouth. He hasn't destroyed anything of value luckily. I guess I will give him a couple more months and see if he settles down a bit.

[Stacy_R]

It's not an age thing as much as it is an individual dog thing.

[Dutch in America]

We are planning to use the Skype method for this very soon as well. Ranger is almost 9 months now and seems to behave well in the house, but still likes to tear up soft fabric stuff. The plan is to remove the throw pillows and quilts from the area he is in and see what he does when left alone using Skype, after pretending to leave by opening and closing the garage door and sitting outside within WIFI range.

[Dutchringgirl]

It's not an age thing as much as it is an individual dog thing.

Agreed. Sadie is fine out of her crate. She had escaped a few times and I came home to a happy dog and no mess or anything wrecked in the house. Once she was even IN her crate and the back had oppened.

Thalie cant stay out and she is 12. She gets horrible separation anxiety. So you can test them by going outside for a bit and see what they do.

[karenz]

Dutch in America: I have a camera that I can watch him from my phone. I constantly have to yell at him through the camera. I guess that's why I'm worried he can't behave. If he knows I'm watching and can yell at him he is ok. Unfortunately I can't watch him all day and I would have to buy a couple more cameras to watch the whole house. And Xander doesn't just chew soft fabric stuff, he chews everything!!! I'm pretty sure if he doesn't have something in his mouth he is dead. Lol. But let me know how Ranger does. Maybe that will give me some hope.

[karenz]

Dutchringgirl: My last ds, Rawly (r.i.p) had severe thunderstorm phobia and separation anxiety. He literally crashed out the front picture window of my house one time. Xander doesn't seem to have either thank God. I have left him out to shower or do something outside for 5 minutes and sometimes he is fine and others he has destroyed a dog bed or pillow or something. I think he might still be to young to be trusted.

[johninny]

does he have plenty of his own bones/antlers laying around to grab and chew? if not, that might help re-direct him to the right things to chew and keep in his mouth. whether 1 dog or 3, there must always be at least 30 antlers/bones that sit around the house; i try to keep them in a plastic ''milk'' crate, but the dogs go routing through there every-so-often, take a bunch; eventually many go missing and the box gets replenished with every cleaning as antlers are retrieved from deep under couches. [ toys like Xander's yellow football also reside there when i get around to it; so even more, one can literally see that the milk crate is where a dog goes when he is bored and looking for ''new'' trouble as opposed to the toys and bones they already have scattered about.]

[centrop67]

It took about year after rescuing Radar to trust him home alone outside his crate - that was at age ~2.

We still can't leave any shoes laying around, but the bones and antlers all over the place works.

Leela (I think she's a Mal) is a different story. Not sure if we're ever going to be able to trust her.

The funny thing about Radar is that if he sees us grab keys to leave, he will immediately go into his crate, but he's always sitting on the recliner when we get home.

[karenz]

I am curious about the deer anglers. I haven't tried those yet. I give Xander bully sticks but have to watch him and take them away when they get small. I can't leave toys out unattended because he eats pieces off of them. Can they actually eat the antlers. I was worried about him choking on a piece of them. Or are they tough enough that he can't break a piece off. He is very mouthy and can usually destroy things in a short time that other dogs would never destroy. And what about chipping teeth on them. He has no sense of "this is too hard to crunch". He would not give up until it crunched or all his teeth were gone. I know I'm making him sound like a monster. He really isn't. He gets about 4 hours of strenuous exercise throughout the day but just keeps going. His off switch has not matured yet. However he is a great dog and well behaved.

[johninny]

sorry that i cannot write much of a response, but you will find extensive discussion of antlers in various threads - some maybe indicated so. sounds like he really needs antlers [ preferably ELK - softer than moose, but more of a challenge than deer ]. see www.elkusa.com as everyone's fav source [other than the lucky few who have hunting resources]. get a variety so he won't get bored; they last a very long time. in the end, he needs to chew and his chew needs to be high quality - good for his teeth!

[karenz]

Thanks for the link johninny. I'm going to check it out and order soon. It can't hurt and I will just see how he does with them.

[MyronD]

This is a timely post for me to respond to as we have just started out of the crate training about 2 weeks ago. Bruce is 6 months old so it sounds like I am pretty lucky. He has free access to most of the house: living room, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. I am able to come home at lunch so that way I can check on him and let him out. So far there have only been minor casualties and I blame the cat! For example, the cat gets behind the home audio equipment and Bruce tries to get to him and next thing you know there are knobs missing from my receiver and somehow he ejected a dvd from the Playstation and chewed it up! Grrr! So, I have taken extra precautions and there have been no other incidents (keeping fingers crossed).

As it has already been stated though, this is much more dog specific than age specific. Best of luck to you!

[HeatherH]

Hi

I think we only kept him in his create at night time (when we were sleeping) or if we had to leave him in the house for 4 months or 5 months. After that we just kept him in the kitchen with a gate up until he was 14 months. He's now 1 1/2 we just leave him alone now. He doesn’t do anything. He has enough toys and just hangs with my cat Pearl. We haven't had any destructive behaviour. Other than that he's just now leaving the room where we are to find his own space which is usually 1/2 under the bed. I think if we don't see his head we can't find him.

Heather

[Dutchringgirl]

Hi

Other than that he's just now leaving the room where we are to find his own space which is usually 1/2 under the bed. I think if we don't see his head we can't find him.

Heather

I love that they dont know there is another half to them. Sadie has no idea there is something always following her.

[icvanstra]

With Cino it was about four years before I could leave him out of his crate for a long time.

Quick trips weren't so bad.

Even after I started leaving him out of his crate all the time I would come home to find things moved. Pillows off the bed/couch, bath mat moved (toilet one only ... never the one in front of the sink), and other random stuff.

After I moved I had to start crating the dogs again. A lot of that is more for Abigail who is 13 and having pee/poop issues with the move. I don't want to crate one and not the other.

[karenz]

Thanks for all the advice and input. I'm going to try a short store trip this weekend and see what happens. I'm just going to shut bedroom doors and let him roam in the kitchen den hallway and bathroom. I'm not to worried except for the living room. I have a 36" metal gate across the cased opening but he jumps it. That's the only room he could really destroy something of major value. Lots of heirlooms in that room. Hopefully it will go well. I will probably set the camera up to watch that room so if he goes in there I can yell at him through the camera.

[karenz]

I thought I would give an update. I have made two short trips and nothing was destroyed. I actually didn't leave but he didn't know that I was only outside in the driveway. It was only for about 10 minutes but it's a good start. There may be hope, lol.

[Dutchringgirl]

great, that is the way to start, just go outside out of site. Now, my girls know the sound of my truck, so, that is the trigger for them. So I dont know if he knows your vehicle sound yet, you may want to add that in. Start it up and stay there and peek in a window.