Free running
 

Simon has not only run ofthe house, but a doggy door to come and go into the yard as well. I was going to stop it recently with the new agressive neighbor dogs, but they have started using their dog run so it's back to business as usual.

I suspect he hangs out inside all day anyhow, but he is grown and not chewy, thank god he didn't inherit the "lets tear up the house" gene lol.

Jeni

Wembley is 10 months (almost 11) and she is crate trained. We haven't let her have the reign of the house yet, because I am nervous that she will eat everything she can find, and pee in the house. She is perfectly house trained, but we've never seen what might happen if she's alone and out of her crate for 6-8 hours. Seems like most of you who let your yorkies roam have them wee-wee pad trained (?). What about those who have theirs "out" trained? Our main floor has no doors, so she would have access to our small kitchen, dining room and living room (a big L shaped room), and the foyer. I feel so guilty leaving her in her crate for all those hours, so would love to let her roam. Just curious what others do. Thanks! Love this site! :animal-sm

First we started out in the crate in the playpen--that worked until our first Yorkie chewed his way out. Then we had a gate in the kitchen. Now they have free reign of the house and use the doggie door to go outside. I think they sleep all day waiting for us though.

No I don't. I had a s**tzu that crawled behind a refrigerator and got burnt from the motor when I was not home. My dogs will go in to thier cage on thier own to sleep when I am at home. Mya also goes in to her travel bag to rest or sleep on her own. Her cage is large enough to hold a dog bed and space if she wants to play.

I would love to give Luig more freedom when we are not home. But right now we have the kitchen area gated off for him. But when I come home he is usually in his cage. Its quite funny. You would think he was locked in there or something cuz he won't come out til I tell him to and he is always soooo excited when we come home, he is jumping on the side of the cage. We don't even have the door ON his cage annymore. :)

I think the doggie door thing would be great!! I've been thinking about it but am wondering if the cats would come in too?!? :confused: I don't want the cats in the house. I personally would not leave my dogs alone to roam the house unless I knew they would NOT chew any wiring!!! You can't put all that up and until they pass the puppy chewing stage it's not worth the risk. Chewing up the toilet paper or newspaper out of anxiety while you are gone is different than chewing up your new sound system or getting eletocuted :( Bentley is partial to empty toilet paper rolls and he sneaks them even when I am here. It used to bother me to clean up the mess but now I just think it's cute. He gets bored sometimes. It's like when I find an accidental poop in the floor.......Bentley....was that yours????....Bitsy.......did you do this???? Bentley always puts his ears back if he is guilty!!! Always! Then he lays on his back and does paw paws to say he's sorry. I don't scold him cause if I had let him out he would not have pooed on the floor! Well, ok, I might scold him for just a second to see how sorry he is just cause it's so darn cute. Then I tell him it's ok! Bitsy on the other hand, she just wags her long tail and looks pretty. She never owns up to her poop cause she don't have to. She don't have to try and look cute cause her wagging tail makes up for naughty thing she did! I think she knows this and she works it :rolleyes: Anywho, I am rambling and I am probably the last person on here! Everyone is probably in bed. I already forgot what the question was :D

rbg58, you might try to leave your pup loose for a couple of hours at a time, like when you're out running errands to see what happens or you might try putting a pee pad down while you're gone by the door or in a tiled area. Not sure, but I'm just just throwing out some suggestions. :)

I got Lil Bit when she was 3 months old...i kept her in a pen in the "other bedroom" for a while. I also have a year old Chihuahua who is the greatest little doggie ...she uses the pee pee pads 100% of the time and doesn't chew up anything!!! I think she learned her "laziness" from living with the "aging greyhound" who sleeps ALL THE TIME!!! (she also RARELY barks..if you can believe that!!) I kept Lil Bit in the pen for about a month....but eventually started letting her stay out while I was gone for a "few minutes"...then gradually worked up to a couple hours . Now she is loose with the others.....but I know they just lay around and sleep most of the time. They are curled up on the couch. The chi sleeps under a heating pad and Lil Bit just stays up there with her.
I did have the one problem when "they" (can't decide if it was the chi or Lil Bit) who discovered the tiny little worn place on the couch seat...but "someone" decided to chew on that and remove a good portion of stuffing!!!
Otherwise I have been sooooooo lucky....everybody seems to be laid back and not too much trouble.

BUT.....my former yorkie....WOW...that is a different story (God rest his soul).....till the day he died at age 13 I had to keep everything out of his reach....!!!! And would even jump up onto the chair and table if the chairs weren't pushed in!

What a bout a gate closing off just the living room?....that is what I do for Maximus.. he is only 12 weeks but he is doing good on the potty training and has free reign in the living room, I have a little bed for him in there and his crate so he can fo in whenevr he feels like, I think it makes him feel less confined...I don't know if this works for you but if it is a possibility in your house you could try and slowly give him more and more room...you could then move the gate to the kitchne so he gets living room and halleay and kitchen...etc...I don't know how the hoem is shaped but good luck

Ruby is crate trained...she goes in when we leave and gets out as soon as we get home...never more than a few hours...she doesn't cry when we leave or get back back...usually she doesn't even wake up when we come in the door, turn off the alarm, make lots of noise, etc...she only wakes up when we get closer to the crate...she loves her crate tho, goes in on her own all the time with the door still open...this is for her safety and our peace of mind...besides, she is potty trained but has "accidents" when she is sad, like pooping when I am gone (for Daddy to clean up!) and sometimes peeing when she gets too excited... :rolleyes:

Lily has the run of the house always. In the beginning I tried to contain her in the laundry room but she is a climber. She climbed the baby gate everytime I left. I didn't want her to get hurt on the fall down so I quite confining her. Now she is a holy terror but I love her to pieces.

brownie is 3 and i still cage him when we go out only because im scared hell break our window and go threw it otherwise he would be lose kayko gets caged cause he had bad seperation anxiety and he would destory the house so he stays caged

When we first got Magic we keep her in the kitchen until she was almost fully potty trained...it was about a month..and then we let her have free roam of the living room and kitchen and have a gate up to keep her out of the back of the house...it worked great...she rarely had an accident and would just sleep until I got back from classes...when we got Sailor things were different, we immediately gave her the same freedom Magic had and potty training was a bit harder as she had more space too soon but she eventually got on and is doing great now....we still have the gate up but we sometimes let them back there if we are back there with them...for some reason they think they are allowed to potty back in the bedrooms so they are limited back there....

I also allow Hefner and Chai free reign in the house now. They are not completely potty trained but I am more trained than they are and I just cannot stand them crying when they are confined anywhere. I am such a wimp. It is never more than a couple hours that they are left and the bedrooms are off limit because they are capeted. The rest of the house is tile so it's not as hard to clean.

Michelle:

As far as the doggy door, they do have the kind where the pet has to wear a collar so the door will open for them and not "varmints" or cats. It's electronic or something and activates so the lock unlocks for the animal with the collar only. Don't know how practical that is for a yorkie but they do make them.

I would worry about "birds of prey" too with that situation and make sure that wherever they go out is "covered" somehow.