FREE RANGE

[REBELBABY]

Rebel has done an excellent job the past couple days, keeping him kenneled has helped with the potty issue as long as i keep to the schedule, but i was wondering how long it might take before he will be able to have free range of the house, how long might i have to keep him in the kennel everyday?

 

[tiffykay06]

Rumble piggy is still in his kennel during the day and he is almost 9 months old. Even in his kennel he still got it pushed up against the wall one day and ate the drywall! This means kennel for him when we are at work. We have tried to leave him out while we are doing yard work or stuff like that where we can check on him and he typically sleeps most of the time but if we are leaving the yard in his kennel he goes. He knows when I grab my purse and turn the radio on that he needs to go in there and he doesn't seem to mind it. It is his own space and it protects him (and our house) that way.

 

[BruceP]

We are on our first puppy so am not much help here. Lil Amy is in and out a lot. She will not go in her crate or her outside pen. Hasnt quite mastered the letting us know when she has to go while free range inside. We try to keep an eye on her any time she is loose in here; grab her when she starts to act 'funny'; and toss her outside. LOL
She is doing well for only 15 weeks we think.

 

[RazrRila99]

Colossus is going on six months old. Hes had free range of the house since beginning of April (got it when he was four months). He would just sit and cry/bark/whine the entire time in the kennel non-stop. So I decided for my sanity he gets to sleep out of the kennel. He will go in the house if I dont keep the basement blocked off, but if I just give him the upstairs he doesnt go (at least hasnt). Im tempted to start having him spend more time downstairs so that he might realize that is living quarters and not a big restroom. He doesnt really tell me when he needs to go outside, I just have to remember to take him out every 90 - 120 minutes.

Moral of the story - it varies by each individual.

 

[Baconator]

Bacon is a year and a half old, he doesn't have any bladder issues he can hold it with no problem. But he does like to unzip the couch cushions and tear apart the inside. We've tried leaving him out a few times and he will be good for awhile then decides to attack the couch and back in his daypen setup he goes.

 

[cali baker]

[MENTION=8935]REBELBABY[/MENTION], you may want to experiment with 30min block increments then work your way up to hourly increments to see how Rebel does with "free range" of the house. I used to let Finn and Tate (now 2+years old), have free range when I lived in my condo, closing off certain doorways and blocking areas, but with our present house, they're pretty much crated all day while I'm at work b/c they just get into too many things still. The longest I've left Finn alone and out of his crate is 30minutes and that was when I took Tate for a walk by himself. When i returned, Finn was innocently napping on the same spot that i left him in. With two tho, there's usually double the trouble so I'm still not very confident and trustworthy!

 

[Davidh]

Until they get at least 2 years of age, it's safer to keep them crated just to keep them out of mischief when you are not at home. Our girls we crate everyday when we are gone. Buddy is the only one who gets to be out and that's because he never gets into anything. But the girls, well that's a different story.

 

[2BullyMama9]

usually around 2 yrs old... some older

 

[mer55]

Bogey is almost 9 months old. We started about 1 1/2 months ago, putting his xpen attached to his crate with the door open. We did this when we went out for a couple of hours. This gave him a good area to get up and move about, yet small enough to contain him from "trouble." He has never had an accident in this area. Onto stage 2: took his crate away, and used the xpen to cordon off a fairly large area of our living room. He has a brand new bed and it is tucked into the corner where his crate was. Again, he has been fine with this freedom. For the last 2 weeks we have been leaving him for a couple of hours at a time with free range of our home, minus the bedrooms(doors are shut). At night, I stilluse the xpen to cordon off his corner of the living room. Eventually, we will take the xpen away. It really is different with each bully. bogey is not a chewer or destroyer of pillows or cushions, so he has earned some trust in that department. So far, so good with his housebreaking. He will get more freedom as he gets older. Good luck!!

 

[babybully]

I have begun taking a later lunch at work, around 2 or 2:30, to come out and let them potty and have been letting them stay out until I am off for good which is 4:45. It only takes me 10 mins or less to get to and from work and I have an hour lunch so it's perfect for letting them out. They have done good so far but when we first moved here it was B.A.D. Cleo ate my new leather couch and Mac ate some dry wall. They haven't done anything since they did that though. Also, I've been leaving them out while I run and errand and we went to the movies on Friday night and I left them out. I absolutely hate kenneling them if we are not at work so I'm trying to make this work out.