Transitioning away from crating...

Does she do stuff like that when you're home, too?  If so, I'd wait until she's not getting into things while you were home.  We know there's no way Caleb can be left "free"yet, even in just one room.  Even tho he's getting better, we're still reminding him not to grab/chew stuff while we're home. 

Yes I suppose it might be too soon. She's pretty good when we keep the house clean and everything put away. But maybe once she's a little older she will leave things alone...

Just to set your mind at ease, SA is something that a dog has regardless of whether they're crated or not. It only develops after a traumatic event and if Scout isn't SA now, she won't be outside the crate either. What she did is just because she could. [] When I leave Marlowe alone in his room, I make sure the curtains are tied up and there's nothing within his grasp.

We are slowly beginning to ween Winston off of the constant crating when we are gone . . . . our approach is going to be/has been thus far (we just started a couple days ago) is to leave him out of his crate while we do things outside in the yard, or run to the store.  At most we are gone for 15 minutes.  We'll slowly add more and more time.

We've done this a few times now and all has been well, in fact when we get home he usually comes trotting out of his crate . . . .

We are also going to start letting him sleep in the bed at night.  Right now we just let him sleep there while we read or watch TV in bed, but he does not get to stay all night.

One thing I should add though is that Winston (oddly enough) does not get into things in the house while we are home.  And if he does, its our mistake for leaving it within reach.  But he's never chewed on any furniture, or destroyed something in the house.  *Knocking on wood* []

We are also lucky that Scout is not excessively destructive... she has never chewed furniture or anything like that. But she can't resist paper related things, like tissue paper, cardboard....
 
Although she may not have full blown SA I think I need to work on more separation with her. Lately if we don't let her out of the crate within 5 min of getting home she whines and carries on and I hear her pawing at the crate. She settles once she realized it's not getting her anywhere. What made me more uneasy though, was just how much she needs to be with me everywhere I go in the house. Up to the bathroom? Scout's laying outside the door waiting. Walking down the hall? Scout's right beside me. Unless she's unusually tired, she has a hard time not following me everywhere.

Maybe you should supervise her "free hour", you cant do it while you are at home and you can see what she likes to "go for" (like the curtains), and perform a body blocking between her and the curtains so she can realize that they are an item that "belongs" to you and they cant be touch by her
 
By letting her alone she wont realize what it can be touch or not unless you show her []