[nysirk]

My pup Dexter is 4 1/2 months now and is housebroke, we only have him in his crate for overnights and when we are away, just wondering what age your GSD's became trustworthy to be left alone in the house when you were away?

 

[ldpeterson]

I think Annabelle was like 1 1/2 years old before I really started trusting her. I'm sure it differs for every dog though.

 

[hvaclu]

Brody 10 months, Greta 4 months, They both have free reign of the kitchen and mudroom. Thats about it though. They both are potty trained and all, but when they get bored they like to find things to do like chew up my daughters leather hand bag,shoes, and what ever paper they can find. They are after all German Shredders! LOL. At night they sleep in my room, Brody on his own bed and Greta still is in the crate that she seems to love. I work 3 days a week for about 3-4 hour each day so they arnt home alone to much.

 

[Superpup]

Cody is 2 years and 3 months and about 3 months ago we started leaving him loose in the house while we are at work. We had never consistently left him loose for the whole day, but now I feel we can trust him...
Don't rush with leaving your puppy loose in the house... it is much safer for them to be crated, and safer for your furniture and electric cords etc.

 

[Gyggles1]

I was just wondering the same thing. There is no way we could leave Duke unattended while sleeping at night anyway or to even leave him to run an errand ( I'd be on pins and needles ). We'd be lucky to have the stuffing left in the furniture or shoes in tact or I'd hate to see what would happen to the big screen. EEK! He's 10 months now so I am sure we have time but yes was wondering about this myself.

Even if we are home and not really paying attention he gets to everything and anything he can get his teeth on. We've had to replace LOTS of stuff since Duke has arrived.

 

[Natasha]

Tash was fairly youngish. We only did short short periods of time. We'd go to my aunts house a few blocks away to pickup/drop off something and then come back.

She's now 2 and a half and I've taken down her crate. She's free to roam the whole house. We just have to make sure the garbage cans are out of reach other wise she is really good. At night she has her own pillow next to mine in the bed so she sleeps right next to me

 

[Superpup]

Why take the chance of having the puppy destroy everything just so they can be loose in the house? They will get that opportunity once they have proven to be trustworthy. Don't worry about what age you will leave the puppy loose, just see when you can trust him!

Besides, like I said before, they are SO much safer in their crates.

 

[Brightelf]

Maybe it is when the dog is calm being left alone and not so frantic about it. I am eager to hear what others say. I think for some young dogs, it can be too much, too soon-- and when they have anxiety because they are not ready for it, they may chew, pee, etc. Grimm is 18 months old. He can be free when I shower, but when I leave the house, I do crate him still. When he is older and more settled, I will begin short trips out, to see how he does. Calm leavings, calm returns. Ho-Hum. I am also interested to hear about how people do this, and at what age it seemed appropriate for your dogs!

 

[butch33611]

Sarge has full run of the house when we leave. We got him when he was about 2 but had very little training. We started with just short little trips to see how it would go. The times got longer until we were satisfied with his behavior. I like the fact if someone comes to the door he greets them with a bark and a growl.

It dont do much good if hes locked in a crate. In your case Id wait a bit longer. At least a year old before I started traning him to be left alone in the house.

 

[Liljah]

Re: How old was your GSD when you allowed free rei

We had to do trial runs with Shane. The first time we let him have reign was at night, we let him sleep outside his crate, he was about 6 months. He did such a wonderful job, that we never again crated him at night (and he loves it!) He learned how to wake us up when he needs to potty (cold, wet nose under the blanket would get anyone up)!

Then slowly we started leaving him in the house unsupervised for short amount of time. We go to the store and come back real quick. We started doing this just few months back, which make Shane about 14 months. He has yet to be in the house longer than hour, but when no one is home, he does great!

 

[GSDOwner2008]

I agree with what others have said. Right now he's still a puppy who could chew up and destroy things. Apollo is almost six months old and he only has free roam of my parents room at night, although many times he still chooses to sleep in his crate with the door open anyways. Zeus is still crated because he's still a baby, and not completely potty trained. But he's close.

 

[lixy]

Chaos has been able to have the run of the house at night since he was about 4 or 5 months. He just sleeps anyway. Usually he'll go into his crate (the door is left open for him). Now at 7.5 months we're just starting to leave him out of the crate for longer periods of time during the day...about 2 or 3 hours. I leave him out when I leave for work, then my in-laws come and pick him up within an hour or so and bring him back to their place (where he plays with the neighbour's dog). When they bring him back they leave him out of the crate, and either me or my husband will be home within 3 hours. Of course, he's always tired when he gets home so he just sleeps and isn't destructive at all. If I had to leave him for more than 1-2 hours and he hadn't been exercised, I'd still crate him.

 

[CertainlySpoiled]

Elle was 18 months old, and Emma is 11 months old and still does not have free reing of most areas.

 

[grmnshpd21]

Molly is going to be 4 this year and she is still crated when we are at work......I'm a worry wart. She enjoys her crate and I know she is safe

 

[BlackGSD]

Diva was 6 months old. But she has always been a "freak of nature". She was pretty much born being good in the house.
I have never known another 6 month old that I would leave loose in the house alone.

 

[big_dog7777]

Totally depends on the individual dogs. Zeus was 2 years old before he could be trusted. Lowen was about 13 months, but she is not the norm. I feel that 2 years of age is a good time to test with most dogs. Now, at night is a different story or at least it was for all my dogs. At around 6 months old they could be trusted at night.

 

[BowWowMeow]

Re: How old was your GSD when you allowed free rei

My first gsd was never crated but I used to leave her in the downstairs bathroom when I was gone until she was about 4 months old. After that she was loose in the house with no problems. I lived with a lot of people though and was able to take her to work with me most of the time so she was rarely home alone.

Chama was able to be loose from about 5 months old. Basu was 4.5 when I got him and would force his way out of the crate so he was always loose. And Rafi had separation anxiety when I got him (at about a year old) so after I counter-conditioned him he could be loose in the house with no problem. Before I counter conditioned him he was very destructive! And I don't think Kai would have ever been trustworthy loose in the house because he was too unpredictable with my other animals and he was also a very active and destructive chewer!

 

[JenM66]

Re: How old was your GSD when you allowed free rei

Gracie is 2 years 4 months and just started staying out of the crate last week. She still sleeps in it though - willingly walks in it after her bedtime snack. It wasn't that I couldn't trust her, I'm just a worry - wort about her!

 

[Sherush]

Re: How old was your GSD when you allowed free rei

Jesse was free reigned while we were home (which is most times) since he was 100 percent house trained by 14 weeks (before that he was under my constant watch). When we are not home he is either at daycare or in cage, but he is 7 months now and trustworthy so we went out this week for 30 minutes and left him loose and set up a video recorder to see what happened. Jesse went to the door when we left and then immediately went to lie down and didn't more till we walked in the door.... good boy, Jesse has been the polar opposite of most puppies.... even teething was a breeze and has never chewed anything he is not suppose to (YET/crosses fingers)

 

[Sherush]

Re: How old was your GSD when you allowed free rei

Update - Jesse is 7 months old.
Hey guys I just wanted to tell you that as of last Friday we have been testing Jesse to stay at home free (not in cage) we had our web camera recording him. We went out for 30 minutes Friday and then came home and watched the video, Jesse was a good boy and didn't cry and just went to a chair to sleep till we got in. Yesterday we went out to do grocery shopping for an hour and did the same thing and came home to watch video and Jesse only cried for a second at the front door then went to lie down and sleep (and chase a cat once). Today is the big test, my husband is leaving for work at 11:00 a.m. and I won't be home till 1:45 p.m. but I can watch Jesse on web camera till 12:30 and we also have it recording so that when I get home I can watch the video I missed.

Seems Jesse absolutely hates being caged but is much happier free (so far...).