I also have started letting Gizmo stay out during the day, while I keep a close eye on him, and he's done wonderful. He's 4 1/2 months old an is so smart !!! I still keep his food and water, along with a potty pad holder in his pen and he goes in and out all day. He will switch toys in there like every 30 minutes haha, and he puts the one he was playing with back away. I too have one that has an arched doorway, so he can come and go as he likes. I got him a really soft large faux fur bed that I put right in front of the coffee table outside his pen. He will just go take naps on his own whenever he feels like a break :-) I also have an extra potty pad holder outside his pen, and that is what he uses when he's outside of the pen time, and between walks. We do a lot of playing fetch and tug a war, as well as playing chase. I actually just open his pen when I get up in the morning, and he doesn't go back in till bedtime at night, around 9 pm. He's not had one accident, so I'm thinking I might expand his access to include the kitchen as well, because I have it blocked off right now, but he's doing so great I'm going to see what happens with giving him more room.
I'm more worried about once I give him full house access because the down stairs is all hard wood floors and travertine stone in the kitchen, but the stairs and upstairs is all long shag carpet :-) does anyone have experience with introducing them to carpet after hard floors? This is where I think I might run into accidents, although I do have a large area rug in my living room, and he hasn't pottied on that but it's a very short pile rug, compared to the carpet in the other areas. |