Run of the House - When did you take the plunge?
 

Good afternoon everyone! :)

A question please for you all? Harry is now just one year old. He goes into his crate in our room at night about 10 p.m., goes to sleep, then wakes up whenever we do the next morning, he's always done that and we don't hear a peep from him.

He doesn't like going in there during the day (can't blame him, he's probably bored of it!), but I'm home most of the time and he's usually with me anyway, so it doesn't matter. If I have to go out where he can't, he goes in the kitchen with his bed and his things and that's fine too.

What I would like to know please is - what age did you start letting your littlies have run of the house? And how did you approach it? I'd love to have your input on this please! :) Thank you. Sally + Harry x

Hi, The only time mine have run of the house is when I am home. During the work week they are each gated in their own area. If I have to run a quick errand I won't gate them but if it's going to be more than a few minutes they are gated. I feel better knowing that they are safe and out of harms way.

It took me about 2 and half yrs before I let Brandi have run of the house. But she is older. I got her when she was 7 yrs old and she's 11 now. I kept her in the exp-pen until she got used to the potty pads. Now she uses the potty pads exclusively (she still goes outside too when weather permits). She even gets up in the middle of the night to go use her potty pad so I'm comfortable with giving her the run of the house. What's really weird is now the fricking cat has start to pee on the potty pads (not sure why now after all this time but she still poops in her litter box).


Also she's older so most of day is spent lounging so no worries with her getting into something. Actually for me I was more worried about her hurting herself when she was in her expen all day because she spent most of her time trying to escape it. Now that she is out, she mainly just sleeps in my bed most of the day.

Riley was about 13-months old when I gave him full run of the bedroom..... and then about 14-months he had full run of the place.

Here is my threads on it: :)

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...n-bedroom.html

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...run-place.html

ZoE got the run of the house at about 16 weeks. She was fully potty-trained by 12 weeks, but it took me an extra month for me to gain the trust in her needed to let her run free.

wow that is great she was potty trained at such a young age. Either she was a very smart girl or you were a very dilligent owner or both

Gracie is almost 7 months old. We have a small, single story home that she has the run of when we're home, except we do keep the bedroom doors closed. That way we can keep a better eye on her. She's pad trained, but is doing a little 'marking' (I know - she's a girl, what can I say!) when my DH is home but not when she's home alone with me. Don't know what that's all about. When we're not here, she's gated in the kitchen.

We spend part of our year in AZ and part in WA - we can to AZ when we'd only had her for 6 weeks, and didn't have the run of the WA house when we left, so we'll have to re-train some when we get back to WA.

Riley was also potty trained at about 12-weeks old.....
I told the Vet I didn't know how I did it but that he was using the litter box/peepee pads every time. She said their bladders aren't fully formed until they are about 16-weeks old and that he was doing that, because he was very Smart. :thumbup: :)

Kiwi had the run of our first apartment at about 16 weeks, the reason being he was escaping from every pen/area we put him in! So we figured why not! He had a few accidents but was actually pretty good, we closed the bathroom and bedrooms doors, so he only had the living room and kitchen. When we moved into our current home we still closed the bathroom and 2 bedrooms doors, but he had the rest of the house and was fine by then.(he was just shy of a year when we moved)

Little Lola is now around 14 weeks and has not yet escaped her pen so she still only has her little area. The current plan is to wait until she is 16 weeks and then give her the whole kitchen since she is doing awesome with her potty training and see how she does. We will then probably slowly increase her area as we feel comfortable with her training!:D

Pasquale is 3 and he only gets run of the house IF i'm home. If i'm not home, he is in his crate. To me its not a matter of potty training, its a matter of safety. It puts my mind to rest knowing he is safe in his crate. If he wasnt, Id be thinking ..."Oh is he stuck under the couch? Or the bed? Or somewhere else he shouldnt be?"

Jackson was pretty young.... well, we were staying at my dads house about two nights a week at the time, and he was probably 4 1/2 months old when he got the whole downstairs with their dog. The upstairs has always been blocked off so the cats have their safe haven away from the dogs.

At our regular house (my moms), I have a whole "apartment" to myself (bedroom, living space and bathroom). Originally, he was kept in a crate when I left and at night but that only lasted a few weeks. Then he was kept in an expen for a bit, then went to being gated in my bedroom, then got full run of my entire side of the house, then by 7 months he had the full house (my side, plus the rest of the house which is fairly big). He spends most of his time in my bedroom though.

I think it depends on the dog. Jackson has just always been very trustworthy and he does not get into things when we aren't home (when we ARE home, it's another story ;) LOL) but when left and no people are home, he just sleeps. He's now 3 and it's never been a problem.

For safety reasons, my 2 and 3 year old boys still don't have run of the house. :) I keep them confined from the stairway and rooms that have things that are dangerous to them. They are mostly in the "great room" (kitchen, breakfast, family room) or in my large bedroom/bath area.

When I have opened the doors to the front rooms, they will go sniff and come right back. :)

He likes to sleep in his crate in the bedroom at night and we gave Deuce run of the house during the day at about a 10 months. I retired so I was home quite a bit and he tends to follow me around. I left a pee pad out when I left home but noticed that he just slept in the front window until I came back. Occasionally he would get into mischief like chewing on a window sill - We stopped that one quickly! His mischief hasn't been anything dangerous. We have one bathroom with a low toilet paper dispenser that he likes to unroll to get the cardboard center so I usually close the door so he can't get into that. The mail coming through the door is a constant challenge we are working on. Other than that he's a good boy as long as we keep underwear and socks off the floor!!!!!

We let Soph have full run at about 3 month old. She was potty trained (or at least we thought -until we found a poop graveyard under our bed!) and we had puppy proofed. She mainly was beside me anyway. When we left, I hid treat everywhere to see where she went, and she didnt get even one! Just sleeps while we are away. Good little girl!

I think it was 18 months for me. Kaji has free roam of my bedroom, living room, and bathroom where his potty pad is. The only place he is not allowed to enter on his own is the kitchen. At 3 years old, I don't trust him not to get into the kitchen trash.

I have had ozzy since january, he was fully potty trained when i got him but had a few accidents since it was a new home. i got him from a friend of my parents and she never gave me his papers so she said he was 3. some nights i let him sleep out of his cage but others he sleeps in it. he sleeps through the night and i let him out right before we go to sleep and whenever i wake up. sometimes if i sleep a little late my mom, sister, dad, or 3 year old nephew lets him out of the cage and one of the adults let him outside then he comes back to my room or wherever im asleep and sleeps with me. its not that he will pee or anything in the house, im just scared to leave him out all the time

Firstly, thank you all for your replies :)

Harry too was fully house-trained at ZoE's age, and he's always had the run of the whole house while we're here. It really isn't to do with pottying - I'm just so scared of letting him run free while I'm out - I think the place is safe, but I'm so scared that he'll chew through something that might hurt him? :eek:

He's Harry Houdini the escape artist - but he's never really been a chewer. I'm worried that he might become one through sheer frustration though - and I don't know how to overcome that fear - in myself really? Should I do it as a gradual thing do you think? Thank you all again, Sally + Harry x

I have a fairly good house/setup, where I have "zoned" access ! :D

We have a Doggy Door, which leads in, into the Utility room...tiled. Then, into the Kitchen...tiled.. Then into the Breakfast Room...tiled. Each of these areas can be closed off, and beyond that, the accesses to the Computer Room, Living Room and upstairs can be closed as well, where we have Carpet.

At First, both of mine were limited to the Tile areas during the night, and when I was away. I had the Potty Paper laid out directly in front of the Doggy Door, and both mine would bypass it to get outside to potty, when it was open, EXCEPT when it's cold or raining.
They don't like to be cold or wet ! :rolleyes:

When I got My Female Becca, My Male Sneakers was 2 years old. I put a box by the expanding door to the carpet areas, where Sneakers could jump onto it, then over, but, Becca was not big enough to do that. That permitted him to have access as he had "earned", but kept any deposits where they could be cleaned up, and appropriate "scolding" administered to the guilty party.

I'm not sure that it took Becca any longer to learn to be "neat" and go on the Paper IF she couldn't get outside than it did Sneakers, but, access was given to the whole house eventually, once their reliability was established.

Today, with Becca over a year old, I rarely close access to anything and both have access to the upstairs and all areas except the Computer Room. I haven't see any evidence of an inappropriate deposit anywhere except on the Paper for quite some time, and that only when the Door to the outside was closed. I think it's also very good, that the Paper is right in front of the Door, and if they can't get out, they are right there where it's an acceptable alternate area.

IMHO Yorkies are just naturally neat, and want to go outside to do their business. Beyond that, I also think that Yorkies are highly intuitive, and have stated in other Posts here, how I support/encourage for them to think for themselves.

I've herd of other Breeds being "SO" smart, and have the accolades to advertise that, but... There's a lot more to "smart", than just knowing a bunch of tricks, and I'm here to tell you, Yorkies take NO second place to any Breed.

Oz is 9 months old, and he has free run when we are home. He sleeps in the bed with us at night, and it's too high for him to jump down, so I know he's there all night. We keep him in a playpen during the day. Our house is huge, and not easy to gate off, so I like the playpen. I don't want him feeling like he has to guard the whole place, and I feel that he's safe when we're out at work.

It's possible that as he gets older we may try to let him have run of SOME of the house when we're at work, but definitely it will never be the entire area. Personally, I'd be happy if I could gate off the stairs and just keep him in the entrance-way - it's a big area, it's all tiled, and there's nothing for him to get hurt by. But, even though he's potty trained, I think it'll be a few more months yet before we would trust him totally to not go potty in the house when he's alone.

Katie Scarlett is 5 months and we have had her since she was 12 weeks. I am a stay at home wife so I keep a close eye on her. For the first month or so, she stayed in the den where her potty training puppy apartment thingie is. But she has been doing so good on her potty training. She hasn't had an accident in weeks. So when I am not in the den, I let her roam around the house while I do my chores or work at my desk. So far, so good...she always goes to the nearest potty pad. I have 3 set up in the house: one on each end of the house and one in the kitchen, which is in the middle of our home. At night, she does not have full run of the house just yet. I am too afraid of her getting into things she should not. Although I have tried to puppy proof our house to the best of my ability, you never know. She sleeps in her big girl bed in our bedroom with us. It has her potty pad set up next to it and a water bowl and then her x pen set up around it. We want to let her sleep with us now since we know she will go to the pad, but we need steps so she can get down off the bed. The steps we have for her are not tall enough so my husband is going to build her some. I don't think I will give her full roam of the house 24/7 until she is much older.

SBelle/DJDB,

Your guys are pretty young yet, BUT, having them deal with guarding the "whole house" is really no problem for them. I really think both mine enjoy the extensive area of both the house and property. And get a LOT of exercise, viewing what they think is an intrusion from the second story windows, and zooming downstairs out to the furtherest ends of the property, to defend THEIR area ! :D

SBelle,
I'm not sure just how much more elevation you need for those stairs, but, you can slip a Cardboard Box under them, maybe 6" or more, and make do till your Hubby gets the job done....how about that ?

My only issue with having full run of the house is that I don't want to encourage him to growl/bark at every little thing or become insecure. That may not happen all the time, with every pup, but one of the things I cherish about Oz is that he isn't a "yappy little dog".

Bailey took A LONG TIME to potty train. She was "potty trained" and would go outside, but she wouldn't tell us she needed to go. SO we confinded her only in the kitchen, and then she jumped the barrier, so then the we had to get a BIG barrier, and put a weight in front of it, and Bailey figured out how to move a 16lb. circle weight:/... SO sometimes we would come downstairs and she would be running around... BUT THE WORST: We would go into the kitchen, and there would be pee!!! GRR. She got in trouble. She didn't get full run until maybe she was 9-10 months old... maybe more. Now she gets full run, EXCEPT upstairs. There are way too many bedrooms for her to be getting in to, bathrooms, etc. She knows she's not allowed up here, and she sleeps in her kennel downstairs. She likes the darkness and quiteness.

The only time I will tolerate, not wanting her too, but tolerate is in the morning when I let her out and then everyone else gets up so if she hears someone else she might run up here and give them a wake up call. But then if I say down, she runs downstairs.

She has been really good about not waking up in the middle of the night, since a pup. She gets up at about 7-8 on weekends and we wake her up on weekdays.

I didn't want to use pup pads, because my friends dog used to rip up the pup pads and then pee next to them, and she would also "mistake" the pup pads for rugs... and that wasn't going to happen in my house because we have oriental rugs that are hard to clean. :-)

DJDB,

I admit, I put quite a bit of emphasis on them "alarming" for me. Not as spry as I used to be, and having them with very good sight, scent and hearing, gives me a lot of satisfaction, that they'll make me aware of what's going on. Yes, they make mistakes and alarm for some minor things occasionally, but, after a while of "high praise" when they're right, and nothing when they're wrong, gets the point across to our VERY smart little guys.

The important thing is, that Oz makes you happy, and apparently he does. :thumbup: