# Does your puppy have free reign in your house?



## pippa31 (Aug 2, 2011)

Random question for those more experienced with Vizslas than I....

When we got Pippa we limited her space with baby gates to house-train her. First we started with an octagonal gate, then she got a part of the kitchen, then the whole kitchen, the family room, etc. She house-trained in no time at all, but we left the baby gates limiting her space to keep her safe. The areas she is allowed in in our house are completely puppy-proofed (she is 8 months old). If I leave her for a couple of minutes, I am 99.9% confident she can't get into anything/eat anything she shouldn't. But lately, she has been more reliable. She's slowly growing up  So we are thinking about starting to take the baby gates away. Is 8 months too soon to have complete freedom in the house when we are home??? (she is crate-trained and is in the crate at night and when we are not at home)


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

It's probably not too soon as long as you are at home. Being left home alone is another thing entirely, though. Remember: "They chew 'til they're two!"


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## Cavedog (Oct 21, 2010)

By the time Dax was 8 months old I began giving him the run of the house while I was gone. I started off by leaving him alone for a short period of time and gradually increased it. There was never an issue.

Now, whenever I'm gone, he curls up in my recliner (see my avatar) where he can keep an eye on the front door, and sleeps until I return. I have left him alone for 5 or 6 hours without incident.


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## born36 (Jun 28, 2011)

Hello

My 9 month old pup has had freedom of our house since he was 6 months old. Only on the ground floor though. We don't want him upstairs and have trained him not to go up. Every once in awhile he will go up really quick and then run straight back down. Cheeky boy!

Anyway we now leave him out of his crate except at night. He has the whole kitchen dinningroom to roam around when we are out. His crate is in the kitchen if he wants to go into it. I would 9 out of 10 times when I get home he is in his crate. 

All dogs are different and the only way you are going to find out is to give her more freedom and see how she gets on. If you notice that freedom equals trouble then roll her back to the old area. Please though be patient with her as at first the freedom means she will explore.


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## RubyRoo (Feb 1, 2011)

We didn't let Ruby have free reign until she was about 9 months. We put gates up because of the cats and still have a gate up in the room where the litter box is. We slowly got up to full reign. Started out with 2 rooms when she was really young, then the entire downstairs. Finally the entire house and just recently Ruby (14 months) really wanders around on her own but usually stuck to us at all times.


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## Bernie (Jan 17, 2011)

Morgan has had free reign during the day, when we are home, from the beginning. No problems. She is in the same room with one of us 98% of the time anyway. She does like to lay in the foyer when the sun is shining in the storm door. She is also crate trained and is in her crate when we are not home. No reason to give her the opportunity to fail. We started leaving her crate door open at night sometime around 11 or 12 months and she still prefers to sleep in it and is there all night.


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## raps702 (Dec 19, 2010)

Axel is 14 months old, and we also have wooden gates in our house blocking the 3rd and 4th floors of the house. Axel has total freedom of the house "when we are home" and I believe that started about 7-8 months old so you should be good with Pippa as long as you don't leave anything valuable on the floor that you may think he could possibly chew when he is out of your sight. Like some people mentioned our dog usually likes to hang out fairly close to us anyway's, but sometimes he will bolt upstairs to the 3rd or 4th floor and attack one of his toys and hang out by himself or look outside a window and just keep himself occupied for 10-20 minutes by himself. When we leave for 1-2 hours we trust him enough that he does not need to be crated (only at bedtime) we lock the gate going up to the 3rd and 4th floors and lock the other gate (wooden) going into the living room area. (My wife has a nice throw carpet she don't want him laying on) But he has free reign of the dining area, kitchen, and downstairs entrance way.. We have had no issues so far, we just leave a bully stick out and some toys to keep himself occupied until we return. Good luck


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

??? Depends, but please be aware you are asking a puppy to make human level decisions.
It is a recipe for potential disaster.
Perhaps when they are older past 2 or 3 years at least.

I consider my 11 month old very reliable as I look at him now. But then, I remember all dogs are opportunistic hunters and scavengers, by nature. I cannot change that and if my Sam gets to sneak past the cat food he will look around, see if anybody is there to stop him... ;D


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## laurita (Jun 12, 2011)

I think as datacan mentions, you can do it, but make sure you're ok with the occasional item being destroyed, trespassed upon, etc. Mine has been roaming freely (sounds like a beast of the Sahara) since abt 10 mos and I have lost two shoes and a pillow--recently I've left home with a made bed and come home to an unmade one, so unless I have further reason to believe that an intruder needs a warm place to crash during the day, I think my intruder is of the four-legged variety.


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## Suliko (Sep 17, 2011)

I'm with those who say be ready for at least some little stuff to be chewed on. Sophie is not a big chewer, but even she managed to chew on my boots once. It is my fault though, I left them out, and she was home alone with the cat for 9 hours. I blame the cat!! : 
We let Sophie around the house when she was about 7 months old just to see what she would do. She actually did great! She sniffed everything she needed to sniff and was done with it; went right back downstairs to her couch and window. Even now when we leave her on her own for longer periods of time (3-4 times a week), she is mostly downstairs staring at our suburbia and rarely goes upstairs. 
I would suggest letting Pippa out and about the house just to see what she does. You might be surprised! Also, if you do decide to give her all the freedom around the house, most likely you will find her right next to you. And if she's not right next to you, you know she's in trouble! ;D


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## finch (Sep 19, 2011)

We have a small house (~900 sq feet), so Finch has pretty much had "free reign" since day 1, with the exception of obvious things, like closing doors to rooms where we knew she might get into things... like shoes in the bedroom! For the most part, she just sticks by us anyway. We also have 2 older dogs (6 years old) so we find she tends to follow their lead and doesn't get into much trouble. Since I'd rather not crate her while our two older dogs roam free, she tends to go everywhere with us (waiting patiently in the car if she has to).... the one time we did leave her home and free with the other dogs, we set up a camera, so we saw that she jumped up on the kitchen table, sniffed around for about 10 seconds, jumped down, got on the couch and went to sleep! I think she'd do fine being home but bringing her out seems to burn up some of her curiosity so we opt for that. She has chewed up a few things (she has a fondness for Smartwool socks) but I always blame us for leaving them accessible... we need as much training as she does


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