[Laurelin]

What is your set up for your dogs while you're gone during the day.

I don't much like crating and Mia is (surprise) not trustworthy, so my two have two x-pens tied together and made into a large play area with beds and toys and water and a covered floor.

I am trying to come up with an idea for a bigger dog (for the far future) for a safe area with some room to it.

 

[Shell]

Chester has free roam of the living room, hallway and kitchen/dining area. He is completely trustworthy inside though. To the point that I accidentally left a box of crackers on the coffee table at his face level and he left them alone for my entire work day.

Foster Luna is crated in the largest wire crate available (Great Dane sized basically for a 40 lbs dog) as she managed to chew off part of a door frame.

I have a "dog safe" room that is used for guest dogs that are reasonably trustworthy (those that don't need crating but just need to be separate from Chester while I am gone) and for reasonably trustworthy foster dogs (ones that might chew something tempting like a shoe or a pillow but aren't trying to chew through the door).

It is a finished porch with vinyl tile flooring, nothing plugged in, the cable wire is pushed back into the floor and covered with electrical tape, dog bed of the non-fluffy kind (less tempting to chew), mini-blinds (vs curtains) which are pulled up and out of the way during the day (so the dog can look out the window and not tear up the blinds or get caught in them), and the door to the outside is chainlocked and the door to the main house is a solid wood door (rather than the lightweight hollow core interior doors). Messes are easy to clean up and there is nothing of value should a dog decide to rip on the flooring or (like Luna) chew the wood framing... It's also good for giving messy treats like raw bones since I can steam mop the floor to sanitize it.

 

[Charis]

The bathroom - they used to have free run of the apt. until they got into a marking contest with each other. We put a baby gate in front of the door so they can still see out, put a few pillows in there and that is where they are if we aren't home. I do have a trashcan with a locking lid that is "wedged" between the toilet and the cabinet so that they cannot knock it over (and thankfully neither of them have ever fancies toilet paper). I also taught Sierra how to jump into the bath tub so they can have some "me" time. The bathroom is about 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. It works.

 

[kafkabeetle]

We work mostly from home now, but when we go into the office and when we used to work full time in the office we just dog proofed our bedroom and left her in there with the door closed. She mostly sleeps in her open crate or on our bed. I don't know how well that would work with a dog you didn't trust or didn't want on the bed though. We only confine her to the bedroom because she barks out our low front windows the whole time we're gone if we don't. Otherwise if we had higher windows I'd probably give her free roam of the house.

 

[walmuete]

We have a 65# puppy- 8 months old. He gets into everything- so it is not safe to leave him unattended. In the past we have isolated our puppies in a restroom or laundry room, but our new puppy will destroy the floor and door trying to get out. We use a muzzle (loose that allows him to drink) and sometimes a crate, depending on how long he will be alone. I know it is not the perfect scenario, but he is safe and cannot chew something up that will kill him. We have had several trips to the vet because he swallowed something- while we were home with him! This is our 5th dog to raise- and we have definitely had to try new ideas with him.

 

[Amaryllis]

Back when my husband and I both worked outside the home, Muggsy, 90lb GSD mix, was baby gated into the kitchen. Linoleum floors = easy cleanup. We did keep the garbage outside on the deck, though. Once I figured out he was jumping the gate and spending most of the day sleeping on the couch, I just gave it up. He obviously wasn't peeing or pooping anywhere, and with a nice, frozen Kong, he wasn't chewing anything, so why bother. We did keep the bedroom and bathroom doors closed though.

 

[brandiw]

Sasha, Heather, and Moe have free access to the living room, dining room, den, and kitchen. Noah picks fights with Moe sometimes, so he is gated into the laundry room when we are not home to intervene. The bedrooms are all blocked off by gates for the cats. We do have to child-proof lock the cabinets, or Heather and Moe will open them and find food, and we have to pick up the trash can, but if those things are done, we don't have any problems.

 

[PackMomma]

I use a large 4x4x4 ft pen with a roof for Thumper at the moment, I've been using this since he was 5 months old after he started jumping/climbing over baby gates when he was gated off into the laundry/boot room in the back of the house..

I can leave him unsupervised in the house for a short period, but this works just fine for the long work week days. My Shiba gets full reign of the house and I don thave to worry about him tampering or getting into anything.

Here's what it looks like set up in the dining area of my kitchen. I have a large open concept main floor in my house and the kitchen, dining area and living room all flow together to make up the entire main floor of my house.. so this works really convenient for me. I no longer use the sheet at the bottom, but I did the first day I set it up. It just looks too messy and its rather inconvenient I find. I was just worried about him moving it around and scratching the lino.. but he doesn't move it at all.

I work full time and i'm gone from the house on weekdays for 10 hours. Thumper does just fine in here during the days has enough room for him to atleast walk around and stretch a bit. He has a few blankies and plenty of toys, a kong and some bones while I'm away. On days that I come home early, I've snuck in through the back door and find him sleeping.. he never has issues being in this kennel.. I feed him here, and when I say 'kennel', he goes in without hesitation. I"ve made it a cozy little place for him and draped a blanket on top.

 

[dagwall]

Jubel has free roam of the house except the kitchen is gated off to keep him out as he'll eat anything he thinks is food. Uncooked rice and pasta were not nice to his tummy when he got into that before I got the gates. Lucky for Jubel I work days and my brother works nights so he isn't left alone for too long in out overlap, I'd say 4 hours absolute tops. But when my brother goes out of town I can usually get my neighbors to stop by and let him out for a potty break at a minimum during the day as I'm gone 10-11 hours depending on traffic. Usually if I ask them to check in on him those days the wife who works from home most days will just pick him up in the morning and have him hang out at their house and drop him back off before I get home. If she has to go into work the husband will come home during lunch and check up on Jubel as he works less than 10 minutes away.

If and when my brother gets a new job and works during the day we'll have to work something out. Probably a staggered schedule so one of us leaves at least a few hours earlier than the other. We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. As long as there isn't any food left out Jubel does fine alone and COULD hold it for 10-11 hours I just prefer to avoid 'making' him.

 

[melaka]

Buffy isn't alone by herself often but, when she is, she has access to the kitchen and living room, with a baby gate giving the other half of the house to the cats. I worked her up from being crated to being in the kitchen, which was dog-proofed, and then eventually the living room too, which really isn't dog-proofed anymore.

Most days she goes to my parents' house while I'm at work but she has been left alone for 8-10 hours at my house too.

 

[Tofu_pup]

Can you dog proof a single room and baby gate it off from the rest of the house? Or just use your current ex-pens to block of the doorway?

Kaki is almost eight years old but I don't think she'll ever have free roam again. She did hundreds of dollars in damage to my last bedroom that I still have to fix. I like to call that her seventh birthday present to me.

 

[Goldens&Labs4Me]

When my husband and I are both at work, our dogs are outside in our fenced in yard. It's a 6' tall, wooden slat fence that is about 1/2 acre big. They each have a dog house and 2 large buckets of fresh water.

 

[pi1otguy]

Depending on the weather and the likelihood my neighbors will do something to make her bark I alternate between putting her out in the yard or giving her free roam of the house (except bathroom, which I've taught her not to enter). Only issue with being indoors is that she will relocate a shoe or dirty clothes if I don't put them away. She doesn't chew or damage them at all, but rather puts them in each room she stays in. She'll even grab a sweaty tshirt and put it in her bed or carry around a funky slipper.

 

[Sasha1/2]

We use the bathroom and a tall pet gate.

 

[RBark]

Kobe is at daycare 8 hrs a day and has free run of the house the rest of the time. (I work 12 to 14 hr days 5 days a week).

 

[Rowdy]

Our dogs (and cats) have free roam of the house with covers thrown over the couches and the back bedroom doors closed. They're both trustworthy in the house, but Toby likes to get on the couch and dig himself a nest, which just doesn't work for a leather couch. Can you say "distressed leather"?

 

[CrazyDogLady]

I use a large 4x4x4 ft pen with a roof for Thumper at the moment, I've been using this since he was 5 months old after he started jumping/climbing over baby gates when he was gated off into the laundry/boot room in the back of the house..

I've gtop a similar set up to this for Mercy. We have a 5'x5'x5' PetSafe Cottageview Kennel in the living room. We had been giving her the run of the house after she rebelled againt her crate, but it became apparent that she was just not ready for that much freedom when she destroyed my phone charger, thankfully she wasn't hurt!

We call the kennel "Mercy's Room" and she seems to like it. Her blanket and toys are all in there and I give her all of her treats in there, even when we're home and the door's open. She goes in there on her own to relax and play while we all watch TV in the evening, too. When I leave for work, I tell her to go to her room and she's glad to go, especially if she just watched me stuff the Kong that she knows she's going to get!

 

[lisahi]

For exercise and socialization, Coco is in daycare 2-3 days a week (I'm trying to cut back to just 2 - for my pocketbook's sake).

The rest of the days she gets free roam of the kitchen/living room/dining room area. Basically the whole downstairs except the half bath. She is allowed to go up the stairs, but the bedroom and bathroom doors are closed so she can't go anywhere up there.

I have a small doggie door that leads out into a small ex-pen. She uses that for her bathroom breaks (and sometimes to dig in between the sod pieces... we're working on that). Most of the time, however, I believe she spends her time sleeping inside, either on the steps or on the couch. She's trustworthy with everything she has access to in the house, and only semi-trustworthy with my poor sod. At least only a portion of the backyard gets her treatment, though. I do have a 6-foot privacy fence around the entire yard, but I don't feel comfortable allowing her all that space outside. I'd rather the ex-pen be used primarily for potty breaks.

When she's home all day, I do come home at lunch to check in on her. She's never spent a full 8-10 hours alone during the day. I think she would likely be just fine, but I get worried about my baby.

 

[hamandeggs]

Bisc, 14 months old, is crated in our living room from about 9-5:30. The dog walker comes for half an hour around noon. She has free roam when we're home and on weekends, and sleeps on a dog bed in our bedroom at night. If we go out to dinner or something, even on a weekend, we usually take her to daycare to avoid additional crate time. The crate is a big one, but not huge - she can stretch out in it. She loves her crate and goes right in every morning when she sees me getting ready to leave. I just think she's still too young to be left out and we don't have a good dog-proof room where we could leave her. The kitchen would be the obvious candidate, but she's never been a fan of the kitchen floor for whatever reason, and I think she does better when she can see the front door. It would be a different story if she didn't like being crated, of course. On days when I've been home from work, I note that she really just sleeps all day in her crate anyway (unless I'm upstairs away from the crate - she likes to be near the people).

 

[Greater Swiss]

We give Caeda free roam of the living room/kitchen area during the day. The bedroom, storeroom and bathroom are gated off. When we started this we had the house THOROUGHLY puppy proofed, built a boot-box, unplugged everything, etc. We also didn't to this until we realized that the odd time she did chew something up she wasn't swallowing it, she was just shredding. This at least gave us a little peace of mind that if we did screw up and leave shoes out or something she wouldn't be likely to choke or eat something that would cause an obstruction. We also noticed that she had NO interest in electrical cables whatsoever. Oddly enough the only time she destroys something is if we are home but out in the laundry room. We also leave a frozen kong with her when we leave in the morning, just to keep her busy for a little while.
When we started this I was only working about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, I'm now up to 7 hours (plus travel time, and physio twice a week) so she's alone for about 8-9 hours. My husband is home some days, but not others, having a very unpredictable schedule.