quick question re: leaving alone in house

[Boone's. Fmly]

Leaving alone

When we first got Boone he was 1.5 years old and we left him alone to roam the house. Well one evening my husband called in the middle of the night with car trouble and I had to go pick him up...When we got home we went to bed and unfortunately discovered that he had pee'd in our bed while we were gone. He's been blocked off in the kitchen and 2 other rooms since with out any problems. That has been almost 2 years. We got Lexus when she was new and have always crated her. She is in the same area that he is so that they can see each other and have contact. She is 1.5 years old now and I still can't leave her out....she likes to counter surf and you never know what she'll find to disturb. She especially loves to eat Bananas off the counter...she'll peel them and leave the skin on the floor. I'm afraid that she'll hurt herself trying to get into something that she shouldn't have.
So I guess that it all depends upon the personality of your fur baby as to when and IF you can leave them alone. :o)
Sorry so long, just giving my experience.

 

[Boomer'sPapa]

16 Jul 03

See my earlier post...What a wonderful day that was.The Great Boomdini

Of course there are those occasions when he decides to surf through the garbage can after he paws it off the counter.

 

[Anna Begins]

Well, heres my little imput...
When Luka was 5 months old, I started leaving him alone by himself. He had been great during short peirods of time and longer times too. And isn't a destructive dog. I felt comfortable leaving him. Definatly nervous the first day, but when I got home he came out from behind the couch stretching and yawning, so I figured he slept most of the time.
He did great everyday- the only thing he did that was sorta bad was taking the runner off my coffee table. Ok, no biggy, I could live with that.
At the two week mark, he was real bad. He ripped up a wooden statue with a grass skirt, scattered it all over and drug out my goose down throw and pottied on it (after weeks of no accidents). It took 15 minutes to clean everything up- and I still find wood and grass skirt in the carpet.
I was sick at home the next day and the day after that, I decided to give him one more try.
That day, he tore up a whole box of kleenex and dumped my money tree over, scattering the moss all over the front room.
Needless to say, his freedom has been revoked.
Maybe I rushed it, but at least I know. If I were you, I'd give it a shot for an hour or two. Totally puppy proof your home (I never left anything out- accept for the kleenex, which is under the coffee table) and I closed to bedroom and bathrrom doors. The payoff is great-I loved coming home to wiggles and knowing Luka didn't have to be confined to his crate all day. I plan on trying it again when he turns 6 months old (he's 5 months and 3 weeks).
Edited to add: He is alone for 3 and 1/2 hrs, I come home for lunch for a quick walk/ potty break and then he is alone for another 3 and 1/2 hrs. Crate or not.

 

[tesster]

I, too, am glad you started this post. I don't know what to tell you, though, because I'm in your boat. Tess is 20 months and still cannot be trusted out of her crate. She's VERY destructive. The first time I left her out, she killed my house tree and turned my living room into a huge sand box. That was when she was left for less than 15 minutes. The subsequent tries have been much more costly. She's eaten a couch it's futon replcement. I bought the futon for next to nothing, so I wasn't as mad as I am frustrated that she can't be out of her crate during the day.

I'm wondering how you can tell that they are ready? Are there things you can do, training wise, that help them work towards "freedom?"

 

[Lizzie]

I think it probably depends on the individual dog. For example Diva was 2 years old when I first started leaving her in the house alone - no problems. On the other hand I have only just started leaving Monty in the house on his own and he is nearly three years old - let's just say that he seems to have taken longer to mature! I have to admit that it is great that I can now leave both of them in the house on their own and return to no damage. I don't leave them in the house all day - the maximum has been six hours. Mainly I don't leave them any longer than that as they would get too warm, even though I leave the ceiling fans on for them (it's summer here at the moment and it is getting much warmer). Both have full run of the house so that they can move to a cooler room if they want to - mostly I find that at least one of them has been on my bed, but as they are allowed that is fine with me.

Both Diva and Monty were taught from an early age that getting into the rubbish bin and counter surfing were totally unacceptable (I can't abide counter surfing I'm afraid). They learned it young and it has stuck in their little doggie brains! LOL

Good luck!

 

[Nikkiell]

Hi I got Sydney from a rescue 2 years ago, she was 2 years old at the time. She had been somewhat a troublemaker for two previous owners, little bit of chewing and peeing in a crate. I had her in a crate to begin with while I was out but at some point I figured that it's time to let her out and see what comes out of it. I leave her for 4 to 7 hours. Sometimes she had made a little mess with small stuff, candles, plastis bags etc..I would make a little scene with lots of "NO". She learned quickly and now I have no worries and she is completly trustworthy. Good luck, Nikolai

 

[RachaelB]

we left Maggie alone in the house when she was about 6 months old..a little at a time she was great (an hour or so) but then we felt over confident and left her out the entire day (while we were at work)..she ate quite a bit and chewed through a cord that was plugged in (thank goodness she wasn't hurt) ..now she is 14 months old and she is crated (we call it her bed) all day for her safety but left out at night...for some reason she just sleeps on the couch all night and doesn't move...

 

[Oscar's Home]

Our little Oscar decided for us

When Oscar was 6 months old we got him neutered and do to his desire to like/chew his stiches we had to get him one of the cones. We figured things would be a little tight in his kennel with the cone on so we setup a pen for him to give him more room, the pen however did not have a top on it. Well one day when my girlfriend came home to let Oscar out she was suprised to be met just inside the door by our little boy. Even though no damage was done to our place we still kept putting him into his pen when we left only to come home and be greeted at the door every time. So after a couple of days of this we decided we would try leaving him out and see what happens. We left out lots of toys for him to play with and tried to get anything we didn't want him to destroy out of his reach. Other than a couple of incidents, one where I forgot to pick up a newspaper (which he turned into confetti) and one where we forgot to take him out to go potty before we left, we have had no real problems and we now just leave Oscar out with the blinds up so he can stare out the window, one of his favorite things to do. Hopefully this behavior will continue, the only real advice I can give is make sure anything you don't want destroyed is secured and out of reach of your little bundle of joy.

 

[GoBeauxBoxer]

I am sure it depends...

I am sure it really depends on the individual Boxer. We got Beaux 2 months ago at 15 months old. For the first few days we took him evewhere with us, as he was already suffering from feeling abandoned by his first family. However, after that we left him home alone for short periods of time (an hour or so), and he didn't destroy anything or get into trouble. In fact, the only times he has destroyed anything has been while we were at home sleeping. We learned VERY quickly that things have to be kept out of his reach.

 

[bossdogmom]

Boss is 10 mos old now and we just started letting him stay out of his crate. The 1st time was about 2 hrs and we were so proud of him because there was no mass destruction. Today I left him alone about 4 hrs and no mess. Of course he got lots of hugs,kisses and a special treat.

Now his brother Buster is very destructive even when you're @ home! He's the opposite of Boss. May be Boss is neuter and Buster isn't.Who knows?

Patty and Boss