who lets there yorkies have the run of the house?
 

i tried crate training for a couple nights...... AND IT SO DID NOT WORK.... and then my boyfriend just left the cage open and let him roam around our room for the night....... there were no accidents... BUT.... if we do this in teh future i am worried he will chew somethign up (like power cords) or ruin the carpet (we are renters)..... i guess i should just lay a bunch of rugs down so i keep teh carpet protected?

Why didn't the crate work?? We've had Hercules for almost 5 weeks now and we've always put him in the crate at night and during the day. He wines for a little bit and then usually settles in and goes to sleep.

Some of the suggestions I heard about helping the puppies getting used to the crate were to put his food in there so he associates it with positive things. Or give him a treat to eat while in there. And also work your way up to leaving him in there for longer periods of time. Like at first just leave him in for like 15 minutes while you are near by and work your way up to longer amounts of time.

I'm also a renter, so I understand the worries about messing up the place! But hey at least we'll have him housetrained before we buy our own house! :)

My babies don't mind the crate (open cage with a door). When we are gone though, we use a baby gate to keep them in the bathroom so they are safe and in case there is an accident it is easy to clean up the floor in there. That way they can move around and have some water during the day. I don't think I would let them loose while I am gone, too much time to investigate and maybe fall and get hurt. :)

Gypsy Rose always slept in a travelling box by the side of our bed and was more than happy with the arrangement - going in there when she didn't have to even!! It was her refuge and she was right by us anyway!! Gizzie Chavi on the other hand did not take so kindly to it but for safety etc I had to persevere!! Then she was fine and accepted it - at 5 months she's now in the big bed but I knew she was safe as a tiny baby!! She got used to it, it's harder on YOU!! LOL
In the day, when you are there I am a firm believer in giving them the freedom of the house - within reason and under supervision!!

My three not only have the run of the house they basicly rule the house. lol When I am gone I gate them in the den and all has been good. At night they sleep with me in the bed. If the have to potty and I am sleeping they will bark till I hear and I ask do you ave to potting and they run to the door. It's just me and my furbabies so there is not alot of other commotion in the house. My three furbabies are enough excitement for me. Sometime when I can't move in the bed because they are spread out, I wish they were crate trained. When they were little I had a crate in the den and when I would go out I would crate the puppy............Cindy

Ranger has freedom of the house because I had a problem crate training him. I would leave him in the crate for a few minutes then take him out and the whole time he was just going nuts. When we left we could hear him barking in our car and the neighbors even complained. We also tried to get him to sleep in the crate but he would bark and cry for hours, so after 4 nights of no one getting any sleep we let him sleep with us and had no problems. Since we moved he still sleeps with us at night and doesn't have accidents or need to potty during the night (he potties before bedtime and goes first thing in the morning). And when we leave he rules the apartment, but all he does is sleep in our bed or on the couch. When he was younger he would get into trouble b/c he would shred any paper that was left around by jumping up onto our computer desks. We learned to make sure the house was "puppy proof" before leaving and now he's pretty good.

We give Toto the "run of the house" 24/7 if we are there. On those rare occasions that we have to leave her alone, we simply lock the gate on her X-pen, make sure she has everything she needs ... food/water, wee wee pad, bed, toys, etc. ... she does great with the exception of being very, very sad! :) We always try to keep the entire house "puppy proof" and it has certainly made us "neat freaks"!! :rolleyes: In the beginning, we always crated her at night [the crate was always right next to our bed sitting on a chest and we left a night light next to it where she could see us] she did great after the first day. The first day she cried and we "tapped" on the wire and said "No" to let her know that we didn't like it ... sure enough, exactly as the book said, she didn't like the tapping ... after about five or six times ... we had her trained not to bark in one day!! Now all we have to do is say "No!" Naturally, like Ana said ... she now sleeps with us!! :) We recently bought the biggest bed we would find and it's very puzzling ... Patrick and I still have no more room than we did before!!! :p If she needs to go potty during the night, she has steps to go down off the bed all by herself so she goes to the pad and we don't have to get up!! :cool:

Mia has full reign of the house 24/7 except for one back hallway we blocked because she just seemed to always want to leave my roommate presents! ;) But she also has free reign while I'm at class for a few hours a day. She's very good with her pads, nearly 95% of the time. And she's a tad spoiled...doesn't even know what a crate is! :p

Mojo also has then run of the house all the time, no matter what. I even got kicked out of my own bed once...:D I have to say that what i made a big mistake in allowing that he did whatever he wanted from day one...but i looove him and have his company anywhere i go.

We got Higgins when we were staying in our little 17' camper in Florida last winter, so he grew up in a VERY small house. Gave up on the crate early because we just didn't have room for it in the trailer. He has always slept with us, as does our Pogo. It was really funny when we got home to our house in Maine.....Higgins was frightened by ALL THAT ROOOOOOOM! Got used to it quickly though. He has the run of the house and it looks like a two year old lives there with all the toys all over the place. Being spoiled with lots of toys has kept him from being destructive and chewing up our stuff.

Now we are back in our tiny trailer for the winter in Florida and both dogs are doing just fine. Don built in a little shelf so that Higgins can climb up on the beds/seats easily and he hops from bed to bed. We have twin beds in the trailer. At home we sleep in different bedrooms (we SNORE), and Higgins switches rooms/beds during the night. It's cute....like he doesn't want to play favorites......always careful to give us equal attention. Of course he knows that HE is the center of our attention!

We allow for Gucci to run around the apt when we are home. When we have to go out we used a baby gate and keep her in a hallway that lead to our bathroom. We keep her food and toys in the hallway and the wee wee pads in the bathroom. She still has some accidents when running loose around the house, i guess she is a bit lazy. When she is close in the hallway she will use the wee wee pad 100%.