When did your dog earn freedom while alone?

[Kruzayn]

So just curious on this. What age did your pup/dog earn its freedom from his crate (if used) or segregated area while alone?

If he had partial freedom first include that too!

Example:

Partial Freedom: x age
Full Freedom: x age


Thanks!

[BowWowMeow]

Let's see if I can remember...

Massie: Wasn't crated but was gated in a very large bathroom. Had free roam of the house at about 4 months. I lived with a lot of people though so there was almost always someone home.

Chama: Crated until age 6 months

Kai: Crated when I wasn't home or couldn't watch him. He was unable to relax outside of the crate and was a danger to my other animals so he would always have been crated.

Rafi: (Adopted Age 1): Had separation anxiety and barrier anxiety. Counter-conditioned him for the first 7 weeks he was here and he's been loose in the house ever since.

[Samba]

One dog at about 3 years old. All the rest....never. They are all clever and busy kids even into old age.

I never have had "full freedom" as a goal though.

[jencarr]

My Golden was kenneled until he was 1 year old. Then we moved to a new house and we gave him the basement which also had a pet door out of the basement to an outdoor kennel. As soon as he proved himself trustworthy we moved a babygate to the 1st floor hallway so he had his outside kennel, the basement & the upstairs hallway. When he was about 2 he was allowed full freedom.
Jackson is 14 months old & is still kenneled w/ no freedom when alone. He still gets into things he shouldn't - he's very clever that way - and he still bothers the cat. Kenneling him gives the cat & other dog a break from his energy for awhile. Plus, I can leave knowing the house will be in one piece when I get back!

[sagelfn]

Sage is 7 months and I doubt he'll ever have full freedom...I've already had to put child devices on the fridge and cabinets. Maybe if my tv was mounted on the wall he could be gated in the LR but right now he's still too curious.

[DianaB]

Siena was crated during the day (when we were not around to supervise) and at night until she was 10 months old and we were pretty sure she would sleep through the night. Then we left the crate door open at night with the rule that as long as she behaves, it would remain open.

At about a year old, we left her for small amounts of time during the day out of the crate (started with quick 15-30 minutes at a time on weekends) and since we didn't have any issues, we started increasing this until it was at about 4 hours.

The next step for us was during the weekday. She would get good exercise before we left for work and left her out of the crate for half a day.

Maybe we were lucky, but we never had any issues with her being bad. I think once we left her for too long and made the mistake of leaving the bedroom door open (the bedrooms are carpeted) and she urinated on the carpet, but it was OUR fault. Since then, we close the bedroom doors when we leave, just to be sure.

Twice when she had very bad diarrhea and could not wait the four hours in between she went potty in the hallway, but I couldn't have blamed her cuz it was water.

She's always been good at waking us up in the middle of the night when her body was 'off' to go potty, but other than that, it's been good.

We still don't leave her for more than 4-5 hours at a time without a backup plan. She always seems to be on her bed when we leave and when we get home and never gets into anything, so we are lucky.

However, we always ensure she has lots of exercise before we leave so she is tired and good

[MelissaHoyer]

Grace - Partial freedom (at night) at 6 months, Full freedom at about 10 months...

Kira - Partial freedom at about 2.5 years, Full freedom closer to 3...she is still crated at night mostly or she wakes you up...

Proof that it all depends on the dog!

[Rex]

PERFECT thread for me right now! I am still mad!

Rex is 9 months old and I had him alone in the house for 2 hours today- I came back from work and MY WHOLE living room was completely trashed. He got into EVERYTHING! Jumped up everywhere and chewed A LOT of decoration stuff and more... He will not be out of his kennel again for a while, trust me!

The weird thing is that he was in doggy daycare for 5 hours today and I really thought he would be smoked from playing. I also gave him all of his toys, stuffed a kong, etc. But apparently he didn't care about that. My entertainment center and everything that's in it was more interesting

At night he's free in the bedroom- and doing fine.

[Brightelf]

Grimm-- At 8 months, he was sleeping at night out of his crate with run of the home.

At age 2 - 2.5 years, he was granted free run of the home when I am gone.

BUT, we have just moved to a new place, so, I am again temporarily crating him when I leave, until he is again comfy knowing our place as "home." He's just turned 3.

[elisabeth_00117]

Stark is 9 months old (in 4 days) and has full freedom of my bedroom (baby gate in the doorway) at night while I sleep.

During the day, he is crated. He gets too bored to be left alone by himself for more than an hour and will seek out his own entertainment.

If I run to the store, or have an hour class, I will leave him loose in the house and he is fine and usually just sleeps on his bed in the livingroom or on the couch. If I know I am going to be gone longer than an hour or hour and a half, then he is crated.