[woadiestyle]

how long should a puppy be crate/playpin training (in regards to having freedom alone in house)? So far mine has been in his since he was 10weeks old and is now around 6months old. Of course he gets out and is supervised. When is it a good time to think of letting him have full freedom while I am gone for hours? And is there any good training for the transition? Someone told me keep him in crate/pin training for up to 18months. He is house trained already and his chew toy training is almost perfect. thanks

 

[TooneyDogs]

You might want to try transition areas before going to full house freedom. One room, then two, etc. For example, you might want to close the doors to the bedrooms, bathrooms and start out with laundry room freedom or some other gated area.

 

[hulkamaniac]

Honestly, it's a trust issue between you and your dog. It boils down to how much you trust your dog which boils down to how well you've trained your dog. I know people who are veteran dog owners who never let their dogs have free roam of the house unless they're home and others who never confine their dog for any reason. It's all a matter of how much you trust your dog.

 

[Marsh Muppet]

It depends on the dog. Some dogs can probably be transitioned to having the run of the house at that age. Many can not. As Tooney said, try it in increments before flinging open the Bastille doors. I think all of my dogs have been reliably enough housebroken to trust out of the crate, by 6 months of age, but chewing and destructiveness remained a potential problem for many more months.

 

[LunarFlame]

Like everyone here has said, it really depends on you and your dog. Personally, my 11 month old dog is no where close to being allowed to be out of crate when we're not home or sleeping. lol. We're all completly happy with him staying in his crate during these times for his whole life if need be. He seems to like his crate.

 

[bambee]

As what have been said, it depends between you and your dog and how he responds to the training. If he can catch up well with the training, at that age, there are some dogs that you can trust to run around the house even when you're not home.

 

[hulkamaniac]

Tomorrow there's supposed to be a huge snow storm coming in. I'll let my dogs out in the morning to do their business, then they'll be inside crated all day. I plan on giving each of them a stuffed Kong to occupy their time.