CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Puppies => Topic started by: sarahm2008 on November 08, 2012, 04:51:49 PM
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I was just wondering how old other peoples dogs are when you ahave stopped crating or putting them in a playpen when out?
Sandon is coming up 6 months and im hoping in a few more months I can stop putting him in a playpen and "trust" him not to demolish our kitchen??! He has never been much of a chewer but I cant help wondering if left alone for a few hours if he would chomp on our kitchen or just sleep!!
He sleeps in the hall all night and has never destroyed anything but then we are just upstairs and I would hear if he did...
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Depends on the dog
Bella had her crate door open at about 10 months, Molly though is 18months and not been crated for a about 4 months, but I've been off work and at home (for 6months) and I'm not convinced she'll behave when I go back. Only last week she ate part of a towel I use to wipe them down and a few weeks before that pinched and ate some of a tea towel. I'm only going back for 5 hours initially then 10 hours so will see how she goes.
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It depends on your dog and what you want to do. Murphy is 2.5yrs and still has his crate. He feels secure in there and out of it doesn't settle unless we are there. He still goes in whilst we are out, when we eat and over night and he races in each time as he likes being in there. That said our crate is the size of one suitable for a large Labrador or German shepherd so he has plenty of room.
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I am going to keep an eye on this thread as we are wondering as well with Ozzie :lol: but we built him a pen that looks like a large whelping box in the kitchen which he loves to sleep in to get out of the way of noise (especially when he was teething) but when we are getting ready and we leave him with the whole roam of the house he gets into trouble such as chewing the underlay (we dont have a carpet in the living room as we are decorating and didnt want him to toilet on new carpet) and he would probably just bark out the window if we went out and left him, but there are a lot of puppies that do well from very young ages and dont even need to be crated or locked away :)
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Riley has been out of his crate now for almost three months, so in effect when he was 6 months old.
He was wakening up at 5.30am each morning and wasnt keen to go back in so we started letting him sleep upstairs , Ive never looked back.
Also when we go out now he has a filled stuffed kong to keep him busy , Ive only left him just under 3 hours, thats the longest ever and usually its only 1-2 hours , we are lucky there is ususally one of us home, so really he is only left alone maybe 2-3 times per week, dont know if thats a good or bad thing. He has access to the living room, dining room and kitchen, I give the place a quick once over each time I leave him just incase. We usually pull up in the car and he hears the engine and jumps up on the chair at the window to look out.
Im relieved to be honest that he is out of the crate, as I didnt really like it when he got bigger . So far we have been VERY lucky.
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I'm only really replying so that I get notifications when other add to this post ;) (feel free to tell me if there is an easier way!)
Honey is 20 weeks and sleeps in her crate at night. During the day I mostly just let her stay in the kitchen (whilst i am in the home office)....that said, she is currently snuggled asleep on the floor next to me....how did that happen :)
She has got up to mishief though when left for just a few minutes (Yukka plants must be tasty!), but similary has also been in the kitchen for an hour with no mischief!
I would not trust her yet whilst we were out so it is the crate at the moment! Being at home with her i can 'sense' when she is up to no good!
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We started leaving the crate door open for Henry at night 3 weeks ago (at 5.5 months), and his sleeping has improved so much! It was something we always struggled with - the little chap waking me up (with a little whine or bark) at 5.30 or 6.30 or 7.30 if I was lucky. Since we left the door open he just comes out and potters around, plays with his toys, and sometimes I even have to wake him up now (the latest has been 8.45, even after the clocks going back!). At the same time we've started leaving him during the day, not in the crate. We never managed very well with crate-training him during the day - he was fine if he was really sleepy but if not he'd whine and bark and sometimes wee. We were a bit worried about separation anxiety. Once he'd started sleeping outside the crate we thought we'd leave him during the day, and used a camera to video him a few times. Basically, he whines a bit, potters around, and then eventually just goes to sleep. Within a week we'd gone from 15 minutes to 3 hours, with him being fine. We have an open-plan sitting room/kitchen, so he has the run of this area (the only other area in the flat is the tiny hallway, bathroom and bedroom, which he's not really allowed in anyway).
Obviously it depends on the dog, but this method worked for us - starting with an open door overnight, and moving on to leaving him uncrated during the day (and we don't give him a kong either). The crate is still there, and he sometimes wanders there in the evening, and sometimes I find him in there in the morning.
We're off to stay with friends on Saturday night, and not taking the crate, so it'll be interesting to see how he gets on in a strange house (a bit worried that he might scratch the doors, but since he's never done that here I think he'll be fine).
I'd start with overnight and then short periods during the day, but tape him to see what he gets up to! Does he normally hang out in the kitchen? Is there somewhere comfy for him to sleep?
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Toby was a terrible chewer... I'd only have to leave him for half an hour and he would destroy anything in sight! ph34r He's been used to being in his crate from when he came home as a pup and he loves it so I decided that instead of Toby destroying the house everytime I popped out I'd start putting him in his crate. Only now (he's 20 months :lol:) I've started to trust him out of the crate whilst not being at home and so far he's been a very good boy :angel: :clapping:
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At the moment Sandon sleeps in our hallway at nighttime with his playpen door open -bed in playpen (under the stairs)and really comfy bed near stairs, he never opts for playpen comfy bed or not so now he has a choice and definately playpen isnt one of them, plus its carpeted in there so generally nice and cosy anyway (and a good size).
Ideally his bed will be (when playpen removed) under the stairs in the hall however at the moment I worry if I leave him there in the day there is an awful lot of wood for him to chomp on (old door frames, staircase) however he never has before....secondly it worries me when we come in (normally with bags etc) he could easily shoot out the front door which he happily will if given half the chance.Oh and thirdly (blimey sorry!) we currently have a stairgate on but dont want this here forever and if he goes upstairs when we are out he will set alarm off...
I thought maybe the kitchen may be better as I can close the dining room door as dining room and kitchen nice and open plan...but there is a piece of furniture in the dining room I worry about leaving him in reach of which is a wine rack which weighs a bloody ton. (its about 7ft) im sure it wouldnt fall but if it ever did...well I dont even want to think about it......... and it literally cant be moved...3 men brought it in
sorry im off on a total random one! so basically....do I wait a bit until I totally trust him / he wont eat doorframes and wont shoot out the door or risk putting him kitchen and dining room......hmmmmm
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At the moment Sandon sleeps in our hallway at nighttime with his playpen door open -bed in playpen (under the stairs)and really comfy bed near stairs, he never opts for playpen comfy bed or not so now he has a choice and definately playpen isnt one of them, plus its carpeted in there so generally nice and cosy anyway (and a good size).
Ideally his bed will be (when playpen removed) under the stairs in the hall however at the moment I worry if I leave him there in the day there is an awful lot of wood for him to chomp on (old door frames, staircase) however he never has before....secondly it worries me when we come in (normally with bags etc) he could easily shoot out the front door which he happily will if given half the chance.Oh and thirdly (blimey sorry!) we currently have a stairgate on but dont want this here forever and if he goes upstairs when we are out he will set alarm off...
I thought maybe the kitchen may be better as I can close the dining room door as dining room and kitchen nice and open plan...but there is a piece of furniture in the dining room I worry about leaving him in reach of which is a wine rack which weighs a bloody ton. (its about 7ft) im sure it wouldnt fall but if it ever did...well I dont even want to think about it......... and it literally cant be moved...3 men brought it in
sorry im off on a total random one! so basically....do I wait a bit until I totally trust him / he wont eat doorframes and wont shoot out the door or risk putting him kitchen and dining room......hmmmmm
I wouldnt still 100% trust Riley with wood and door frames even though he only has scraped a skirting board a few times ever. Probably in the next 6 months I would.
As for bolting out the door. I never would trust them , thats just me . I have a stair gate on our living room door right by the front door plus we have a front outside gate.
I wouldnt ever trust him that he
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Jasper is 14 months and I still put him in his pen overnight and when I go out (it is quite a big pen!) mainly because he's a little bph34rr for finding things that he shouldn't have and eating them (like placemats!!) and as I can't trust myself to remember to move everything I find it easier to make sure he can't get near them!!
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Can't recall exactly but think I waited until Clover was around a year old before I stopped crating her while we were out of the house. We had already begun leaving her crate door open at night though. She has luckily never been a chewer of things other than her own toys so we felt confident that she wouldn't do any damage. We can leave her in a room where the cat biscuits are too, (albeit they are in dishes up on the sofa but she could easily get at them), and she will not touch them. She still has access to her open crate at any time, if she wants it - and she does go in there to sleep occasionally. She also knows that that is where she has to start off, at least, when I am going out, so that she gets her filled bone which I leave her with. (Max time I have left her was 3.5 hrs. Would not wish to leave her for any longer than that, barring an emergency where it might be unavoidable, perish the thought.) That is the ONLY time she gets a filled bone so she associates it with being left. When I come home she runs to greet me with said bone in her mouth, bum waggling, so that I can get a fork and dig out the bits for her that she can't reach properly with her tongue! :luv:
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I've never used a crate but I certainly can't trust Archie with the run of the house when I'm in, let alone when I'm out!!! He's always shut in the kitchen with plenty of things to keep him occupied. He chews the kitchen stools a bit but I've resigned myself to them being destroyed. He's just a really bad chewer so I doubt he will get the run of the house for a good few years yet!
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around 14 weeks - we had a crate 'incident' (a victorian wattle and daub ceiling collapsed on his crate and he never ever ventured back into it :o) so he was crate free from then.
He was an weirdo of a puppy - he chewed barely anything and was house trained early too. I'm convinced that if I ever get another dog it will have 666 tattooed on it's neck to make up for the exceptionally easy puppy ride we had :lol2:
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Charlie has never been created or in a play pen, but we were very lucky, he's polite, a non chewer and no accidents.
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I took the crate down at about 6 months I think, although he'd not been in it for a while TBH.
He's pretty trustworthy, the only thing he will ever bother with is paper, he's never chewed or eaten anything else.....besides my underwear.
But that is easily solved!
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I was lucky that neither William nor Louis were serious chewers or destroyers. William had the run of the kitchen, hall and study from about 14 weeks or so, although I used puppy pen panels to barricade off the bottom shelves of the bookcases and the computer cables etc. under the desk in the study for a while. He chewed a hole in the front doormat one afternoon and the newel post at the bottom of the stairs has a few toothmarks, but nothing major.
Louis, for all his problems in coping with life in general, has never chewed any furniture, books, cables etc. although he sometimes unstuffs toys. He had a lot of freedom in the house from about 4 months.
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George and Hamish were like Jarvis and Charlie :luv: :luv: they were never crated, did not chew anything and house trained very quickly :D
Stephanie, George and Hamish xxx
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Kez is two & half now & still loves her crate :luv:............having said that she only uses it as a bed, open in the day but seems happier with the door closed at night. When I go out in the day I usually close the baby gate between the kitchen & the hall, her crate is open in the kitchen.
Now that she is a big girl & trustworthy :clapping: I have (on two occasions) let her have the run of the house whilst I am out, but when I came home she had her tail between her legs & looked frightened, as though she had done something wrong, :dunno: bless her she feels insecure when she hasn't got the security of the baby gate. Just like a child she needs her "boundaries" to be happy. ;)
Any one else find this
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I took the crate down at about 6 months I think, although he'd not been in it for a while TBH.
He's pretty trustworthy, the only thing he will ever bother with is paper, he's never chewed or eaten anything else.....besides my underwear.
But that is easily solved!
How is that easily solved? Do you now go commando ;) :005:
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No, i just don't leave underwear on radiators/airers etc downstairs :shades: easy peasy.
If we are going out and leaving him home alone for a few hours (which is rarely TBH) we just do a sweep of the living room/dining room (his domain) and make sure magazines etc aren't left lying about.
Job done.
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I took the crate down at about 6 months I think, although he'd not been in it for a while TBH.
He's pretty trustworthy, the only thing he will ever bother with is paper, he's never chewed or eaten anything else.....besides my underwear.
But that is easily solved!
How is that easily solved? Do you now go commando ;) :005:
:005: :005:
Charlie likes MY underwear too - less funny when he takes a pair of knickers into the back garden and traipses through the mud with them...or sits in the window in his chair with them hanging out of his mouth.
The only thing Charlie ever ruined was post, so we got a letterbox guard...he doesn't bother with the post at ours, however when he is at my mam and dad's he waits for their post :).
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Chaz, four months old now, has his crate in the kitchen and is usually shut in overnight but we came down this morning to find him curled up on his blanket in the middle of the kitchen floor.
One of us, Dot insists it was me :shades: even though she'd put him in the crate last night, had obviously forgotten to latch the door of the crate and he'd pulled his blanket out overnight and made himself comfortable.
No damage, chew marks, pees or poops, he'd just decided to relocate during the night. :005:
He'll be going back into his crate tonight but we'll leave the door open and see what happens........Fingers crossed.
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I currently can't see any end in sight for the playpen with Ozzy (6 months old now) - he is a chewer, and a scratcher, so I just think he'll stay in there at night and when we are out until he's much older. If I had a utility room to put him in then I would be more inclined to get rid of the pen, but we have a large open-plan kitchen/lounge. The pen is a pain as there is no room for it to be up permanently now we've moved, and even a crate would have nowhere to live permanently. We keep the pen folded up in the corner and just put it up when we need to.