How long did it take for you to trust your puppy?

[JakodaCD OA]

I have had the luxury of being able to spend ALOT of times with my dogs/puppies when I had them.

Honestly, it depends on the dog as to when they can be trusted alone in the house out of the crate.

I've had quite a few dogs over the years, majority gsd's, (still have two aussies), and again honestly, none of them ever really did any chewing of furniture/stuff..

I can remember two incidents, my aussie chewed up ONE of a very expensive running shoe, my fault she got to them, one of my gsd's chewed up a pillow and a canvas bag, again my fault they had access. Jake stole a cake off the stove once

All my dogs have been crate trained, my male aussie at 12 still is in a crate when no one is home to supervise (he's a trouble maker)...I've had 4 gsd's at one time, 3 males, 1 female,and all were fine in the house uncrated when no one was home.

Now, the two girls, (aussie and gsd) are loose in the house when no one is home, and again, no problems.

I do exercise / walk/hike my dogs alot, maybe they are slugged out when I'm gone

[Kyleigh]

I think every situation and every dog is different.

My last dog was 2.5 before I could trust her alone in the house (I tested her every couple of months ... nope ... 15 minutes and she would destroy something ... so I just kept waiting and waiting)

Kyleigh is still not allowed out of her crate during the day when no one is home. BUT, there are two main reasons - the cat and the two parrots. If I didn't have them, she'd be allowed out of her crate all day.

Trying to juggle two parrots and a dog (that still has just a tad too much interest in them!) means that the parrots are out all day while I'm at work and Ky's in her crate.

Ky's out of her crate all evening, and all night. Funny thing tho, is that most times I wake up in the morning, and she's sleeping in her crate !

[dylano]

Kai is now 7 months old. Since he was about 6 months old we could leave him alone (while we went upstairs ect) and he's be fine. We just had to make sure he'd been toilet because if we werent around we wouldnt hear him/see him sitting by the back door . We dont let him have free roaming of the house when we are out.

[pancake]

Very interesting to hear everyone's experiences, thanks!

I think it makes it a little bit more difficult if your puppy has some drive. My puppy isn't a high energy high drive type but she could have some of that training if I wanted to. She knows how to relax but also she's generally searching, sniffing and biting things. Her tug is top notch and she chases anything that moves. Good for protection and Schutzhund I guess but definitely not the easiest to give free roam at this age cause she seems to get bored fast.

She also loves being outdoors actually but I can't even trust her for a second even on leash 3 feet away from me. She's always munching on leaves and picking things up. I youtubed some 4 month old GSD videos and there are some that are very docile. They dont have the attention span but theyre not actively searching for things around their environment. Where my puppy is more naughty, always wanting to chase things. Once she stops eating stuff I can start letting her wander more outside hopefully.

[Mrs.P]

Originally Posted by wink-_-wink

LOL It is funny that people can read these forums and still go out and buy a GSD pup! And all of us nuts that go out and get a second or more! it takes a special person/family! I know what I am getting into but when I move down south (in the next few months I hope) I will get another pup! Good to know I still have another month of surfing to deal with! It is never our meals tho.

Getting too pushy and wanting to play all the time is funny as heck to me. Hero will bring me his Kong Ballistic plush frisbee thing and play tug or fetch then he gets sick of it and gets a smaller kong squeeker thing, then always ends with a baseball! I will have to try the get me a specific toy command! The trick my pup abuses is the Jingle Bells to go out. During the day sometimes he just wants to go for a walk or be outside. We don't have a fenced yard so that means someone has to take him and that used to be me only because he was rude on a leash We bought him one of those easy walker harnesses and OH MY GOD!!!! My 5 year old can walk him now! This is awesome because I got him a really sweet collar for christmas (mean old wife won't let me put it on him for pictures before hand) and now the collar won't be making him cough from pulling the leash. He loves walks and now he is manageable on walks! The only problem is when I first put it on him trying to size it was a pain and I think I need a smaller one because he was able to chew part of the front while in the crate. (He no longer wears this in the crate)

Another in a few months?!? Ahaha DH and I are thinking two years!

And unfortunately his first ever counter-surfing experience was extremely self-rewarding. He end up with a blueberry bagel! But seems to be a lot better now.

And if he's bringing you toys already half the work is already done! Just add your cue to what it "good-bring ball". Soon you can ask him to bring his toy collection to you these guys are very smart!

We have used the sensation harness and love it! We bought it from a local pet store and the lady was very helpful with sizing she let us try on the small and medium and we went with a medium and it still fits him.

And just last week we decided to walk with a flat collar and he did really well I did have to change directions a few times to get his attention back on me but thats all no crazy choking pulling he walked very nicely by my side. Hope you have the same experience!


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[m1953]

Nala was completely house broken in less then 3 weeks or by 11 weeks old. As far as chewing and messing with things she is not suppose to, at nine months, I don't trust her at all

[LaneyB]

I have been super lucky with housebreaking with Ruki. I can't remember how long it's been since he has had an accident, but it has been months (he is 8 mths old this week). He was briefly allowed to be out of his crate and blocked in the living room, but then one day decided to eat a big chunk of each couch. Thankfully Ruki doesn't seem to swallow nonfood items, but I put him back in the crate. Now that he is 8 mths he seems a bit more destructive, and has to be closely supervised. I am really hoping eventually he will be able to be free inside the house.

I had hoped he would sleep in bed with me at night, and originally put the crate in my bedroom. Then I moved the crate to the living room when he was a bit older, and tried to let him out during the night to sleep in bed with me. He didn't like it at all, and would whine and fuss until I took him to his crate. The other night I decided to try blocking him in the living room overnight, and when I woke up he was sleeping in his crate.

[Mrs.P]

Originally Posted by pancake

She also loves being outdoors actually but I can't even trust her for a second even on leash 3 feet away from me. She's always munching on leaves and picking things up. I youtubed some 4 month old GSD videos and there are some that are very docile. They dont have the attention span but theyre not actively searching for things around their environment. Where my puppy is more naughty, always wanting to chase things. Once she stops eating stuff I can start letting her wander more outside hopefully.

Enzo would do the same and eat dirt and pebbles ect. and I would just continually say "uh uh" and get it out of his mouth and give him a ball and praise like a crazy women! Lol that worked for us and it seemed like one day it just completely stopped!

He was and is never left in the backyard unsupervised even though we lucked out with the house we're renting and have a nice large fenced in yard I just don't trust him yet! And our yard is nicely keep and he dug up and found random random things while I've been out there with him I can't imagine if I wasn't what he would do with them!




I honestly have no idea where these came from haven't seen them before! But good luck! It does get better I can pet him and brush him without him going after my hand or brush!



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[wolfy dog]

For as long as you cannot trust them, you don't trust them. It is different for any dog.
One of mine I could leave alone at 4 months but most not before 18 months.
Problem will escalate if you don't work through them. get a trainer if what you do doesn't work.
For peace and quiet you need to adopt a Greyhound.

[Ageizm]

Originally Posted by Kyleigh

Ky's out of her crate all evening, and all night. Funny thing tho, is that most times I wake up in the morning, and she's sleeping in her crate !

Even though Barack is too young to meet the eligibility for this thread (4 months on dec. 25th) I leave him out at night as well, and find him in his crate *almost* every morning. In fact once I turn everything off for the night, after his final potty, as I'm getting in my bed I can here him adjusting himself in his crate. He's such a good boy!

I won't leave him out of the crate when i'm not home as he is fascinated with the taste of carpet (found this out after a trial of leaving him out in my room), least he won't potty in the house anymore, but the carpet seems to win out over everything else I may leave out, when I'm not present.