Is my dog ready to be left out of his crate?

StacyCW

I have a 2 yr old male weim. He does have seperation aniexty, but I feel like he would be ready to roam free around the house. When he is crated he hates it, reguarless if there are toys, peanut butter fulled kongs, etc. He has broke free twice (when we had an all wire crate) and didn't touch a thing in the house. (Now he has a plastic crate-- and hasn't escaped this one). How do I transition to see if he is ok to roam free? How do I know? If anyone has any advise I would appreciate it. Oh, lastly, my house is very open, and he would have the entire first floor...I would not be able to contain him to just one or two rooms. THANKS!!!!!!

CoopersMummy · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

I'm in the same boat, except Cooper loves his crate. We leave him out of his crate for short periods (take the garbage out, 30 minutes to grab a coffee and come home, pick up drycleaning, etc) We left him one night when went out for dinner (and after he had a long 2 hour walk) - came home, and he was in his crate on this own.
We are sure to pick up all shoes off the floor, and other things of interest he could chew and close as many doors to other rooms as possible.
All has been fine so far...my suggestions, try short periods of time and see what happens.

nurse88 · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

That is our problem with KD. When she is ready for that, we have doors on almost all the rooms. Just the rooms she will have access to, all have outside windows. We have a ranch house, and if we let her out of her crate, she has access to the laundry room, the kitchens, the livingroom and the diningroom. Eventually, at night, we plan on letting her have free reign, but for now, no way. And when I do, I will have to baby gate the laundry room. There are too many poisons in there for her.

weimdawgs · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:27 pm Post subject:

If I EVER leave my dogs roam the house, this is how I will do it. Because if I just left and didn't put them in their crates, they would sit in front of the door I left by until I came back.

I would put them in the crate and close but not latch the door. I would do that until they realized they could get out. That way, they would think it was their idea. I would do that for a few days then put them in but leave the door open. I know they would just sit there until I left.

And I would do that until I felt I didn't need the crates anymore.

2kids2weims · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject:

The escape thing is hard b/c if they get out once, it becomes a challenge! Laughing

I think it depends a little bit on what you find when they escape - we found Cooper on our bed sleeping or lying on the couch on "our" blanket - nothing disturbed.

We started leaving him out when he was about 9 months mostly b/c he started escaping & once got his toe caught in top of the crate. (When I came home I had a slobbering frantic dog suspended by the toe from the roof of the wire kennel! Shocked

I had to bend the wire while my neighbor held him up. Me crying all the while!) He's never really wrecked anything and we even thaw meat on the counter without him touching it. (If I didn't have his papers, I'm not sure I'd believe he was a weim...)

We started crating him again when we had to crate our new weim, but the escapes started again. When we reinforced the crate he literally started taking it apart wire by wire. Our other one remains crated...hope she doesn't read this & attempt escape!!

LunaBrown · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject:

Luna will be 1 on the 29th of this month and we wonder the very same thing...

A week ago we left Luna out of her crate in our bedroom (her crate is in our room) while we made a quick trip to the home depot... about 45 minutes later we came home to find her sleeping nicely in our bed. Presumed innocent

Then this past weekend we left her out of her crate in my folks 5th wheel camper... to find out that within an hour she had pulled down a bunch of curtains (thank god they were velcro!) and taken every clean piece of clothing out of our suitcase and spread it all over the camper (unharmed *whew*) Evil or Very Mad

I want to give her credit and say the 2nd attempt went poorly because she wasn't at home.... but who knows!

simis · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:13 pm Post subject:

You've got to try it at some point or another I say. Rosie for the most part has passed the test. She hasn't been locked in her kennel while we're out since February - we set it up so she's babygated in the kitchen and when she does escape, she's been very good except for one occasion when she got my shoes. Some just really don't do well with crates - ours was one of those.

Weimwayz · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject:

We have had way to many close calls with our weims getting into things while we are out. So even if we go to the corner store they all go to their crates. I'd rather come home to everything being the way I left it than all chewed up. Ours don't have seperation anxiety but they do love to get into the garbage given the opportunity. Our weims love their crate and when they are tired we can usually find them already curled up in it. So I'm a huge advocate for using crates all their life. I have heard too many stories of weim eating the couch, through walls and valuables while being left uncrated and alone

Good luck!!!!

TheWaffs · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject: I have no clue

I really want Brady to be out of his crate at night. He is only 9 months so I know it may be awhile. I took him to work where do a 24 hour shift and sleep there. I did not take his crate because it is too big. I thought if I tethered his leash to the bed he would be fine. He didn't get into anything but anytime he heard a sound he barked and growled waking the residents up. At least I now know he can be protective which he has never done before. We are looking to buy a house soon so I am hoping to have a layout that I can leave him out but have some doors closed or baby gates up. I would like him to be out at night for protection, my husband is gone some so it would be nice to know he is out. I had a dream one night that someone broke in and he was going crazy in his crate trying to help me but couldn't. So we are hoping that we can leave him out soon.

Colinda · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject: crate

I have 3 dogs: weim, bichon, dachshund. When we say, "get in your house", they all get in their own crate. It's very soothing (for them) to be in a cosy spot while we're gone. I don't have any desire to let them roam; it's too easy for them to get into things plus they really seem to love their crates. Of course we always give them a small treat as soon as they get in their crate...I guess they like that too!

freespiritmom · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject:

If you decide to go ahead and leave them out try for short amounts of time at first, do so gradually and make sure (double sure) anything that is of value either sentimental or monetary is put away where they can't get to it because that will be the first thing to go. If you want to keep it, put it away, is the rule at our house.

Jager08 · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject:

The other day I let the pups in the sun room while I ran to the grocery store. Well…*shakes head* apparently I didn't’t shut the door till it latched.
When I had gotten home they had busted out of the room and into the house. They completely shredded the Sunday paper, ate a pair of sunglasses, destroyed a huge hard cover book, and got all the trash out of the bathroom trashcans!!! Mine can not be trusted!!!!
PUPPIES!!!!

I think that if you should leave him in there every time you have to make a small errand away from the house and slowly increase the times that your gone.
I still can’t fathom coming home to find a sleeping dog so I think you are on the right track.

Bunker · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject: