Yorkie Hurdles..
 

OK, as I have been reading some of your posts about your babies, it seems that as they grow up, naturally they are becoming larger and stronger...

I've seen in a few cases that some of your Yorkies are kept as pups in playpens or in areas separated by a 'baby gate' in rooms of your home while you are gone... I was wondering about how some of them (if not all) eventually learn to get out...

How do you all handle this? Especially those of you who work during the day? Is this a sign that your Yorkies are ready to have more freedom at home? I would love your opinions...

I don't have a Yorkie yet but plan on adopting a baby Yorkie in the coming months for my girlfriend/soon to be fiancee (shh don't tell her...) I would have someone at home during the day to check up on puppy but still the fact that some of your are 'escaping' from their play pens or gated areas is of concern...

We tried using a baby/puppy gate to keep Ranger in the kitchen of our old apartment. At 3 months of age it was a waste of money b/c every single time he would just climb right over. We let him have free reign of the apt. but looking back we should have kept him crated while we were gone.

I think it depends on your lifestyle: if you are home all day then you might let you puppy have free reign more often as you can keep an eye on them. For those who work during the day they crate or have designated "puppy" areas.

We currently crate him during the day to prevent destructive behavior (which he's known for) and let him out when someone is home. He is well behaved when someone is home and is therefore allowed to sleep with us at night.

I hope this helps!!

It does... Thank you... I would love to hear what more Yorkie mom's and dad's do?

My puppy is 7 months old and she stays in a crate from the time I leave (7 am) to around 5:30 pm and then she is out all night till the next morning. when we first started trying this she peed in her crate almost everyday, but she never pooed. She has not peed in her crate in over a month and we are very proud of her!!

My yorkies learned to climb over babygates since they were 6 weeks old see video of one of my dog doing it when she was a puppy. http://www.geocities.com/tinybittosalt/MVC-004V.MPG

Soft mesh crate didn't work because they learned to upzip the zipper.

So we are now using hard metal or pastic crate.

Trevor stays in a large bathroom with a baby gate while I'm at work all day. He's 4 months and weighs about 6.5 pounds. He's never climbed over the gate. In fact, he doesn't climb on anything and usually doesn't jump off anything. I think this is because at about 8 weeks when we got him he tried to jump off the bed like the bigger dogs and it scared him to death. He also semi-jumped off my husband's chair and hurt his leg. So he's decided he will not jump... period!

He has escaped the bathroom, but only because the bigger dogs knocked down the gate... trying to get to his food.

Cyndie

Love the video... My goodness... I never realized that they could climb like that...

Oh my, Yorkieagility I love the video. I wouldn't have beilive it if I didn't see it. Oh my gosh, you really very agill pups. My Gucci is 7 months old and she never had climb the baby gate. She does tries to open it. The gate we use is the one that opens like a door, anyhow and if the ledge is not all the way down she will open the gate. :aimeeyork

Dolce has been in her playpen since she was about 3 mths old. Of course it has no top, so after a while she figured out how to jump out of it like the video of that little baby climbing over the fence (they are so smart)...finally my father had the idea, because i was afraid she would hurt herself or get out when no one was home and start a rampage of destroying the house, to put 2 pieces from a large dog crate, those wire ones, on top of the playpen so she couls not get out of the top. She is in there from 7am until 5:30-6pm. So far so good....has not escaped once!! :D

Dolce's Mom... Are you talking about the 'wire' crates?

The video is TOO CUTE!!!!!!
My chihuahua could 'hop' right over the 2 ft high play-yard she had when she was barely 4 months old..
Now Lil Bit, (at 4 months) can barely jump clear over a paper towel roll. She is tiny and just not so coordinated......but really fast when she wants to be....she is giving Apple a real run for the money now when they play..Apple has been soooooo good for her!

I read numerous books and websites that talked about NEVER keeping your puppy in a crate for longer than 4 hours, so when I first got Mason at 10 weeks, I got a puppy gate and kept him in a kitchen along with his wee-wee pad, toys, food and water. Mason was alone between 7am - 5pm.

When he reached 7 months, I started to allow Mason to have the whole house (except the bedrooms and bathrooms). The kitchen seemed too small for him to be confined in for 10 hours. He is very good about going to potty on his wee-wee pad so I felt ok letting him have the run of the house. I did, however, made sure that the house was puppy-proof, meaning all the electric cords were pinned to a wall so that he cannot chew on it. It's been about a month now and I have not come home to a disaster yet!!

You'll find a way to work things out with your puppy once he/she arrives. I used to worry TONS about Mason before he arrived, but things just worked out as I got used to him and understood him over time. I didn't even apply half the things I read in my puppy-rearing process. Best of luck!!

We tried the baby gate - climbed right over. Tried a 4ft high gate/plywood thing (it was an interested thing my finance put together), he got out of that. Tried tying leashes to stuff in the kitchen, so he could roam the hard floors - chewed through 2 of those. Then we got a metal crate with 2 latches - he openned it from the inside. So we then, put a pad lock on the crate, but we waited tooo long, he now has anxiety issues with being locked up, so when we get home he would be covered in saliva from head to belly and paws. So bad that he requires a bath.
Needless to say - we stopped. He has not messed anything up in the apartment, but he has pooped in the floor a few times.
My suggestion - whatever you decide to do....start RIGHT AWAY!!
I just feel like he looks so pitiful when he is locked in a crate and cries. But some dogs do not mind it and they don't look so sad/pitiful.

Is it ok to not let dogs out ALL day? I always let Luca out in the morning (around 7:30), then come home for lunch (12), then let him out again when I get home from work (5). It would be so much more convenient not to have to go home for lunch, but I was afraid that a dog couldn't last that long and would go in the house. He is 21 months old and is house trained. I might start doing that.... thanks for the info.

My situation would be that I would have someone home to look in on him/her when I am gone... I usually leave around 7:30 and am home by 6:15 every night... I know that is a real long time and there is nothing I can do about that... My office will not even think about letting me bring a puppy in...

If you will have someone there, then it is not as big of a deal, b/c they can watch the dog.
But, something you have to consider...will that person be there all the time?
If not, you need to start early - that is my biggest regret, b/c now we don't have a choice.
Keep that in mind.
Even if you don't leave the dog up long, have the dog trained to know what being locked up means and that it is ok to be locked up.
Just my advice.
GOOD LUCK! And be consistent with whatever you do. (STICK WITH IT - it will make a difference.)