Is He Ready?

[beth101509]

Ever since we got Oliver at 9 weeks old, if we run out to the car or to get the mail, we will leave him free in the house. I have been gradually building up to longer times of alone time in the house. We ran to grab a pizza a few months ago and was gone maybe 30 - 45 minutes and left Oliver out and he was on "his" couch staring at the door, waiting for us to come back.

If I walk out the door, he is generally still standing or laying by it when I come back in it. Yesterday, I went outside to clean out my truck and was gone for about 20 - 30 minutes and Oliver was by the front door. I went out the back door just to see what he does when he is alone and at first he sat by the back door, then he went to the bedroom and looked in it to see if I had snuck past him some how, and then he went and laid down by the front door.

He has never chewed on anything that didn't belong to him. He is calm when I leave and when I come home. I have been wanting to test him to see if he can be trusted for longer periods of time but not sure if he is ready or not. My concern is just finding potty or poop in the house, not that he will destroy anything. Now that my husband is on 2nd shift, I have been tempted to leave Oliver out when I leave for work at 7:30am because my husband usually gets up around 10:30am. That would leave 3 hours of free roaming time for Oliver.

I imagine if I left Oliver out when I left for work, my husband would either find Oliver right outside the bedroom door waiting for him to get up, by the front door waiting for me to come back, or on "his" couch where he can see both the front door and the bedroom door.

Thoughts?

[Archie]

Is he loose overnight without issues? Why are you most concerned about potty accidents - is housebreaking still an issue?

If his housebreaking is solid, he doesn't tend to chew, and you've picked up all the tempting and valuable stuff, I'd say give it a try.

You know your dog best!

[Tanya]

Funny that was the issue with Penny - though she was older (closer to 2). She was house trainer in a general wy of speaking (though it took awhile) but when I started leaving her uncrated she was behaved on every account - except she had pee accidents. always on a seperate floor from where she hangs out. So I just kept her on the one floor (main floor) and we are good to go. I have a baby gate at each stair. I have to food proof VERY well for mr Rocky (even though he is 10!!) so that wasn't an issue and I suspect he will always be worse than her on that front.

so I'd try but in small area. A room. a floor if you can keep him there. A place that if he has an accident, oh well. Clean up and move on. Sometimes you hvae to just try.

[beth101509]

Is he loose overnight without issues? Why are you most concerned about potty accidents - is housebreaking still an issue?

If his housebreaking is solid, he doesn't tend to chew, and you've picked up all the tempting and valuable stuff, I'd say give it a try.

You know your dog best!

He sleeps on the floor next to my side of the bed at night uncrated and does just fine. He hasn't had any accidents in the house in months. I know he holds it all night and will until I let him out during the day...I am just worried that he might not hold it if he is alone in a bigger area for a few hours. Do you think I am being crazy?? Lol.

[xracer4844]

If you are in a hurry to stop using the crate then test it. If you aren't in a hurry, then wait until YOU KNOW he won't do anything bad.

[beth101509]

If you are in a hurry to stop using the crate then test it. If you aren't in a hurry, then wait until YOU KNOW he won't do anything bad.

The crate just takes up SOOOO much space that it would be nice to get rid of it.

Funny that was the issue with Penny - though she was older (closer to 2). She was house trainer in a general wy of speaking (though it took awhile) but when I started leaving her uncrated she was behaved on every account - except she had pee accidents. always on a seperate floor from where she hangs out. So I just kept her on the one floor (main floor) and we are good to go. I have a baby gate at each stair. I have to food proof VERY well for mr Rocky (even though he is 10!!) so that wasn't an issue and I suspect he will always be worse than her on that front.

so I'd try but in small area. A room. a floor if you can keep him there. A place that if he has an accident, oh well. Clean up and move on. Sometimes you hvae to just try.

Luckily we have wood floor or tile in the kitchen. All other rooms will be blocked off so, what is the worse that could happen?? At least the pee will be easy to clean up.

[MightyThor]

We started letting Thor have freedom of living room and kitchen around 6 months old. We have dropcams so it started with the same short spans and we'd spy on him. Slowly built up the time and he never showed any boredom or interest in misbehaving. We have a doggy door so that helps - he'll use it to go do his business then come right back inside for a nap on the couch.

The cameras gave (and still give us) peace of mind. And if he ever does misbehave we had the video record to go back to to check on what happened. I've only had to do that twice: the first when I left a big pile of boxes and styrofoam packaging on the dining room floor (my fault) and he had a grand time tearing it all apart. It was mostly just funny to go back and watch how he got into the mischief. The second was when I was dumb enough to trust him around a christmas tree unsupervised. He ate a lot of ornaments, and I could check which ones he ate (luckily it was all soft ones that he tore apart). Basically leaving anything out that is not part of the normal living room/kitchen area is his invitation to misbehave so we keep everything pretty clean!

[Laura]

I don't know if Oliver is ready, but he is MUCH more ready than Theo!

[beth101509]

We started letting Thor have freedom of living room and kitchen around 6 months old. We have dropcams so it started with the same short spans and we'd spy on him. Slowly built up the time and he never showed any boredom or interest in misbehaving. We have a doggy door so that helps - he'll use it to go do his business then come right back inside for a nap on the couch.

The cameras gave (and still give us) peace of mind. And if he ever does misbehave we had the video record to go back to to check on what happened. I've only had to do that twice: the first when I left a big pile of boxes and styrofoam packaging on the dining room floor (my fault) and he had a grand time tearing it all apart. It was mostly just funny to go back and watch how he got into the mischief. The second was when I was dumb enough to trust him around a christmas tree unsupervised. He ate a lot of ornaments, and I could check which ones he ate (luckily it was all soft ones that he tore apart). Basically leaving anything out that is not part of the normal living room/kitchen area is his invitation to misbehave so we keep everything pretty clean!

This has nothing to do with what you said (even though I appreciate your response)....Thor's nose is so dark in that picture, is it still that dark color? I noticed that Oliver's has lightened a lot since he was 9 weeks old. It's gone from that gorgeous dark color to a lighter reddish color.

[Snowshoe]

Am I understanding correctly that Oliver would be loose in the house for three hours but your husband is in the house too? But husband is asleep? IN that case, I'd sure try it. You are going to let him out to potty before you leave, right?

LOL, I think your worries might be mixed. If he's ok potty wise I think you can expect the odd, very infrequent, accident to happen yet. But mostly I bet he's fine. It's tearing the house apart that I think is the bigger worry. That's what they do when they are lonely, bored and understimulated.