# Free range of house



## meisha98 (Aug 27, 2008)

How old was your pup when it started being free? What is the easiest way to do this- room by room or all at once? I have two floors and am gone for three -five hours at a stretch for work. I come home for my breaks and lunchtime (twice a day before being home for the night). Lainey is 7 months old now and when free while I'm home is not getting into as much trouble as she used to. Just curious as to when it may be an OK age to try giving her freedom.


----------



## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

I think Jerzey was older than 7 months before she started to get some freedom, but I can't remember exactly how old she was.







What I can say, however, is that we let her free in the bedroom only because there was much less stuff she could get in to. She still (at a little over a year) is left in the bedroom when we have to leave. It gives her space to stretch out her legs but doesn't allow her to get into anything (like the mass of cat food John's roommate leaves on the ground for his old, fat cat or the trash can in the bathroom because this same roommate doesn't understand what "please keep the door closed" means.) I'm assuming you probably don't have those same roommate problems but I think it would be best to start with just a room initially and start giving her more access to more rooms as she proves to you that she can behave herself. I think this really varies by dog so trust _your_instincts, as you know you're dog best.


----------



## GranvilleGSD (Mar 28, 2007)

Berlin is that age now, and he's getting more freedom now too. I start by leaving for short periods of time. Like the other day, we went out for dinner and he got to be loose. I'd just work on building up the amount of loose time, and if you have destruction, then go back to shorter amounts of time. Don't be surprised too if pup is great now, then about 1 year regresses back to destruction and chaos!


----------



## SunCzarina (Nov 24, 2000)

Otto just turned one (Happy Birthday again to my BiggO). Since he was 5 months, he's been staying in the kitchen when I'm out. I have an older female who has more privileges than he does and I wouldn't want them wrecking the house when I"m out. She's an excellent watch dog where he's kinda sketchy on that...

Otto is allowed to be where ever he wants when I'm home, he hasn't destroyed anything in a long time.


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Onyx was free at night [email protected] about 7 mos. Then I did a couple of short times during the day. BUT when she decided to take something out, it was a high $ item, psp, games, remotes, etc.. Usually belonging to my daughter. This was just after she turned a year, and the last time was not too long ago, a library book(mmm smelly, and full of kids germies) She was fine with couches cabinets and carpeting, fortunately.


----------



## Sherush (Jan 12, 2008)

Jesse at night from 9 weeks was free with us in the bedroom (door closed) slept on the bed. He had free range during the day at 4 months when we were home and cage free home alone by 6 months (but never alone more than 4 hours at a time - and we have internet camera set up and it records so we can see what happens when not at home) anything over 4 hours he was in doggy daycare. He is not the norm... he was the the best well behaved, calm, none destructive puppy to raise and is now almost 19 months old and has never done anything bad in the house. Knock on wood and phew....


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

you and your dog will know when it's free run of the house time.
you said "when free while i'm home is not getting into
as much trouble as she used to." if there's any degree of trouble
she not ready for free roam. 

i'm not sure what age a dog has to be before it has free roam of the house. like anything it's a matter of training and socializing.

my dog had free roam of the house from day one. my boy was 9 weeks old when we got him. we took a month off from work so
we could give time to the pup. our neighbors helped us with our pup also.

even though my dog had free roam of the house we never
let him out of our sight. if he went into another room one of
us brought him back to where we could see him immediately. now that i think about it how dumb was that, free roam from day one.

at night he was crated. i stopped crating him at night when he was 4 months old. he was also not crated when we left the house
when he was 4 months old. everything was fine, nothing chewed,
nothing scracthed, no shredding. having a puppy was great.
we couldn't believe how well everything was going. taking a month off from work was really the move.

then, at 8 months old my dog decided to eat the house and everything in it. i went from thinking " I too am a Dog Whisperer" to thinking maybe we should have gotten a 10 gallon fish tank with one fish in it because two fish might be out of my league.

it all worked out in the end because the "God of Crate" dried my tears and answered all of my "did you do that", "what is this mess",
"hey, get out of there", "get the dog" prayers.


----------



## meisha98 (Aug 27, 2008)

Thanks for the input and stories! I have two cats and I don't know if they are ready for her to be crate-free yet. I do know if I go into the yard for a few minutes she'll likely wait inside the door for me. I'm not totally ready yet, I think I'll test her a little at a time. My first floor is pretty open and has a bar area between the living/dining areas so trying to keep her to one room would be tough. It would have to be "downstairs". She hates to be confined to my bedroom at night and prefers to be downstairs guarding from her crate in the LR. One step at a time I think.


----------



## Caledon (Nov 10, 2008)

I don't want her to have free range of the house. 

She is not allowed upstairs in the bedrooms. We have two cats and since we got Dakota the cats have claimed the upstairs and since they dont' socialize with her and they need a safe spot.

We also do not want her to go into the living and dining rooms. We used to put up baby gates to block off the lving/dining/stairs but have since removed the dining and stairs. She is pretty good about not going there.

The living room is another story. For some reason my husband removed the living room gate (unknown to me) and I discovered that my innocent puppy who we have never ever caught on the furnature decided to chew my 2 year old couch. Jumped up on the seat and tore apart the back attached cushions. NOW he keeps the gate there.

She can go into the kitchen, hallway, family room and basement. She loves to either sleep by the front door or the sliding door in the kitchen.

During the day she is out of her kennel, but at night or when we go out we put her in her kennel. When she is about 2 years I will think about letting her out of her kennel at night, but only if she can totally ignor the cats (getting there).


----------



## arycrest (Feb 28, 2006)

IMHO all dogs are different - there are no set rules. 

Honey earned complete freedom of the house when she was 9 months old and never did anything wrong until the day she died 13 years later. Too, who went to the Bridge at 12-1/2 years old, never earned more than 10 or 15 minutes freedom during her entire life.

Like someone has already mentioned, I let them earn their freedom in baby steps. Maybe a 10 minute trip to the corner store to get a gallon of milk and if they do well, then I'll increase the time on the next trip. If they fail, they go back to their crates and I'll try them again when they're a little older.

Once they've earned complete freedom of the house, I never allow same sex dogs to roam together. So some of them are put in bedrooms, not because I don't trust them, but to avoid problems that might crop up.

And some were never 100% trustworthy, so I had to make adjustments for them. Tex was extremely destructive and was about 6 years old when he finally earned his freedom, BUT he always enjoyed raiding the garbage can so I finally learned to put it up whenever I left the house. Yukon was a counter surfer, and I had to put ALL food items away (including fruits and vegetables). Making small adjustmentslike this made a lot of difference in helping them earn their freedom.


----------



## JenM66 (Jul 28, 2005)

Gracie was allowed out by herself when we weren't home at about 2 years. She is still crated at night.

I started like Gayle did, very short times left out. I blocked off the steps so she could only be downstairs. Now she has free roam all day when we're gone, and chooses to sleep on our bed (which is why she's not out at night....not enough room!).


----------

