Doggie questions!

[Deleted]

My dog is about 9 months old and she's only in her cage about 4-5 hours at night when we are asleep. Other then that somebody's home. We do put her in her cage if we leave out.

Did you do anything specific if you knew you were going to let him or her stay out? Long walk? I know leave toys and treats and such.

When did you start letting your dog have a little freedom while you are gone? I don't want to leave her out the 15 mins its takes me to go to 7-11.

Is your dog cage in or out of your room? Mines out but my friend told me that's werid. So just curious

You allow your dog on your furniture and bed? Im all for it but my bf isn't big on her being on the bed. Just wondering here too

[smock]

My dog's crate is in our bedroom. She's 3 and she's in the crate when we aren't in the apartment. It's just easier that way, since she's a big fan of pulling things out of the trash and ripping them to shreds.

If we're out for more than 2 hours, we set up a pen attached to her crate with water and toys. I'm convinced that she just sleeps the entire time we're gone, though.

[Jalapeñomel]

We have one dog (Miranda)that roamed free while we were gone, but since moving to NYC, she is now crated when we are out. She is 10 years old. She doesn't care one way or the other.  She is happy in her crate and goes in there on her own free will. 

The puppy (2 years old, LOL) is also crated while we are away, and always has and probably always will be. She also loves her crate and sleeps in there even when we are home. 

I know and they know that they are safe in their crate and that we will be back to get them out. Both crates are in our bedroom, but when we lived in Lima, one crate was in the living room.

Miranda is allowed on the furniture, but Camote is not. Camote gets territorial over furniture, so she isn't allowed for now. She is also not allowed in the kitchen.

[bania]

My dogs are hooligans. We cage trained them while potty training only. The only time mine are in a cage are for car rides. I think they could have benefited (in the attitude dept) if we cage trained more as they've always had freedom at home (restricted to the main level while we are working).

They are allowed on the furniture. They sleep in bed with us. Good thing they only weigh maybe 8-9 lbs put together.

[mcmel]

My dogs are two and are crated in our bedroom every time we leave. We tried leaving them out, but came home to our couch and blinds in shreds. We have new furniture now and I think we'll crate forever in fear of them destroying things again.

Our dogs are allowed on furniture and sleep with us every night in bed. What can I say, we have big babies that love to cuddle.

[Deleted]

Max was left in the hallway with a baby gate to block him off from the rest of the house for about a month. DH came home from work one night to see he had knocked down the gate and was sleeping soundly in the living room.
We just started leaving him out. He was also never a chewer or destroyed anything. He gets a long walk every morning (at least 2 miles) and that tires him out. We use to give him frozen Kongs but he wouldn't eat them until we got home and they got messy.
As for the furniture, he is currently asleep on the couch across from me and he sleeps in our bed every night. He basically rules the house and does whatever the hell he wants.

[Deleted]

Sept 10, 2013 16:14:43 GMT -5 bania said:

They are allowed on the furniture. They sleep in bed with us. Good thing they only weigh maybe 8-9 lbs put together.

I took care of a friends dog like yours. They may not weigh much but I swear small dogs have this amazing ability to take up more space on a bed than a large dog!

[HockeyRefWife]

Sept 10, 2013 16:18:34 GMT -5 mcmel said:

My dogs are two and are crated in our bedroom every time we leave. We tried leaving them out, but came home to our couch and blinds in shreds. We have new furniture now and I think we'll crate forever in fear of them destroying things again.

Our dogs are allowed on furniture and sleep with us every night in bed. What can I say, we have big babies that love to cuddle.

We had the same destruction issues with our dogs.  Ours are 5, 3, and 2, and I think we'll be crating them forever to avoid total home destruction.  They are, however, allowed on couches only if we're on the couches with them.  They sleep happily in their own crates.

[Deleted]

No dogs allowed on bed or furniture. I am sorry guys but it is just nasty thinking about feces and slober on my fresh sheets & couch.

Mine stays in his cage 6-8 hours a day while we are at work. We used to put a baby gate in the first floor and let him lounge around in the entryway area till he chewed up the corner of the stairs. He gets separation anxiety and calms himself down by chewing on wood. So we decided to just crate him when we are gone and he is fine with it. He actually prefers his crate because we put a sheet over it and he treats it like his cave.

Train him when he is still young.

[bania]

Sept 10, 2013 16:25:15 GMT -5 @porcupine said:

No dogs allowed on bed or furniture. I am sorry guys but it is just nasty thinking about feces and slober on my fresh sheets & couch.

Mine stays in his cage 6-8 hours a day while we are at work. We used to put a baby gate in the first floor and let him lounge around in the entryway area till he chewed up the corner of the stairs. He gets separation anxiety and calms himself down by chewing on wood. So we decided to just crate him when we are gone and he is fine with it. He actually prefers his crate because we put a sheet over it and he treats it like his cave.

Train him when he is still young.

I get squicky thinking about the paw grossness too. We almost always wash their paws off when we come in from walks/ and always before bed (part of our routine). We couldn't get away with this as easily with a large dog. But I'm sure we would find a way.

[miniroller]

Our pup is in a crate @ night & whenever we're not home. (We don't work typical hours, so it's usually 3-6 hrs. during the day.) We read a lot about making his 'home' a safe place that he liked. We do randomly reward him when he goes in, especially if he does it before we command it, i.e. if he can tell we're getting ready to head out, & automatically heads to his crate. Anyway, the advice to make his crate his safe/happy place really helped; any isolation punishment is done in the 1/2-bath, so as not to bring a negative/ punishment vibe to his bed. I also like that he'll sometimes willingly hang in his crate for naps, etc.
Oh & his crate is in the den; he's not really allowed in our bedroom (we'd like to always keep our bedroom dog hair-free). Furniture-wise, he's allowed on the basement furniture, but that's it. This is totally my husband's fault, & once we replace that furniture (w/in 6 months), he's supposedly (we'll see how great it'll be enforced) going to be re-trained to stay off... Ha! But the basement is his 'area' so I'm not going to throw too much of a fit, will just make sure not to spend too much $$ on future basement furniture upgrades.

[bania]

Sept 10, 2013 16:21:35 GMT -5 @2009miss said:

Sept 10, 2013 16:14:43 GMT -5 bania said:

They are allowed on the furniture. They sleep in bed with us. Good thing they only weigh maybe 8-9 lbs put together.

I took care of a friends dog like yours. They may not weigh much but I swear small dogs have this amazing ability to take up more space on a bed than a large dog!

Oh yes. Jackson (the smaller one) weighs about 3 lbs and HAS to sleep with his whole body stretched along my hip/thigh area. So I can't toss or turn without waking up to move him first. Annie lays sideways stretched out and is all dead weight if you have to move her. She's not helping.