For those of you with older dogs or pups, what age did your pup first sleep out of a pen/crate? Ash is now seven months old and I feel mean waking him from his cosy spot on the sofa to pop him in his sleep area. He gets huffy so I have to lure him to bed with a biscuit. He sleeps soundly all night so I was wondering if now was the time to trial leaving his gate open (he sleeps in an under stairs area extended out with a playpen).
Re: Free run at bedtime question I think you could give it a go at this age But if you can avoid giving him access to the whole house right away that's best. Where would he sleep instead - same spot but just with the gate open? Would you mind if he decided that the sofa was more to his liking?
Re: Free run at bedtime question Would definitely start with one room at a time or he might find too much freedom overwhelming. You say he is under the stairs at the moment so is it possible to just let him have the run of the hallway (Or wherever your stairs are) to start with? Be aware that at he's only 7 months old there could be a chance of him going a little backwards on housetraining as his circumstances change, but he should soon adapt to the new set up.
Re: Free run at bedtime question First day we have them, they come into the bedroom and sleep on the bed, we have a little step system for Betty as she is so tiny and Elsie just copied her and up she came. Just puppy proof the bedroom and never really had a problem.
Re: Free run at bedtime question The downstairs is fully gated so I can easily confine him to the front room area. He's never had any accidents inside so I'm not worried about housetraining, and my sofa cleans really easily. I was just wondering what age other people's dogs slept unconfined. I grew up with docile female collies that always had free run of the house so having a lab (and a male dog) has been a whole new experience. There has been joy, laughter & tears along the way xxxxx
Re: Free run at bedtime question We de-crated Benson at about 8 months old. He is restricted though to the kitchen. He is a chewer and would probably chew through our cushions, sofa, remote controls...well err anything! He even chewed through a kitchen unit to get inside..found him with his head stuck .. it was were we kept all the eggs, so he had helped himself to at least a dozen eggs and about 20 egg boxes..
Re: Free run at bedtime question Pongo took matters into his own paws and de-crated himself at eight months. We came down one morning to find he'd neatly removed one of the slats in the gate to his home under the stairs and was curled up on the sofa. See picture below. "Honest dad, it just fell off all on its own". https://www.dropbox.com/s/almuc0cc81oquw1/prison break.jpg?dl=0 So he now has the run of the sitting room (doors to kitchen and dining room shut). He wanders around from sofa to floor to bed to chair to sofa during the night. He doesn't have access to water overnight, and we've had no major problems with housetraining EXCEPT when we gave him a big lamb bone to eat late in the day and came down to fine a neat pile of rock-hard poo... (he has never learned to 'ask' to be let out the door, a very silent pup). We do try to avoid doing that now. But, we still wake him up each night before we go to bed to make sure he has a pee. This can be quite an exercise. Last night he completely refused to wake up - I ended up sliding him as a dead weight across the tiles all the way over to the door, then getting my arms under his ribs and hauling him up onto four feet before he'd finally acknowledge that he needed to move. Went outside and gave me a very long-suffering look as he squeeeeezzeeed a little bit of pee out for me. Bless 'im.
Re: Free run at bedtime question [quote author=Beanwood link=topic=8822.msg125158#msg125158 date=1416392992] He even chewed through a kitchen unit to get inside..found him with his head stuck .. it was were we kept all the eggs, so he had helped himself to at least a dozen eggs and about 20 egg boxes.. [/quote] Oh wow, says Pongo..... RESPECT, mate!!!
Re: Free run at bedtime question We decrated at about 6.5/7 months. We started with the usual routine, outside, pee, into crate, lights out...but we left the unlocked but closed over. She made her way out onto her other bed during the night and sofa surfed a bit too. Night 2 and 3 were much the same. By night 4 she had figured out the crate door wasn't being locked and just came straight back out of the crate and made for her bed. The house is all open so closing off one room is not possible but she's been very good, no accidents. I know she's got one ear out for us going to bed and hops straight on the sofa because she's a bit daft and leaves the cushions strewn all over the floor. If only I could train her to pick them up before we get downstairs.
Re: Free run at bedtime question Gypsy - 16 weeks! She hated the crate, so we had a puppy pen for a couple of weeks, then just a bed. She's been absolutely fine, no accidents or chewing. We put bitter apple on things she might chew like table legs. Tatze is still in her crate she cries if we try to leave the door open! They are all different
Re: Free run at bedtime question Sounds like it might be time to give it a go. My husband is a "if it's not broke don't fix it" kind of man so I will have to persuade him first. I think he's worried we will come downstairs and find the dog has destroyed everything. Ash is a chewer so we are on SkyRemote number 3.
Re: Free run at bedtime question Should have added that we do do a bit of extra puppy proofing at night and when's she's home alone. She's never even sniffed at the TV cables but we unplug everything and move anything moveable like the remotes up high where she can't see or reach.
