# Should dogs be given the run of the house?



## Mayhemz (Aug 13, 2007)

Or is it better to lock them away in a specific area of the house?


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

I am sure that there are going to be a lot of different opinions on this. For me my dogs are in crates while I am away until I am sure they are not going to be chewing anything and that the dynamics of the "pack" are safe to be left alone. Then, they have the run of the house.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Well, gosh, it depends on so many things.


Are you home or away at these times?
Is the dog reliably housebroken? ("Nearly" housebroken is like almost famous.)
Is the dog a chewer?
Are there things the dog could get into that might be hazardous to the dog or the things?
If you're going to restrict the dog, what kind of area are we talking about?
How long a period are we talking about?
Speaking from personal experience and as the owner of a dog capable of more destruction than most people could imagine, my dog is restricted when I am a away and has the run of the house when I'm home. She stays pretty close when I AM home (one might even say under-foot) and, at night, I am happy to have her on patrol.

She is a highly efficient doorbell and alarm system.


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## Mayhemz (Aug 13, 2007)

I'm away from home about 10 hours a day. They are currently restricted to the laundry room.


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## britishbandit (Dec 11, 2006)

RonE said:


> Well, gosh, it depends on so many things.
> 
> 
> Are you home or away at these times?
> ...


I totally agree, there's a lot of different variables. I personally have never allowed any dog free roam of the house (when I'm not home), until they were at least a year of age. But for PJ (he still is very much a puppy, just a big un...LOL), he turned 2 in May, I don't mind him out of his crate and with the baby gate up so he's in the kitchen only, but I still don't trust him 100% to be left out in the entire house. He has had free roam on occasion, but only for short periods of time. Tysa has been allowed free roam since she was about 14 months, and I've never had any problems.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Do they at least do the laundry?

Again, speaking as a Plott hound owner and having absolutely no idea about the breed or quantity of dogs in you laundry room, I'll bet I could find a dozen things they could get into that could harm the dogs or cause your home-owner's insurance rate to sky-rocket.

Plott owners are accustomed to thinking in terms of worst-case scenarios.

Also, in my personal experience, it seems that multiple dogs - while they may entertain each other to some extent - can dream of more imaginative ways to cause trouble than a single dog ever could. (Refer to Plott and mini schnauzer left alone for twenty minutes with an unsuspecting sleeper sofa.)


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## Mayhemz (Aug 13, 2007)

I have an australian shepherd and a german shepherd. Ouch huh?


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

The laundry room seems to be the room of choice for so many folks when they are locking their dogs up. I am with Ron, there are a lot of bad news items in the average laundry room. 
Ron Esther must be a real riot. I can only imagine what she has done in your house. You should write a book.


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## Wimble Woof (Jan 16, 2007)

Free run of the house here, but none of them are young or puppies so many of the "bugs" have been worked out.
No clear cut answer to this question though.


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## Ginny01OT (Dec 3, 2006)

I think it depends on the dog, it's age, it's activity level, how well the dog is trained and how comfortable you really feel giving the dog access to certain areas or all in the home. Whatever you decide, I started off with the crate, then just one room and then it went to two then three now four--I keep the upstairs bedroom doors shut so there is no reason for him to go up there and he is also not allowed in the basement, that is our cats domain.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Inga said:


> Ron Esther must be a real riot. I can only imagine what she has done in your house.


Not so much a riot as a force of nature - maybe a hurricane.

I may need to go out-of-town over Labor Day weekend. Okay if I drop Esther off at your place for a few days?

The key with Esther, and probably with any large, powerful, energetic dog, is to try to wear them out before you leave in the morning and before you retire at night.

Sleeping dogs don't eat sleeper sofas.


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## sheltiemom (Mar 13, 2007)

My dogs do not yet have free run of the house. They are crated in seperate crates when I am not home, which is a couple of hours here or there when I'm running errands, and they are now crated at night. The shelties had been sleeping in our bedroom at night, but with the addition of Penny they have been rowdy, so back to night time crating until things settle down. When I am home they are restricted with baby gates to downstairs (not much upstairs anyway), unless I am on the computer, then they are closed in the room with me. Eventually they will have full run of the house, but right now they are all under age 1 and cannot quite be counted on to stay out of trouble.

As far as confining two or more dogs together, I would not do it. I would worry about fights. I also think 10 hours in the laundry room is too long to be confined on a regular basis if you are also confining them at night.


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## Cobalt (Jul 27, 2007)

Our maltese had the run of the house after the first 6 months but she was an unusual dog. i can't wait to get to that point with our new puppy, I can't imagine!


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

My dogs (small little 10-pounders, but one chews like a termite at times) have the run of the house if we are gone for less than an hour. But it's amazing what the younger one can get into if we are just out working in the yard or garage for a few hours! So for longer than an hour the younger one is always crated. Leaving them in a room gated off is an invitation to find chewed books, contents of garbage cans strewn about, and anything that can be reached will be messed with. 

The older one has been trusted with the run of the house unless we are going to be gone long enough to border on her eyeballs turning yellow by the time we get back (more than 7 hours or so). Shag rugs in the bathroom look a lot like grass and the hardwood floors will stain if urinated on. 

Both dogs are crated at night since there are just too many things that could be messed with. And the cat sure appreciates having some time to wander around without being chased. We also appreciate the peace and quiet when they aren't all chasing each other all night.


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## patrickandduncan'smom (Aug 6, 2007)

My older dog (Duncan) was crated until he was around 4yrs old but he is very much a lab (even though he is mixed with coonhound). Now he is fine being left with the run of the house. My younger dog (Patrick) just turned 1 and I have started to let him run the house for 5hrs or less but I haven't tried for all day while I am at work (I work 10hrs so I am a little worried about leaving him out that long). Patrick is locked in the bathroom when I am gone for longer than 5hrs. I would have crated him but he was too big for the large crate that was Duncan's.


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## chul3l3ies1126 (Aug 13, 2007)

Guera and Bingo get the run of the downstairs when we are not at home. We keep the door to the stairs closed because Bingo will be turning 12 in December and needs to be carried up the stairs now. He will still try to go up even if it hurts his back, so we make sure he has no access to the stairs. 

Neither are chewers, and both are completely house trained, we have not had an accident for about 4 years, when Guera was a puppy. And everything that is hazardous is way above reach over the fridge in cabinents. 

Of course, if we decided to get a new puppy, they would be confined to the downstairs "extra TV room" while they go through basic training and learning their place.


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## WhippetsOwnMe (Aug 12, 2007)

Puppies, young adults who are not reliable, brand new rescue dogs, etc are always crated here when I leave, or in the room I am in when I am home. However, the goal IMO should always be complete freedom of the house, as a family member. My older dogs definitely have total freedom. My Whippet puppy does not- he is with me at all times, or crated. Our Golden service dog in training has very limited freedom as she has to learn to stick with her partner/handler- as well as the fact she is very untrustworthy in the house. She is a Golden, though... so at eight months is no where near as reliable as my Whippet is at four months. He has more freedom than she does.


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## cowdog (Mar 27, 2007)

Mu has the run of our place when we are at home. I make sure I am aware of what she's up to though because she's still young. I prefer that she doesn't go in the bedrooms so I just keep the doors closed. When we're not at home she has a big partly covered terrace to herself.


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## bluesbarby (Apr 10, 2007)

When no one is home Riley is gated in the kitchen dining/ fam areas. Totally dog proofed. He has his crate in there and pretty much sleeps most of the time we're gone but can run around if he wants too. There's also a cat run he has access to if he wants to go outside. When we're home he is restricted to the living area of the house - we keep the bedroom area closed off. This is because we have 3 cats and 1). he likes their potty box too much and 2) the cats need their own space. But he does sleep with us at night. However, he's not allowed off the bed.


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

Not until they prove themselves worthy. I have boxers, creative ones to boot - they are safely crated when I am away.


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## Mdawn (Mar 3, 2007)

None of my dogs get free reign of the house...ever. None of them are allowed upstairs, its always gated off. The stairs are just to steep and Eddie and Uallis have major problems coming down the stairs. I'm afraid they will fall. They go upstairs to get baths and that is it. They have help going up and down the stairs (us holding on to them). We just carry Dan up and down for baths. During the day, for example, if I'm in the computer room, the living room is gated off and there is a gate between the computer room and the kitchen. Eddie and Dan can come in and out as they choose. Uallis is always with someone because he's too little to be unsupervised for more than a few minutes. Also, he relapsed in potty training so we are back to square one with that, so he has to be watched.

At night, Uallis is always crated in the living room. Dan sleeps in the kitchen. Depending on Dan's mood (whether he wants to tolerate Eddie) Eddie may sleep in the kitchen or the mud room Eddie can't sleep in the living room because he pesters Uallis in his crate. I generally keep Eddie and Uallis separated while in the house because they play pretty rough and would destroy/knock things over. I take Uallis and Eddie outside to play several times during the day. I imagine when Uallis is older, the arrangements will change though.


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## EXBCMC (Jul 7, 2007)

Until just recently we had 3 older dogs that we trusted with the run of the house. Two have passed away and we now have two labs pups and an 8 year old shepherd. She has the run and is totally responsible. The 9 mo old lab was finally trusted to sleep w/the shepherd in the family room at night, but then required hip surg, so now it's the crate until about oct. the 5 mo old lab is totally nuts. nuff said on her.


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

It really depends on the dog and/or the dynamics between two or more dogs. I have three dogs; two Standard Poodles who are 6 yrs. old, and an 18 mo. old Shih Tzu (a recent addition). The Shih Tzu is crated mainly for his safety when I am gone, since he's much, much smaller than the other two. The Standards go into their crates whenever I leave the house, and remain there until I come home (conditioned response from training), but the gates are not locked. 

When I'm home, all 3 have freedom of the house, because they've earned it.


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## onyxdaily (Apr 3, 2007)

My female hound, Brandy, does not now or will she ever be able to have free run of the house. If we're gone, she is either outside in her run (weather permitting) or in our bedroom in her crate. She was a rescue and has some permanent physical and mental / emotional problems from suspected abuse. But when we're home, usually in the evenings, we will bring her inside and gate off a few rooms so that she can run around the house and play.

My 2 boys are still puppies, lab is 13 months and saint bernard is 10 months, and they don't have free run of the house yet, but in time, if they prove trustworthy, they will. We actually tried giving them free run of the kitchen area a few times and that was a disaster. Needless to say we are minus one wooden bench for our kitchen table and we had to repair a few holes in the walls. So they now get crated while we're gone, until they are a little older and past the chewing stage.


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## Swissmiss (Aug 24, 2006)

At this time none of my dogs get house priviliges when we are not home. Hopefully as they become reliable with chewing etc, they can. For now they are crated, and love it I must add. They spend more time in there crates when they have free access to the house than I would ever think they would.


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## wabanafcr (Jun 28, 2007)

None of ours have the run of the house when we are away; they are all crated individually. We have given that privilege to some of our dogs in the past, and I can see Bibby earning that right in the future, but not right now.

They are safe in their crates, I know nobody is eating anything they shouldn't (Flatcoats are notorious for eating socks, underwear, dish towels, etc.) and nobody is chewing up anything they shouldn't.


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