Taycie has free reign. I made a sod box out of a storage container and I bring that in so she can go potty. She does great!

Buster has access to every room but the kitchen. He has his pee pads in the bathroom and I am lucky he is not a chewer. Usually he sleeps when we are gone. It's funny he know the sound of my car pulling in the drive way. If Jack is home Buster has to announce my arrival but if he is home alone Mr Sleepyhead sits quietly with his tail wagging.

When someone is home my girls have full roam of the house. When we go out Chloe has to go into her ex pen and my other girl goes into our bedroom. We have to do this because our house is Alarmed. And the reason I don't keep them together in the same area is because Chloe is still a puppy and sometimes plays way to rough.

I keep bedrooms gated off simply because jada can climb her stairs and get on the bed,but she won't climb down the stairs at the bed. I don't have time to move them every morning so I just don't give her access to the bedrooms. I came home one day and she was on the middle of the bed barking her head off. I have no idea how long she was stuck up there so I have always gated off bedrooms since that incident.
Idk why she won't climb down them as they are the same steps we have in the living room to the couch. She runs up and down them all day long. Jada nor Bogie have ever been chewers thank goodness.

Nope when someone is home Moki gets free roam. But when alone he is gated to that he only can stay in the kitchen and family room. He gets into trouble. For his safety. It's all a puppy/baby proof area

Daisy was allowed free roam of the house since she was 3 months and never any accidents.
Pixie...HECK NO!!!! lol She was only allowed free roam when she turned 2 and I still close the bedroom doors. She is a little snail scavenger...... feeding off the bottom. So I worry what she can get into.
I always do a walk around looking for stuff bf I leave. It is my ritual! lol

My 2 older ones get free reign. But since we got the puppy a few weeks ago, I've been gating off the upstairs & leaving the puppy in her expen. The other 2 stay downstairs so she won't be lonely. Although, she's almost graduated to free reign. I've left her downstairs with the other 2 twice for about 15 minutes & she was unharmed and no puddles when I got home :) She'll be 5 months on July 5th.

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JoJo and Spud are usually left in the downstairs tile area. When I leave the house I put a fence up and they are in the kitchen and can go out in a fenced yard on concrete. They will have pee accidents if I let them have the whole living room. For some reason I guess they get mad for leaving them and they pick a crate bed and pee on it. I get so upset. They are not allowed upstairs unless we are going to bed and I carry them up there.

Winston is allowed to run free while someone is home with him, but I gate him in the kitchen when we are away. This started as a puppy, he is totally potty trained so I have never had to worry about accidents, but he has seizures...so to keep him calm he has to be confined...he really doesn't mind...he just jumps in his bed and sleeps all day, until one of us comes home. He really is such a good boy...

My pups have free roam downstairs but only go upstairs when we go to bed. I trust THEM but don't trust what they might find on the floor of my 26& 23 yr old sons rooms!

Jess has free roam when we are home. She most likes to be where the action is or in the dining room looking out the French doors. I gave her free roam of the tv room when we are out but if we are gone too long she poos on the hard wood right at the door so now she goes in her super long crate where she still poos and steps in it drags it through the crate but it least it has a bottom.. :embarasse

Ours don't roam. Even when we're home, we'll usually have certain areas closed to them - like the upstairs or whatnot.

Also, here's a weird story....about 5 years ago when we weren't home, someone tried to break into our house in our kitchen nook - they got the screen off and the window up. As soon as that window went up, our alarm went off and it looked like he took off immediately. Luckily, our dogs were kept in our Master area. IF the dogs had been loose, I know they would've ran over to the window to say "hi" to the new stranger...and my fear is that the burglar would've snatched one of them up to sell. Scary thought, but so easily could've happened if they'd been loose.

I gradually gave Kiko more and more space as she learned good house manners (potty trained, what's ok to chew on, etc.). I gate off the stairs when no one is home with her because she will go up the stairs, but won't come down. It's not as big of a deal now because she can't get up on my new bed. She could jump up on the old one, but not down. She stranded herself a time or two on the old one. I worried that she might jump off and get hurt, so I just put a gate up at the bottom of the stairs. Now I do it to keep her from being stuck upstairs until someone gets home.
I have no idea why she won't go down those stairs. She had never slipped or fallen on them. The lighting is good. She'll go down steeper stairs outside. I've tried putting her on the steps facing down. She just turns around and goes up. I've also tried walking her down on her leash, tried enticing her with her favorite treats, but she won't come down.
Got side tracked :-) back to the original subject. Kiko does great having free range of the downstairs. The other day I had taken the kitchen trash out of the can and meant to take it out on my way out the door, but I forgot. I was gone 3-4 hours. She left it alone. Good thing too because there were chicken bones in it.

I always fear fire and smoke and such things, having experienced an explosion/fire at home and the smoke was so dense and choking in that burning area immediately that it was deadly. A dog confined near there wouldn't have fared very well if he couldn't escape farther away. Remembering that, as soon as I can after housebreaking, I let my dogs free in the house so there might be a better chance they might can run and stay away from the worst part of fire/smoke until maybe the fire department gets here or a neighbor breaks a window or kicks in the door and maybe, maybe get the dog out or the dog make his escape sooner than if the good Samaritan has to go through the house searching for the part where the dog was confined. Most non-firemen just won't go far into a home to look for even children let alone pets in a smokey fire. I live in a single story house so my bedroom and all rooms are equally at risk of a burglar.

Yes this is what I think about... How devastating it would be to have a fire or something in the house and Jax being locked up and not able to get far away from it. :(. Also, as far as burglary goes, Jackson will not let anyone near him, he would go run under my bed (as he's done when strangers to him have come in our house before when I'm not home). One time my grandma stopped in who he loves and she tried to pick him up which he doesn't like so he ran and hid under the bed until I got home. He will alert bark very loudly though but the moment someone comes in or tries to approach him he will hide. If he were confined to a crate someone would be able to grab him against his will.

Dang...this is one time where I wish I could teach them to run and hide if encountering a stranger :)....that would be a great trick in the case of a burglar.

The point about the fire is a good one too. I had these custom stickers made and have them on like 10 windows on our first floor (I KNOW, excessive! :p)....bc I too am so scared they'd be caught in a fire.

LOL, I misunderstood :D
Nena used to roam free but since we got Rufus they both stay in the doggie-room :)

Sounds like Tibbe and Jackson are a lot alike. Tibbe loves people and will let anyone and everyone approach him when I'm around and giving friendly signals to him but if he's apart from me or out in the very back of the yard by the fence and a person comes along and tries to call him or pet him, he runs away fast. My subcontractor told me once when he came in to fix something in the house when I wasn't here, Tibbe ran off and hid. Still, a burglar that could follow him under the bed or back into the hobby room could take him if they persisted but ADT, deadbolts plus regular locks on all doors and window locks are all that I can do to safeguard him in that regard. Plus I live on a very busy neighborhood with so much coming and going and neighbors out about, you can't even nick out in your robe and no make-up to take out the trash or get the mail without someone seeing you and waving or wanting to start a convo!

:( Of course - here's a completely opposite side to this story.....:(

Harry used to have a pup-sitter called Paul, who looked after the pups in his own home.

One day, he had to pop out for an hour, and crated the 2 pups he was looking after at the time.

Unfortunately, his house must have been being watched....burglars broke in, took what they wanted (including his passport and holiday cash for the following week) - and then stole both the pups, in their crates....because they were so easy to lift, and easy pickings.....:(

I truly think there are pros and cons for both sides, unfortunately. Sally + Harry x

Yep...for every good side to the story, there is always someone where it turned out the opposite, sadly :(. Gosh, that's just devastating for those people whose pups were stolen. We don't crate ours, but still, they're so friendly that someone could just scoop them right up! Part of me is glad they like strangers, but part of me is wishing they'd be more wary, ya know?

So true. Good reasons to do either.

So many stories and so many sides.
It's very educating actually.
We've never had a break-in or heard of one in our neighborhood (knock on wood!)
So we've been pretty lucky so far.
I personally don't like crating because you never know how long you'll be away, what we did was turn the spare room into the doggie-room and that's were they are when we are out.
If something were to happen, I'd be more scared for Nena than for Rufus.
Rufus doesn't like strangers and he barks and growls until I tell him that it's ok.
Nena on the other hand, will just run towards strangers and let them pick her etc.

Keno, like Jackson has had free run of both houses since he has been 5 to 6 months old. I did crate train him and he was potty trained to outside by the time he was 5 and half months old. Still crated him for a couple of weeks when we left, but it really was no necessary. Like Jackson, he was more likely to get into things when we were there. If we were gone, he just gets in bed and waits for us to return. His favorite place is our bed.

Fire makes sense. But with my dog the whole house would need to be baby proof. More change of him getting hurt everyday vs a fire. But he rarely left home alone either for more then an hour .

The fire reasoning makes sense, but I have to add a not so favorable outcome for this. I have a friend that has 2 boxers which she always crates when left alone and 1 Jack Russell that had free roam of the house. They unfortunately did have an electrical fire that started downstairs in the kitchen, the boxers were saved as the firemen were easily able to locate them, the Jack Russell did not, he ran from the fire upstairs and was found "hiding" in the closet...but it was too late, they tried but could not save him from smoke inhalation.

So yeah, there is for sure 2 sides to every story. Sometimes the story has a tragic ending, so sad.

This scares me... SO much. My grandparents left for breakfast one morning and locked their cat in the bedroom upstairs. They got a phone call at breakfast that their house was completely engulfed in flames. My heart breaks for their pets. They lost the kitty and two parrots. I think about what their last moments were like :( I can't help but cry. I know I would run into a burning building to save my pets, but by the time you get there, it could be too late. It makes me want to take mine everywhere with me... But then I have a fear of driving into the river with them strapped in their seat and not being able to get them unstrapped in time! lol. So no matter what I do... I'm a neurotic mess :p

Prissy, our poodle, house trained extremely quick. She has always been allowed to free roam whether we are home or not.

Jasmine, our five yr old yorkie, is not allowed to free roam. She stays in the den and only comes out with someone is able to watch her. She does extremelynwell here. She does very well with her house training in that room, but seems to get confused when her area is broadened.

Maggie, 1 yr old yorkie, does very well as a free roamer during the day, but not as well after we go to bed.

None of the girls have any chewing issues, just love their toys.

I know...scares me too. I do have the decals on all 3 doors, ""In Case Of Fire, Please Save My Pet" It tells where he is located in the house when alone, his name and breed. I have to have faith that should there be a fire...he will be saved.

The thing that scares me about that is it tells thieves where they are. I guess no matter what, there are risks.

Ain't that the truth!