When did your dog get free reign of the house? + housebreaking

I used to be adamantly against crates -- all of the above criticisms and then some. 

UNTIL ...

I've had dogs become random chewers late in life.  I came home to a dog who had never in FIVE YEARS chewed not even one small thing and one day he chewed a six foot diameter hole in a Vellux blanket!  Yes lovely synthetic threads that could have chewed him to pieces inside. 

His health had changed ... for the better actually and he became a power chewer late in life.

Within just a few months I came face to face with the reality that I had to crate them for their own safety.  They got to playing and pulled a heavy appliance off.  They got into a cupboard and ate 5 pounds of raw potato.  They got access to 4 pounds of bird seed (owww that HAD to hurt coming out).

Then one of them got sick -- which one?  We didn't know because the accidents only happened during the day and I couldn't figure it out because they all ate the same thing. 

So mine are crated.  They sleep.  They're fine.  They aren't crated when we're at home -- never ever at night.  But coming home to find that one nearly electrocuted himself and/or almost set the house on fire?  No ... not smart.

Our dogs are ALL rescues.  These aren't dogs we've had from tiny puppies, and we both work long hours away from home.  so they're crated.  If one is sick I know it THAT night.  I know who and what happened.  NO guessing. 

I'm not going to apologize for using crates.  I think it's an individual decision each family needs to make according to what works in their home. 

I will say, I hate to hear of people crating puppies during the day to "housetrain them".  Ewwww -- HUMANS need to housetrain dogs, not crates.  But there are times when it is what works.  And it's far far better than having to lay open an animal from stem to stern because *somewhere* there is an obstruction ... maybe ... that maybe has almost killed them.  Or HAS killed them. 

Not on *my* watch. 

 sydney gets free roam of the house anytime i am home. i tried him out of his crate during the day when i am at work. he would randomly destroy stuff. so for now at least he is crated during the day.

Kord has had 1, just 1, accident in the house in the 2 years we have had him.

 He is only crated when we leave the house for extened time frames as a couple. My husband is home all day and Kord is never in his crate unless that is where he wants to be.

As for my previous dog, she was never crated.

 Bugsy was housetrained instantly - he had been a stray so may be he thought it was weird to go inside

We got him he was about 12 wks old.

He was crated when we went out until he was about 11 months old - then he had the kitchen and sunroom.  Then he had the whole ground floor and then he had the whole house.  We discovered early on that when we left he went on his bed and stayed there.  He never chewed anything while we were gone and had no inclination to counter surf.

He slept in his crate BY CHOICE, until he was about 2 and we had to kennel him for 8 nights.  When we got back he didn't sleep in his crate any longer.  So it got moved.

We did crate him even when we were home as a pup because he had no inborn 'off' button - in the crate was 'off'.

 If I had it my way, all of the dogs would be crated for they're whole lives when we're out. I just feel it's safer for a number of reasons for them, and since they like their crates, why not.

I think it's beyond cruel to leave a dog confined in a tiny cage for more than four hours at a time. And since we frequently have to leave the house for more than four hours, we don't bother to use them at home.

 "Tiny cage", though, mudpuppy. I use 42" crates, and have a toy sized dog and a small dog. They can stretch in any direction, and still have room for two more dogs, in there!

Emma stopped having accidents around 14 months. That's when her incontinence was diagnosed, and started to be treated. Now, if she pees somewhere, it's because something's wrong (she's had a seizure, she's injured, or she has a UTI). She is confined, for her safety, when I'm not home. She hopped off of a 12" grooming table, a couple of months ago, and severely injured herself. It's something she does all the time. If she jumped off of the couch or bed when I left for work, and was injured... she'd have to wait all day for me to come take her to the doctor. The THOUGHT of that brings tears to my eyes. She was in *so* much pain, that day. They had to sedate her, because she was twitching and flinching at every touch or sound. We were all just waiting for her to start to seizure.

Ena is 7 months old, today, and not reliably house trained. She still tears stuff up, and will still wet the floor, if nobody is there to let her out. She occasionally doesn't make it to the door, in the morning. I take that as a sign that her body just isn't developed enough to "hold it" for that long. 

I take them to work 9 times out of 10, anyways, so it isn't an issue. They both choose to sleep in open crates, while I groom.

Legend was out of a crate before a year..in fact, he'd graduated to being confined to a large room well before that.  He's had free run of the house since then. Jules stays in the bedroom when I'm gone just because he's bossy with the other pets if there's no one to keep him in check.  He's a yorkie though, so it's not exactly torture for him.  Ginger, who is 8 lbs, also roams at will.  

Aesop is housebroken potty wise. He's confined while I'm at work, though he has an ex pen, just so he doesn't mouth things he shouldn't, or accidentally injure/annoy Legend, who is not the most stable on his feet. I go home at lunch to let him potty and get some good play time in (I have a longer lunch and am not far away)..though honestly he likes to nap during the day and gets annoyed at my interrupting it..he'll usually wander out, pee, and then come in to fall into a sleeping heap of Chow puppy.

We were very lucky with Willow.  She had never lived in a house before but I had to do no house training.  She was just excellent right from the first night.  She's had less than five accidents inside in five years and they were either due to illness or us getting delayed unexpectedly. 

I never crated her but I did put up gates and I kept her in the kitchen and off of rugs at first.  Then once I realized she was OK and not destructive I let her have all rooms--except ours.  That's one room she's not allowed when we aren't home. 

Every so often I'll gate her off in a room just to keep her guessing.  But, really she's got free reign and has right from pretty much the start.  She was about 2 when she came here.

Only Tar is crated when we leave. Sometimes, I think this is more for them than it is for us. His crate is his safe spot, and he'll often go in there on his own.

Brown is older and only wants to sleep in our bed so he's not crated. Grey is the same way, although he will climb on our counters if there's something appealing (like diaper rash cream lol). I wish I would have crated Grey from the beginning, but I didn't know then what I know now.

 Potty time isn't an issue for us. I'm starting to think that my crew would die before they went in the house. Brown was trained immediately. Tar did well quickly, too. Grey is the only one who I actually had to teach from the beginning. It took about 2 weeks to trust him a little more, but now, Grey could go for a day without peeing. He has an iron bladder lol.

Tootsie was reliable since she was 10 weeks. She was gated in the kitchen when we were gone, for about a month, then she had free reign. She has never been a chewer and was completely housetrained by 12 weeks. She was a very easy puppy and having an adult dog to show her the ropes really helped. So did a dog door. 

No crates in about 6 months.  Amelia will not even get in her crate now.  I have left it open with her bed in it.  She NEVER goes in it.  She sleeps in my bed or by my side always.  There have been no issues other than her getting into the litterbox (recently solved) or eating the cat food (will be solved soon).  She has not chewed anything other than her toys and she will NOT potty in the house.  She is almost 4 now.  She was crated up until 6 months ago because of Sydney and Emma and how they all interacted when left alone.  But since being out on our own she does not need crating any longer.  She is such a happier dog without it.

As for HB, she took about 2 months maybe (we got her when she was 4 months old, and she had been abused).  Now she would die before going in the house.  She is so timid she would be horrified to do it now.  Bless her heart.  She holds it until I get home.

She is pretty well behaved.  Have very few issues with her.

 Cheyanne never used a crate. Heck I didnt know what a crate was 7 years ago. Luckily for me she didnt need one. School was out when I got her so potty training was no issue. She has peed in the house once in 7 years that I can remember and it was my fault. Anyways Cheyanne had free access to the house since the day I got her.

Lillie likes to chew on stuff even at close to 2 years old and with plenty of toys plus a kong so she has to be crated. But now in this house the dogs have their own room so Lillie is only crated at night time. I will probably never let her alone in the house. I did try it twice at the trailer. I had just gotten her a kong so she was busy with it. The second time I tried it she knew what was up and tore up some of Samantha's toys. She was house trained when I got her.

Kujo cant have free access to the house because she gets mad and pees in the floor if we leave her at home alone. She only does it when we leave by car. We can go walking and she wont do anything in the house. But dont take her bye bye and you will be stepping in her pee first thing walking in the door. But that is the only time she gets put in a crate. Ahhh it took a year before she was house trained.

I had a horrible time housebreaking the shelties, well, particularly Ripley. He was 8 or 9 months old before he fully "got it". Frosty was a bit sooner, like 6 months. My shelties have been able to be uncrated since about a year, so long as I pick up a bit before I leave. They'll get things like pencils or tissues, but no big time damage and no accidents anymore. Shiner I adopted as an adult and he was housetrained, but he is a serious chewer, so he is still crated when I'm gone. He is somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 now...it is always a training goal of mine to get my dogs out of crates and Shiner has made alot of progress, but it still may be 6 more months before I feel comfortable uncrating him.

 Let's see - I still don't trust Dakota out of a crate when I'm not home but I leave her out anyway.

Neiko has had free reign of the house for a couple of months now. He's 1.5 yrs old. He has been solidly house broken since he was a pup. The issue was chewing.

I test Lily every so often. She's out of the crate today in fact. We'll see how she did when I get home. Even though she doesn't chew on things (except bones) she does have house breaking mistakes when I'm not home sometimes. I believe this is a carry over from her original home. I *think* we may be there though - which is why I'm testing her today.

Abbie is only 6 months old and there's no way I'd leave her out. She is house broken but is a crazy chewer and never sits still.

Honor housetrained easily, but both Nike and Honor are crated when both DH and I cannot be home.  I think transitioning Nike out of the crate will be easy, because he isn't a chewer at all.  As we've only had him about a month now, I've been crating him when we're not home during this housetraining process.  As for Honor, she is just too mischievous for her own good.  She loves to chew and dig, which is completely manageable when we're home, but I am too afraid for her safety when we are not home.  Now that we have a house, DH and I were talking about baby-gating sections of the house to try and get her safely acclimated to being loose when no one's supervising.  I'm also hoping that Nike's good behavior might rub off on her.

In the meantime, they both have large crates, and are never crated when at least one of us is home.  That is the only virtue our retail work schedules give us, those flexible hours guarantee that they're never crated for more than around 4 hours.   I'm hoping that with time and effort Honor can have the run of the house.  She's the first dog I've had who isn't completely trustworthy alone, but I think with work she'll get there.