Home Alone!
 

:eek:

so Tucker, got out of his crate yesterday. my sister stopped in to spend time w/ him during the day, and didn't latch the crate properly. So he had free-reign of the house for the afternoon. Suprisingly, not a pillow was out of place, nothing was chewed, all the plants were intact, and the cats were fine. My bf came home from work to find the crate empty, a brief moment of panic, and then found little bugger sleeping peacefully on the couch.

I'm still amazed he didn't destroy anything, or get hurt.

Ha ha, looks likes he's on the road to be trusted out on his own.

The first week we had Monty we were unsure how he was going to be while we were out. We put him in the kitchen and blocked the door with a lawn chair (one of the lay down lounging ones placed on edge across the doorway making a 3 foot high barrier). We went out for a couple of hours. Came home and noticed that the chair was still in place but no Monty in the kitchen. We called out for him and heard a bump from upstairs. He slowly makes his way down the stairs with the lazy tail swinging back and forth without a care in the world. We go upstairs and notice that the bedsheets are wrinkled in the form of a curled up dog. After that we decided that he was going to work out just fine.

P.S. Have never seen him jump anything that high since.

how old was Monty when you realized he was fine in the house? It makes me nervous right now, Tucker is only 5 months. I want to set up one of those "pet-cams" so I can see what he does when left alone.

I've never crate trained, but I did block Hazel into our bedroom at night when she was younger. She is 6 months now (well, next week anyway) and for the most part, she is really good. She has had a fascination with DH's shoes - and she sometimes takes one or both outside during the night. She doesn't chew them, but the other night it rained and his shoes were soaked! :eek: He was not a happy camper. I keep telling him to put his shoes up and that won't happen. :p

Isn't it great:D

Don't ALWAYS expect lovliness but it's nice when it happens.

We were able to take Zeus out of the crate at 6 mos. We would leave him in a large room that didn't have much that he could destory for a few hours at a time. I can honestly say we didn't have a problem with him chewing furniture as long as he had plenty of toys to keep him busy. It didn't take long for him to be trusted for a full day

[QUOTE=jessi76]how old was Monty when you realized he was fine in the house? It makes me nervous right now, Tucker is only 5 months. I want to set up one of those "pet-cams" so I can see what he does when left alone.[/QUOTE]

We adopted him at 5 - 8 years (your guess is as good as anyones!), so he was an adult dog. My Lucy who is not 18 mos +/- still cannot be left out, and Jack (now 8 mos) cannot be trusted out either. 5 mos may be a little young, but all dogs are different. My sister has the most laid back malamute mix puppy that I have ever seen. He's been relatively free in the house since he's been about 6 mos old.

Roxy was out of the crate a 4 months. I started by leaving her out for only short periods of time. To my suprise she was so good.

The JRT's I grew up with were crated until about 2 years old or else they could do some serious damage. I think I got lucky with Roxy! I think all she does while I am gone is sleep and look out the windows.

I've never had a problem with Sadie either :D

Consider yourself lucky!

My parent's have a dog (chocolate lab) that was a "rescue" and has a few...hmmm, issues I guess you could say.

He is crated anytime they go out, as he tends to be a real chewer.

Well, he is also apparantly Houdini....

He escaped from his crate one day, and when they got home they found him CLOSED IN THE BATHROOM (we think he turned around and shut the door with his back end by mistake!)

He removed the door stopper from the wall, and a good amount of the moldings along the bottom, he ate my dad's electric toothbrush (well, not swallowed, but destroyed!) he removed the BACK OF THE TOILET and chewed up that black floater thing that is in there, he ripped up all the toilet paper he could find, he got in the shower and chewed open all the shampoo and conditioner bottles, and there was fur all over the walls, like he'd been throwing himself everywhere....
He also, for good measure, pulled a plant out of it's pot, and flung it around - there was dirt up and down the walls.

So....he now is crated, with about 6 of those hiker lock things on his cage! He hasn't figured out how to escape that one yet..... ;)

I remember when we dismantled her crate and she said goodbye to it....

It sad for about 3 mons unused and she was 7 mons when we put it away. Up until then it just held her toys and things thats it! She ate in there but we never needed to use it.

[QUOTE=Hannahbelle]So....he now is crated, with about 6 of those hiker lock things on his cage! He hasn't figured out how to escape that one yet..... ;)[/QUOTE]
Oh that's a good idea! I've had a few houdini fosters. :thumbs up

We started leaving Daisy out when we were gone for an hour or less when she was probably less then a year. I think we too had the escape and nothing destroyed episode when we decided to leave her out for good. We used to crate her at night, then something happened where all the stuff fell off the crate and scared the stuffing out of her (I still think the cat did it. I remember hearing her snicker under the bed after). When we went into Daisy's room, she was actually in the living room, her crate still locked with both the latch and the two screw U-bolt locks top and bottom. She now sleeps on the floor in our room.

My naughty Tucker :evil: got out of his cage a few times when he was younger and I still haven't told my husband what he ate. I don't think I ever will. Now he is 15 months and I allow him out at night, but when we are not home he still goes into his cage and I have to use clips, I always wondered how they figured out how to open a cage? My last dog was never crated I kept him in the kitchen until he was 6 months and never had a problem with him. I think Tucker is part beaver. But I still love him. Thankfully he hasn't ate anything in quite a few months now. :angel:

I have never used a crate, so I have had a couple of chewing incidents... All of them were my stuff, so the man couldn't complain. Boo is my buddy, and it's just stuff. :)

I think it's hard to find a happy medium between not trusting a doggy and trusting it too much... :)

We test Riley out of his crate, who is now 2 years and 9 months old, every so often. Last time we gave him run of the downstairs rec room and hallway he ate the remote to our surround sound (which resulted in my husband buying a new suround sound to the tune of $1200!!!!). He was 2 years, 3 months old. Lately we have been letting him stay in the hallway & laundry room (we're in a 4 level side split so it's the downstairs hallway) and he's only chewed up minor things (sandals, socks from the laundry room, etc). I don't think he'll EVER be trustworthy loose alone in the whole house!!!!! And I hesitate to try since we're gonna go broke if he keeps chewing remotes :eek:

Capone was crated till he was two.

We would put his cage across the door of the kitchen and leave it open so he could have the kitchen. I started coming home to him on the couch and nothing touched. The crate would be in the same place so basically he would scale the thing to get out. So after a while we left the cage in the same spot but a little open on one side and he would move the cage and he would be on the couch when we got home. The only reason we kept doing this is if we were to leave with out kinda locking him up he would cry and throw himself against the apartment door. I could hear him all the way down the hallway.
So he was much better when we put him in a specific area. Now we live in a house and were scared because there are alot of carpets. So we just put his baby gate against the wall spearating the dining room and living/kitchen area. So he stays in there. We are going to let him just free soon because even if he does bark and cry at the door its a house and the neighbours won't even hear him.

Harley is out, but the crate is still up, he likes to eat his rawhides in peace in there, so we allow it. When I move, he will be crated again for at least a few weeks, build up his confidence, that I am not leaving him, then he should be out again. He loves his crate, always had