How old when you stop crating/playpenning and "trust" them??!!!

[jaybee]

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!

[elaine.e]

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.

[MacTavish Boys]

George and Hamish were like Jarvis and Charlie  they were never crated, did not chew anything and house trained very quickly
Stephanie, George and Hamish xxx

[julie1]

Kez is two & half now & still loves her crate  ............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  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, 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

[Joskelly]

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 

[jaybee]

No, i just don't leave underwear on radiators/airers etc downstairs  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.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

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 

 

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 .

[BobnDot]

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 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.
He'll be going back into his crate tonight but we'll leave the door open and see what happens........Fingers crossed.

[piph]

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.