Possible free roam of kitchen when gone

[4WHLN]

OK I must be losing my mind because lately I'm considering leaving Dooley out in the kitchen while I am away at work. I cant think for the life of me why I think he is different from all the other angles I read about on this site that eat the couch and peel the sheet rock off the walls........ He is kennel trained and seams to like it but I am gone 8-9 hrs a day for work lately and think he would rather have a little freedom during the day. Am I making a huge mistake by thinking he will be a good boy during the day? Or is he going to look at my table and chairs as an over sized chew toy? On the weekends he likes to sit and lay by the kitchen door for hours while looking outside. The only thing he tends to go after other than his toys is the firewood stacked next to the fireplace. For some reason, he takes a liking to the fresh logs I bring in the house.

Has anyone had any success transitioning their EBD to the free world?
Will this mess him up with the kennel should he have to spend time in it again?
What about night time?

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Pati Robins]

Im not much help as my girls had a free run since day 1 (shy after few weeks of crate training) i make sure that kitchen is puppy proofed (as we left Lilly there while potty training) -we are using a child/dog gate to separate them from the living room but they still could see in -we also ise it when we got visitors
We had no problems with her neither
In fact they sleep at night in the kitchen -i move their bed from the living room and they follow
In the day they tend to sleep on the sofas ;-)

 

[cali baker]

Could you slowly transition Dooley to the 8-9hours of free range instead of doing it all at once? Maybe on a weekend you can test him out for a couple hours and then if he does fine, increase the time period. Mine do not have free range of the house (yet), while i'm at work but sometimes on the weekend I will leave them out if i know i'll be gone for an hour or less.

 

[4WHLN]

I was going to start small and build up to a full day. Like you said with an hour here or there and see how he does. But if I do this, will he take to going back in his kennel if he needed? Or is this a dog to dog thing. Every dog Ive had has had free roam but they have all been older rescues. Dooley is my first puppy. He is 10 months now and was thinking of doing this when he turns one.

 

[dolphin]

I think it's a great idea if you do it slowly like you said. Good to see you on here again!

 

[TheLost]

Bored = Trouble.

Puppy proof the area and make sure he has lots of things to do and you should be ok. The trick is to know what he's going to do then make sure he cant do it

Molly has free reign of our house while we are gone... but she will pull the toilet paper rolls off the wall if we leave any bathroom door open. So in our house... last one out closes all the bathroom doors or they get to clean up the shredded TP mess (and possibly buy a new TP wall hanger)

Side note... to keep him off the firewood you my want to try giving him one of these:

I've seen them at most pet stores (petco, petsmart.. etc). My Blue Heeler loves them... Molly not so much. She is waiting for them to come out with a Toilet Paper flavored one.

 

[Marine91]

We have a large play pen that we use that has Harlea's coolaroo and many of her toys and water in it for when we leave the house. it isn't as confining as a crate as she has more room to walk around or lounge as she chooses. It is setup in my office right now and she goes in and out of it all day and we just shut the door when we leave and come back to her usually snoozing or chewing on one of her nylabones and don't have any chewed up walls or cabinets to deal with.

 

[fastmatt613]

I have been leaving Rocco in the kitchen while I'm away about a month now. He sleeps on his bed in my bedroom as well. No accidents so far. But last week he was in a destructive mood for a few days and chewed up a cabinet shelf while I was away. He's lucky I'm yet to redo the kitchen but you never know what's gonna make them naughty when they feel like it. He has plenty of nylabones in the kitchen too

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[KMARINO]

I agree with the above, Vegas was crate trained, I bought a baby gate and would allow him out in the kitchen an hour, a couple hours, half day etc....until I felt I could trust him. He's 4.5 now and has full roam since he was around 1, but loves his crate, I never lock the door on it but he goes in on his own to nap or go night-night.

Oh and I kept all kinds of antlers and kongs in the kitchen when I let him free. I have all tile floors so I would just pull up the rugs when he was in training to free roam.

 

[4WHLN]

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm going to implement operation freedom starting this weekend. Hopefully he doesn't make me regret this decision.


Oh and pics for your viewing pleasure

 

[KMARINO]

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm going to implement operation freedom starting this weekend. Hopefully he doesn't make me regret this decision.


Oh and pics for your viewing pleasure

What a handsome boy!!

 

[Gfitz911]

You seem to be getting great advice. We crate trained Koozer then slowly transitioned him to free roam. I would suggest putting his crate in the kitchen with him, so he has his little "home" too. Good luck!

 

[dalmatina38]

Amber is transitioned from the crate to free roam. Successful is all about perspective........she has gone for months at a time and not touched anything. This week.....I should be so lucky........she decidede the power strip the tv plugs into had to go, she got a blue writing pen and I came home to ink all over her blanket she likes to drag around, bathroom door was left open and she took out the shower curtain, toliet paper and was chewed up the toliet plunger to some extent, somehow she got my granddaughters box of diapers and disassembled them. Two weeks ago it was water jugs and the cooking oil (that was a mess to clean up) and I thought it was Amber and Ruby tearing things up but Ruby has been back in her kennel so we know the culprit.......divide and the truth shall be seen.........all in all I would say we are between 85-93% successful. Good luck; I wish you many days of success.