Out of her crate at night?

Dreadog · 10-30-2009, 12:29 PM

Hoku has been a great puppy, she is 9 months old now and pretty house broken. She has not had an accident inside for 3 months (and only one in June and one in July). For awhile, we tried leaving her baby gated in the dining room while we are at work, but she escaped too many times, so we put her back into her crate during the day. When she escaped, she was in the house loose for 9 hours and did NOT have any accidents, and didn't chew anything major up. She does, however, chew up the kids' toys and stuffed animals if they are left around. She has NOT been known to chew things like furniture, walls or anything. When we are home, she is never crated, and she doesn't cause any trouble. We can leave her loose in the house unsupervised for an hour or so (we haven't tried longer), and she doesn't destroy anything or potty in the house.

We have had a couple incidents of vandalism in our neighborhood the last few days. Including mailboxes being destroyed, cars getting broken into and one even stole. Until this little crime spree, our area has been very calm. We do not expect Hoku to be a guard dog in any way, but we are thinking of letting her loose at night while we are sleeping. I guess for the first time, we are feeling a little unsafe and the thought of having her as a detterant is appealing. Currently, she sleeps through the night in her crate. We have left her loose after we fall asleep watching tv a few times, and not placed her in her crate until around 2am, and she just sleeps on her dog bed.

Do you think leaving her loose at night is a bad idea? How do people transition from crating to not crating at night?

TIA

Keechak · 10-30-2009, 12:39 PM

I stated letting Hawkeye lose in the house at night as soon as he was potty trained. But he still stays in a crate if we leave the house for more than an hour. I think letting your puppy have the run of the house at night is a good first step to test her with. At least if she does happen to get into anything dangerous you will be there to hear her cries.

Hiroko · 10-30-2009, 12:51 PM

Oh no, the incidents sound scary!

It would be very nice if your doggie can start acting as a watch dog soon for your safety

I guess once your doggie is well-trained for potty, you can start to let her out of the crate...Hey, I don't want this to happen, but what if your doggie is attacked by the stranger? If I were you, I would probably get ready to face any situation that needs a vet's help by having a dog insurance

No joke, I don't want you to lose your doggie.

Dreadog · 10-30-2009, 01:48 PM

Thanks Keechak, that is the type of info I was hoping to hear. I was thinking that starting at night would be good, but I wanted other people's opinions too.

Labsnothers · 10-30-2009, 01:50 PM

If keeping the toys picked up works, try it. You may want to leave the kids' bedroom doors closed.

We are never brave enough to leave our puppies loose, but I must admit the occasional careless failure to shut the crate door never caused a problem. Our puppies are often sleeping in their crate by bed time.

swilliams · 10-30-2009, 02:41 PM

We have been putting Arff (10 months) in his crate at night but leaving the door open. We have put everything we don't want him to get into out of reach, but so far that hasn't even been necessary. If he chooses to come out of his crate (if he's had a lot of exercize and is very tired sometimes he won't) he will just chew his nylabone or kong for a while and then go sleep in a chair. He thinks this is a treat as it's the only piece of furniture he's allowed on. If we are planning to be gone for under 2 hours, we let him roam the house, but I think he sleeps most of the time. If it's over 2 hours he's in his crate. Once, my husband forgot to close the door and Arff was alone and unsupervised for about 6 hours. Nothing happened, but I'm not sure if I'd want to try that again. We'll see.

wvasko · 10-30-2009, 03:31 PM

What I don't understand is this dog expected to guard home or would she be more into an alert type dog to bark when intruder breaks in.

When she's loose now does she alert bark at strange noises etc. If not the alert program won't work and a pup that age if she's not even barking alert probably is not going to help with anything. You could buy a dog alert sign to hang on fence/gate or even mount on door that would do more to stop anybody coming inside home.

With outside vandalism it's not gonna make any difference whether she's loose in home or crated. If she is a good bark/alert dog move crate to area outside your bedroom and at least that way you would be alerted if somebody were in home coming towards bedroom.

Ok now the reason for this reply is just to let you know that it may not be necessary to let dog loose in home now which gives you more time to proof her longer in crate.

Or if you insist on wanting her loose, just bring her into your bedroom
to sleep on floor or crate. I have never been interested in dog protecting home/property etc as much as protecting the occupants of home either with biting or barking alert program so owner wakes up gets gun/baseball bat/taser etc and makes 911 call. I can replace all my material things (not gonna like losing them) can't replace family etc.

Dreadog · 10-30-2009, 05:09 PM

Thanks everyone!

We have absolutely no expectations of her being any type of guard dog or protection dog, and we do not even know if she would alert us to things going on. We prefer she be a very friendly dog. When we are with her, and if she hears unusual noises, she will growl and bark very quietly at the weird noise. She then quiets down the minute we assure her things are OK. In her crate, she is silent.

We will probably just leave her in her crate, we were just thinking that having her loose would buy us a little peace of mind (maybe misplaced peace of mind, but peace of mind none the less), because even though she doesn't act like a guard dog, we think ANY large dog is scary to most people. KWIM?

We will, eventually, want to let her out at night, and I am also wondering when is a good time to do it, are there signs that a dog is ready?

BTW, we can't confine her to our room, because the cat and the kids need to be able to move freely in/out of our room. If she were loose she would have access to the living room, dining room, kitchen, and our room (the kids sleep with their doors closed, but not latched).