When did you start to leave your pup uncrated when gone?

jellyfish

I've been giving Toki some free range of the house when I am gone (closing off extra rooms and bathrooms, picking up inappropriate items, ect...) and he has done well in the last few weeks without a problem. I've been leaving him alone for a few hours at a time. If I'm gone a long while, he gets crated. Sometimes we let him sleep in our bedroom at night and he has always done well overnight.

Until a few days ago he destroyed my boyfriends $400 oakly glasses. (he needed to get new glasses anyway, so it's all good). ...I guess glasses are super fun, he keeps taking them off my head...>_>

So I'm rethinking this. He might be too young, in retrospect. He is 10 months. (Japanese Akita, for those who don't know)

When did you know your pup was ready to have free range of the house? How old? Or rather, how did you transition your pup into having freedom at home when gone? Or do you even give them free range at all?

Keep in mind Toki is an only-dog, so he is by himself when I leave him. No doggie friends.

Julia

BradA1878

We crate our dogs when we are gone until they are over 2 years old.

PoetikDragon

I never leave them uncrated or outside of their runs while gone.

All it took was one incident when my dogs ate a bottle of aspirin, for me to be terrified of what innocuous thing they might get into while unsupervised.

I wouldn't let a small child run around my house and yard alone, and the same goes for my dogs. (The dogs are probably smarter and more destructive, too!)

WrylyBrindle

I decide by the dog.
I still crate Juno when I go out for the day (like to work, or if we drive off somewhere). Its mostly because I can know that she is safe, and she doesnt mind at all, so I'll keep crating her as far as I can see- its a useful managment piece, esp with multiple dogs. She is almost 18 months. If she hated the crate, I could trust her with Reilly both loose all day, but her willingness to crate keeps me doing the right thing.

I have two other much bigger dogs in the house and two gimpy, elderly cats, so I feel best knowing that potential for mayhem is low.

I also close Sage in the studio when I am gone for a while- he is 6 yo. This way I know he is cool, and that he has limited window-stimulation and sound stimulation possibilities. He's a reactive dog and his management is stiffer than for the girls. That's not exactly crating, but it is limiting him while unsupervised.

Reilly has had free range since she was 6 or 8 months- she's 9 yo now.

PoetikDragon

However, to answer your question... it depends on the dog. I would trust Gojira and Gryphon loose in the house and any of my dogs loose in the yard. Gojira was locked in the house uncrated while recovering from her surgery these past two weeks. Gryphon gets to sleep uncrated in our bedroom at night because we can't arrange 4 crates such that all the doors can be opened so we only use 3. But Mosura is a shredder - anything cloth or paper she will tear up in a New York minute. Ghidora once chewed on our bed comforter, and another time marked the couch, both habits he picked up from our foster ShaSha - so he lost all privileges.

Nanook

when nanook my 2 year old shiba inu was a puppy he hated crates and I mean he hated them the way he hates baths which is pretty serious, I had a 2nd dog who was 5 years older than him at the time and she was super behaved in the house and she never needed a crate we started leaving nanook out alone with her when he was about 4 months old because he learned what to do and what not to do from our older dog, what also helped was that we taught him things not to chew and what to chew on and left him alone little by little and gradually increased the hours of him being left alone with my rottweiler. Now we can leave him alone for as long as we have to and he would just sleep. All in All it takes time, patience, and gradually increasing the hours of being left alone

dlroberts

I agree with Brad, 2 years old is a good rule of thumb. Of course modifications for individual dogs is expected. It depends on their reliability, energy level, interest in items they aren't supposed to have, existence of other dogs, etc. Just use your judgement. If he's making mistakes, it's probably too early to have him out.

lockshi3

2 years is a good rule of thumb. My boy is a little over 2, but I still crate him if I know I will be gone for the majority of the day. If I am only running some quick errands I allow him to stay out. Unfortunately my pup can be more on curious side and can get bored easily, so I feel much more secure with knowing that he is in his crate for his safety.

Heidi

My dogs can be left uncrated and not get into trouble. I crate them when I go, though, because you never know. I expect them to just sleep while I'm gone anyway, so what difference does it make if they're in their crates? I give them a chew, and half the time, they don't even bother chewing, they just go to sleep. When I come back to let them out, they're just resting.

My main reasons are
1) I have a cat that roams free and while I completely trust my dogs with her, you never know
2) I don't want them looking out the front window and getting worked up while I'm gone
3) Every once in a while they get it in their heads that they're going to poop/pee in the kids' dirty laundry (usually after one of them has had an accident and there's residual odour in the dirty laundry)
and 4) You never know what else might happen, what they could get into, or whatever else.

PoetikDragon

I agree completely with @hondru's reasons for crating and @WrylyBrindle's assertion that the dog can be crated while the owner is gone indefinitely if he/she doesn't mind it.

T_Dog

I stopped crating Ares at 4 months, he still don't mind the crate. I just gate off the kitchen with a baby gate and I leave several chew toys on the floor a large bowl of water, not to full, he is a year old now. He is ok to let roam in the living room if all the stuff is picked up from the end tables. My shiba is house ready and has be since 1 years old and he I 9 months older the Ares. Sometimes we separate Tachi to the living room, but he will just jump the gate to play with Ares.
After potty training, I stopped crating him, and pinned him to the one room because he still needed to learn good house manners, what to chew on, and not chew on. I also keep him in my bedroom when I sleep that way if he really needs out he can wake my wife. Lol. I don't really see the need for him to run the whole house when we are gone. After all it is only a clamp up baby gate he has been trained not to knock it down. But has only felt the need to get in the living room enough to knock down the gate, one time. They learn good house manners if they aren't given the chance to screw up when u leave them unattended.

Heidi

Oh yeah, another reason to use the crate even when it's not necessary: because it's good for the dogs to be used to it because someday, it probably will be necessary and you don't want to have to re-crate-train your dog.

MirkaM

I only crate my dogs when it is necessary (when we have girls in season). I have never understand why to crate your dog while you are gone... And it's illegal here in Finland to crate dog to small crate for more than couple hours.

jellyfish

thanks everyone for the input! All are really good reasons and it is nice to see how other people handle the situation. I think I will be starting over with more crating and gradually re-introduce more freedom.

And maybe this has something to do with it too.....Lately, Toki has been acting up. I guess it his "adolescence" phase? He has been playing with a lot of things he shouldn't play with, like pillows and shoes, (things we thought we were improving on). He hates getting on the couch, but ever since his puppy friend and him played on our couches a week or so ago, he gets on the couch a lot more often. Or he will mouth our hands and arms, which, we also thought we were improving on.

It seems like, and maybe I'm just looking to blame, but for a weekend a short time ago, I was out of town so I left Toki in my boyfriend's care. Upon returning, a few shoes, my swim cap, my headphones, and a few other things were destroyed due to my boyfriend's lack of watchfulness and discipline. He was also allowed to have free range of the entire house while my boyfriend slept, which, I have never done. I feel like ever since that weekend, Toki has been uncooperative. It would be very frustrating if this was not a coincidence.

lindsayt

We had this "discussion" on the Shiba side a while back about how it's more common in the US to crate, and is considered cruel in some other countries. Basically, it's another tool to use and if it is used humanely, there shouldn't be any moral judgement attached.

I prefer not to crate my adults when I leave. 2 years seems like a good time frame for "graduation" from crating, but it depends on the dog.

Mike283

Toshi is a kai and he's hasn't been in a crate since he was around 4 months old and he hasn't had any accidents or destroyed anything, he's definitely an exception probably, we got lucky.

Sangmort

We crate our pups when we're not home, asleep, or a few other instances. I've heard too many horror stories of dogs getting into stuff & choking, or getting out somehow when they were left unsupervised. On top of that, we have a ton of other critters here in the house, so it's safer for the other animals if the pups are crated when we're not there.

I agree with whoever said they just sleep anyway. At least, mine do. Hell, when they're NOT crated, they eventually go back into their crates anyway and just chill there of their own decision. ~

obuk

Also, if anyone ever plans on moving across the ocean (or wherever you can't go by car), it is really useful to have the dog crate trained already since on a plane, they have to be in a crate. (at least a Nihon ken sized dog does)

shibamistress

It depends on the dog, but I've been pretty luck that most of mine are ok uncrated at about 1 year old to 1.5 years old. I still do crate some dogs, though, because we have management issues (ie. dogs that won't tolerate one another). So someone (mostly Leo the Kai Ken puppy) is usually in the giant crate (which I just decided to measure: it is 4.5 feet long by 4 feet tall, by 3 feet wide) and someone (Toby the Shiba) is usually in his room (except at night when he is free downstairs and Bel (Shiba) is in the giant crate. Oskar the Akita only goes in the big crate to eat or when guests come (he jumps up, and he's huge, so we have to put him in there). Leo sleeps in a regular sized crate upstairs.

The Shibas all got free reign in the house at a little over a year old. Oskar was probably closer to 1.5 years old. He was never much of a chewer (like the Shibas were) but he did tend to pee in the house more, esp. out of excitement, so it was better to keep him contained.

My husband had the idea, recently, that Leo, who is only 4 months old, was ready to be out of the crate at night. He was not. This resulted in lots of peeing on the carpet, destruction of some of my clothes, and a lot of destruction of plants in the deck garden (we leave the door to the deck open at night for the Akita). Leo is back in his create at night, and in the big crate downstairs during the day if we can't supervise him.

Losech

Conker was crated when he was very little, then he was given "free reign" of the kitchen (very small space, no stuff to get into) when he was about 5 month old but that was at my old apartment. When I moved, he was put into my room (again a small space) but was only crated if he was sick or my room was a wreck. He graduated to free reign when he was about 10 months old.

Juneau and Sasha love their crates. You set up a crate and they spot it, they'll go into it pronto, no direction needed. They were crated until they were about 1 1/2 years old, then we took the crate doors off and let them decide where to go when we were gone. After we moved to Oregon, one of the crates went missing and the rabbit uses half of the other one for a sunhouse.

Nowadays, nobody is crated when we are gone. The dogs have free access to the whole house (if no doors are closed) as well as the back yard and garage. Most of the time they just sleep while we are gone.

sjp051993

@Mike823 - the pups were hardly ever crated while they were here.
Kazue, Ren and Hiro are all crated when I leave. Ren and Kazue have free run of the house at night though. Hiro use to have free roam, but he kept getting into trouble. He actually prefers his crate and willing goes in it when I go to leave or we go to bed. He has a crate in the bedroom and a crate downstairs. Tora was just in season so Kuma spent some time in a crate as well. Mine will also go into a crate to sleep on their own.

sachismom

Sachi (AA) was about 6 months old when I'd leave her out for an hour or two at a time. I shut the bedroom and bathroom doors, but she mostly sleeps by one door (to the outside) or the other. She still gets crated during "nap time" for a couple hours at daycare each day, so she's very comfortable going into her crate to lay down out of the way. Now, I'll leave her out for up to 5 hours, but play it by ear. Sometime when I call her in and she can tell (not sure how) that I am leaving, she goes into the crate. When she does that I give her a treat and shut the crate door. But, mostly since she was 8 months I leave her out. I have 2 cats, but they have many high enough perches, all seem to interact well, I feel like a am not taking too much of a chance because Sachi is mellow and seems to have a fairly low prey drive for an Akita. If she was different I would probably respond differently. So, I agree with most all above, it depends on the dog.

timkim

my First one, I crated her until 8 months old. I only let her out when I was there and put her in kennel when I wasn't. After 8 months I started let her out all day. she is well trained and because of her personality, she doesn't chew and mess anything which doesn't belongs to her. I kept her inside house for 12 hours every day and she didn't mess anything.
now I got second one, I just let him with my 1st one and he learned from her. didn't make 1 mistake inside of my house since day 1.
now I don't crate them all all. I only put them in kennel when My gardener is there. Age doesn't really matter, it really depends on dog.

shibamistress

I was thinking of this thread yesterday, after I had to have a talk with my husband about crating the puppy. He insists Leo is fine outside of the crate. So yesterday he went to work at 8, and I got up at 8:30 as I was awoken by loud noises downstairs. The loud noises were simply Leo dragging the metal food bowls to the sofa, but in the half hour he'd been uncrated he had chewed on my glasses which I had left up high (but he had climbed up to get them!), chewed and apparently ate part of my exam review notes for my patho/phys class, and started gnawing on a library book, before he got distracted and decided to play with the dog dishes.

Sigh.

Someone got in trouble. It was not Leo. *lol*

ttddinh

Kaiju (1.5) is never crated anymore he has access to the backyard. Well, he use to be crated, but he cried and my FIL let him out every time, so he does not get crated.

Bea (8) is not crated, though we have to be careful, she has separation anxiety from me so I must leave without her knowing or else she will bust through the screen. However, in the last few months, there has been gun shots/firecrackers and it freaks her out so she is crated at night now.

Kilbe (9 mos) is crated, she is a menace (she has chewed up too many things) and plus Bea picks on her and nips/bites her when she gets out of line (i.e. barking or whining).