At what age...

[EGrant23]

If you do, did you start leaving your pup out of his/her crate while being gone? Our Bo is 6 months old and we figured it was too early but we wanted to test it out. Closing all bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. We started two weeks ago, starting with an hour or so. We got up to 6 hours but the last few times, he got into some books from our bookshelf which he has never touched before, as well as some dishes out of the sink. Needless to say he is back in his crate. Wishful thinking at this young age I guess. We sometimes just feel so guilty leaving him in his crate for 8 hours a day with a 30 minute break when I come home for lunch.

[Labradorks]

Six months is 99% of the time too young. Dogs acclimate easily, and if 8 hours in a crate with a 30 minute break is what he knows, then that is that. It's typically only for the first year or so. He's fine.

One of my dogs was crate free at a year, one was 18 months and one was crate-free at 9 months. Before allowing them out all day, I would let them out half a day, usually the first half, after a walk. Seems that dogs tend to get a little anxious when they are expecting you home in the evenings, at least that is my experience. Typically I do the half-day thing when they are around 9 months but Linus was 7 months and Sam was a year. Linus is different though, an old soul I suppose, and matured pretty quickly.

You still have a potential adolescence phase to go through, which is typically between the 8 and 10 month mark. These can be trying times!

[EGrant23]

Thanks! Like I said, we just wanted to try it out for longer periods of time as he was fine for an hour or two. This is our first lab and we are definitely starting to get to that adolescence stage!

[SunDance]

Danny was the first dog I've had who could be trusted that young. Everyone else had at least one special something that would be gnawed on or destroyed. I can't remember the age, but I'm thinking it was closer to a year.

[smartrock]

Chase was crated until he was 3 years old while we were out. He had still been known to eat socks or gnaw on things he shouldn't even after his 2nd birthday. Lark got her freedom, mostly, at about 24 months. Lark has a tendency to pester Chase and as anyone with 2 or more labs knows, play can get a bit loud and rough. Chase outweighs her by 20 pounds and I wanted to wait until she was both grown and the peskiness had diminished. Had she been an only "child", I probably would have tested her out of the crate sooner. I work part-time, so most days they weren't crated during the day except for brief periods. Our first dogs, boxers, were crated for a few years when we were out- they could tear up a house like nobody's business, egging each other on. Our bullmastiffs could be trusted uncrated by about 6 months of age- those were some placid dogs. You kind of have to read your dog's readiness. Don't feel too bad if he still needs to be crated while you're out, he's still young. You're protecting both him and your home. Try to give him some exercise before you leave and of course, when you get home. You may soon be able to leave him out for the morning and put him in his crate after the lunchtime break for the afternoon. I'd wait several weeks and try again.

We still have a crate set up and Chase loves a good crate session. He goes in to hang out for no reason. Lark doesn't find the crate as welcoming as Chase does but she'll go in if instructed to do so and doesn't seem to object to her time there. If we go to visit people or have to stay in a hotel, I bring travel crates and use them when they have to be alone. I don't want them up on other people's furniture or beds or otherwise being unwelcome guests. Chase rejoices in his crate time, Lark tolerates it.

[Snowshoe]

I did start at six months but with much shorter times. The first time all I did was go out my front door and across the street to pick up the mail and come back in and when I got in Jet had managed to get herself up into the bay window sill, not a low window.

I don't like crating that long either. Jet's crate was in a big sturdy pen we built and put in the dining room. The crate door was open, she could move around and the odd time we exceeded her bathroom limit she picked the corner of the pen farthest from the crate and the opening to the pen to pee in. We gated Oban in the kitchen but a big caveat, puppies can wreck your kitchen. Still, is either of those an option? There's also doggy day care and/or a dog walker.

[Tanya]

completely depends on the dog. but 6 months would be very early.

I got Rocky at 18mt but he was crated until around 4. From 2-4 I repeatedly tried leaving him uncrated and it would go well for week, sometimes months. Then he'd just get into thing after thing so he went back to the crate.

Penny I got at around 7-10 months ish (best guess). She was never really destructive but I started testing her out of the crate around 2. The only issue I had was she would pee. With some dog proofing and her getting used to things we're good now, she is gated to the main living area (where she is not likely to want to soil) and her just seeming to be better able to hold it in (she doesn't even rush to pee when I get home, she'll run around the yard awhile) things are good.

[Annette47]

Depends on the dog. We give ours graduated freedom .... once out of the crate they first get the kitchen/family room to roam in (where they spend most of their time when we are home). It’s an area that has not only been puppy proofed but since they’ve been living in it under supervision they know what things are and are not ok to do. Then they gradually work their way up to the rest of the house.

For us, the girls have all been ok in the gated area between 4-6 months. Mulder on the other hand was over a year before we could trust him out of his crate at all. The only way to know is, as you have done, try it and see what happens. The puppies are 6 months today and if we are gone for short periods get the entire house, but the bathroom doors remain shut (since they like to shred toilet paper) and my daughters’ bedrooms remain shut since they can’t keep their rooms clean enough to not be tempting for a pup. They’ve been doing fine with it, but for longer periods we do keep them gated in the kitchen/family room still. Edited to add, they’ve never been particularly destructive - the non-toy items they chew are mostly paper if they find it on the ground or sticks they bring in from the yard when we are not paying enough attention (and end up in a pile of wood chips all over the carpet!)

[MightyThor]

Thor started to gain his freedom around 6 months, for very short periods of time. We are in a good situation where both my husband and I work from home. When we first brought Thor home he was either being supervised by one of us or in his crate at all times. Around 6 months old, we installed Dropcams in our living room and started letting him out of the crate while we were in our home offices. The cool thing about Dropcams is that we can watch the live stream through our browsers or a mobile app, so we'd keep an eye on him from the next room over. It's easy to intervene if something were to go downhill, but he never got into trouble. After a month of success we would leave the house for short little stretches (running to the store, talk to the neighbors, etc).

He took to the freedom very well, but he was never really a destructive puppy to begin with. The closest thing we had to watch was his backyard freedom - we have a doggy door into a fully enclosed backyard space so he is free to go in and out as he pleases. As a puppy he would love to go out and get into the wood pile, picking up sticks and wood chips. It took a while to stop that behavior, but again, the dropcams helped us nip it in the bud before he got too into it.

[zd262]

Bubba is 8 months old and I've just started giving him freedom. He's out for about 2-3 hours, then his dog walker comes, and then he's out for another 3ish hours before I get home from work. So far no problems, but it's not an everyday thing since I also work from home a lot.

Also the area is EXTREMELY puppy proofed. Basically the only thing in the room is furniture and his toys.