The Ultimate Test

lkclark

New member
Joined
May 1, 2014
Messages
452
Reaction score
9
Our doggie daycare had to close for the day unexpectedly yesterday morning owing to a personal emergency on their part, so I suddenly found myself late for the train with a 4 month-old puppy staring at me expectantly, without a clue of what to do!

For several frantic minutes I deliberated my options. Leaving him cramped-up in a crate or playpen all day long didn't sit too well with me, so I finally said 'what the heck' and opened the backdoor and left him with free-reign of the house and yard. As a kid, our dogs always had freedom while we were gone, and it has only been as an adult that I've gotten into the crating/training/diet-obsessed doggy cult that most subscribe to nowadays. Haha. So I figured I'd just take a chance!

He was alone for 9 hours (normally goes to daycare for 5, sleeps for 4) and I came home to find that he had brought a bunch of plants into the house. Lol! No accidents, no chewing, but he apparently did have a mind to do some gardening! :tongue:

Does anyone else give their dogs free-reign of the house and yard while they're away? What parameters do you set? Any tips?
 
Jax does not get free reign of the house or yard. When no one is home, he is confined to the kitchen. When he goes in the backyard, someone is always out there with him. I have no idea what he would do but I don't think I can trust him.
 
You are a brave soul! Cheli would be eating everything in site that I would not know he did and with our luck end up in surgery for a blockage..... :eek: Also, outside access would make me nervous too becasue they can over heat so quickly even on a nice day.
 
I just had to put Radar back in his crate after giving him free reign of the house. Suddenly, after months of being a modle puppy he started destroying everything in sight. After seeking help and advice, from everyone, including this forum, I decided he is going back into the crate until he's a year old and then I will try again and see if he can be trusted. Basically, don't trust that cute little squish face, he's sucking you in with a false sense of security.
 
We are retired so our schedule is usually flexible. When we are going to be gone for a short time we usually let the boys have run of the place. Otherwise, they are in the laundry room with a pet door that goes outside to a fenced dog yard.
 
Maple has been allowed free reign in the house for about 2 months now(she was 8 months then). She has been fine and I think she loves it. Two days a week shes alone for 7 hours and on these days the door to the deck(we live in a Townhouse) stays shut just incase it starts raining and nobody is there to shut the door. If we are gone for a few minutes or an hour we usually leave the patio door open.
 
I would not let him have access to the outside for several reasons, the two main ones are and this one is at the top of the list, he could get stolen very easily, and he could over heat. I would make a play pin for him and let him stay in there, until he gets older then confine him to a room. We keep all of ours crated when we are gone and they do fine. For our young pups we have a crate with a x-pin I put on it so they can have some room to play and they do great in it.
 
We are never gone but a few hours at a time but 3 of our Labs and our Frenchie get free reign of the house now. They start out in crates when young, but as they mature some we try them out for short periods of time with access to small areas until they earn the trust we need to give them total free reign. I, personally, would not allow free reign outside....just makes me nervous for various reasons some of which David mentioned above.
 
He seems to do A-OK in the weather here. We're a block away from the coast, and it's been maxing out at 75 (at 5:00 when I get home). He also has a shade sail, a coolaroo outdoor bed and a full kiddie pool. I spied on him for a while yesterday before I announced myself and he was asleep on his bed, not panting. So I'll have to see how he fares later on.

But yes, the theft thing does worry me, although our fence is opaque, 6 feet tall, nail-stripped ontop as well as locked. But it's always a concern :-/ I even worry he might be stolen from within the house at times...it would probably be easier (and less painful) to break into our apartment than to climb over our medieval fence! Lol.

His daycare is up-and-running next week so hopefully we can end this little experiment.
 
Back
Top