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

[lildivadesi]

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

[Harrysmum]

Originally Posted by KazzyK810

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.

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?

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

[SWHouston]

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

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 !

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.

[DJDB]

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.

[southernbelle04]

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.

[SWHouston]

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 !

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 ?

[DJDB]

Originally Posted by SWHouston

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 !

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".

[Baily341o]

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. :-)

[SWHouston]

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.