Crated or Roam Free?

[Nicole5158]

I'm trying to decide if I should start letting Byron out of his crate for a few hours while Daniel and I are at work. He's very behaved in the house, but I'm scared of what he'll do with no supervision. But Daniel and I are away all day long and it would be nice if he could spend part of that time outside of his crate. At least until the petsitter comes or maybe after she leaves. I'm just curious to see how many of you crate your dogs while away.

 

[Annie Milliron]

With the exception of Sailor, all of our dogs are crated... and it's for their own safety. Cora used to be allowed free run, but she'd get into things, mainly paper.

Sailor is too big for a crate... so he has free run. He's very good, and doesn't get into anything. If he did, we'd pen him up in the kitchen.

If you want to try letting him have some freedom, I would start off doing this on the weekend. Let him have short amounts of freedom. Start out by doing an quick errand... then come home and check.... work up to a few errands... or dinner... or dinner and a movie....

If he's a good boy, and doesn't bother anything... then try it. I would still figure a way to come home mid day and check on him....

And, don't get rid of your crate. Chances are, he may feel more secure in the crate than out.

 

[Halli's Mom]

Halli roams the house, and she is fine. BUT, my advice to you is to ease into it....gradually expanded the space. The first time my husband gave her the roam of the house (he didn't ask me first, I was out of town), she was a little freaked out because she couldn't find anyone and she had diarrhea all over the house.

We expanded her space from the bathroom to the bathroom and master bedroom, to the whole upstairs to more parts of the house. She's perfectly fine now...

I understand this is not for everyone, and I'm fortunate to have a dog that won't even touch a steak if it is sitting on the coffee table unless we give it to her....Not every Newf is like that I'm guessing!!!

 

[swigginton]

I agree with Annie.

When we brought Bentley home he was not crate trained. So we had to do that. After he got to be around 6 months old he did not care to sleep in his crate. We started letting him sleep out of his crate. That was about 5 months ago. We had a few minor issues early on. Now he is fine at night.

Since Bentley comes to work with us, he hardly ever left him home alone. But we still crate him when we leave. If we are out working in the yard we leave him out of his crate and so far no problems. We have started leaving him uncrated if we are only going to be gone a short time and that appears to be working OK.

It just takes time for them to grow out of the puppy tear up stuff stage. Just be slow and careful, you don't leave anything out that could be torn up and possible hurt him.

 

[IrishMist428]

I never crate trained Akira yet confined her to the kitchen. I gave her freedom slowly also. I would shut all the doors and left her basically in the kitchen, living room dinning room. With Brogan I did crate train. When I am not home he is crated she is not. With having 2 I don't want them rough housing when I am not home. If you want to give more freedom, just make sure you puppy proof and triple check. Electrical wires, small things they can choke on,chew or swallow.

 

[berryann]

My dogs are seldom left alone for more than 3-4 hours, but I crate the youngest Newf when I leave, and sometimes our mixed breed.
Once I set up our videocamera and taped the dogs while I was gone for several hours. The two that were free went into their open crates and slept the whole time!
So now I don't worry that they're missing hours of fun stimulating games while I'm gone. They're doing what I'd do if I were home alone!

 

[Khiori]

we work from home so I picked the first one. Both my boys were crate trained before getting here. At least, they know what it is and that it's theirs. Leo will go in to nap. Solo will go in to eat his treats. When we leave we don't crate (only have one anyway). They roam free. But just sleep at the front door til we get home. We've left them for 8 hrs (usually once a week) and all they do is sleep and sometimes run in circles.

 

[roisinbutler]

We didn't crate train, but I was home when Oz was a pup so he was constantly supervised for a few months. we got "babysitters" when we went out and slowly eased into leaving him alone. He roams free now, and we both work full time, and at 2 years he rarely decides to destroy anything, but if he is going to be alone for more than 6 hours I confine him to the kitchen and living room and sometimes have my neighbor check in on him.
If you decide to let him have the run of a few rooms, puppy proof them really well, you'll be amazed by what a giant breed puppy can get into or out of! Ozzy learned how to open the sliders onto the deck, then he learned how to open the baby gate leading to the deck stairs all at the tender age of 5 months. I swear he and the cats would conspire to get out of the house!