When did your GSD get the run of the house?

My first gsd, many many moons ago, I was not a "crate" fan )
He had run of the house @ 12 weeks when I got him, and I have to say, he never got into any trouble..The 2nd one, same thing, I was EXTREMELY lucky!!!

The 3rd one, I was crate savvy ),,tho we flunked nite time crating , (she was fine out of the crate at nite anyhow, & I got her at 12 wks)..For a couple of months I did crate her when I left, I didn't want a 12 wk old "bugging" two older males set in their ways.

She however, earned her freedom by the time she was 5mths old and never got into anything..My last male who is now 11, was crated when no one was home again, Iwasn't trusting of 4 gsd's loose in the house ) but also earned his freedom by the time he was also 5mths old..

Right now, I have the one male gsd, one female aussie, they are free in the house, the male aussie who is almost 7, is still crated when no one is home, he's a big time trouble maker, and for everyone's safety, he's better off in a crate..

Depends on the dog, and i have to say I have been extremely lucky, the only thing I've "lost" is a pair of 90$ sneakers, (the aussie),,and a 10lb tub of dog biscuits,,(the first gsd who was a theif and a pig)).

diane

I was gona post a question like this, but ya beat me to it!

I can't remember exactly when we let our pup have run of the house when we were home. He was an extremely destructive chewer, so I know it wasn't a very young age.

Between 12 and 18 months (which is now!) we have been letting him have run of the house, with bedrooms and bathroom door closed. There have been a handful of incidents where he has chewed up some things, but we have been the ones to blame for those incidents, cause we either left him alone for too long or he hadn't been exercised before we left him alone. I always make sure to throw the ball for him in the backyard for about 10 minutes before I know that I am leaving for a couple hours. That helps him get a blast of energy out so that he will nap for most of the time we are gone. I will also leave 1-2 bones or tasty treats that take a long time to eat. I also will play the public radio station (which is mostly talking and classical music), since I've heard that leaving a radio on will keep them company. So, the combination of exercise, leaving a bone, and the radio seems to be working!

All of that said, we don't trust him to be alone for a whole work day yet. Luckily, I work evenings and my roommate works days, so the majority of the time he isn't alone for more than a couple hours.

I didn't have a crate for Massie, my first gsd. After she was housebroken I started taking her to work with me. I started leaving her home alone with free roam in the house at about 4 months. I lived with a lot of people and they sometimes forgot to keep track of where she was! One night I came home from work at 2am and couldn't find her (she was probably a little over 3 months old) and I woke everyone up asking where she was. No one knew but finally someone remembered letting her outside. She was asleep outside on the upper porch of our house on some old couch cushions. It was winter and well below freezing but she seemed happy as a clam! Yikes!

Chama was left loose at about 3 months old. I did have a crate by then but she never really needed it. She was housebroken at 7 weeks old and she was never a big chewer.

Rafi is about 1.5 years old and he had separation anxiety when I adopted him. The guy that had him told me that he left him loose one time and Rafi ate the couch cushions. I did the separation anxiety protocol with him and after 7 weeks was able to leave him home alone, loose. Now I leave him for 5-9 hours a day without a problem.

I don't think Kai could ever have been trusted left loose. He was not great with Chama and Cleo and was very high strung and anxious about being more than 2 inches away from me. He was one of those dogs that probably would have rearranged the house while I was gone.