Leaving alone with free roaming in the house... HOW TO?

[MikeNHy]

Have a question for you all, our boy is just over a year old now. We have been thinking about leaving him alone in the house, but not in the crate anymore.

Every night, he sleeps in his crate with no problems whatsoever and is pretty good when we leave him alone in his crate. My wife is always home with him too, so whenever she has to leave for the grocery store or wherever he goes in his crate.

What is the best way to start letting him have free reign of the house when we are gone? We tried it when he was a puppy not knowing any better and he didn't do good. We'd like to try it again now that he's older and is pretty much accident free but would like some thoughts on the best way that you all have done this with your boxers?!

THANKS in advance!

[Wyatts_Momma]

Leave him alone in the house for a few minutes at a time to start with. Just walk out the front/back door for like five minutes then come back in. Praise if he didn't destroy anything in the five minutes you were gone! Do this a few times a day possibly and increase the time your gone each day until you can successfully be gone for hours. This is just my opinion, others may say differently!


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

[af_wx_wife]

When I started with Pheona, she would go to her kennel & I'd give her a treat as usual. Then I'd just leave the kennel unlatched. At first I'd only leave her for a max of 10 minutes (15 max). Then we worked up till a later time frame with her being out. After we lost our Maggie, she was acting out so we had to start kenneling her again. Then we got the puppy & she acted out. So for now she's kenneled again other than at bedtime.

[Ril-Mas]

With Logan I started leaving him out while I ran to the store. Maybe about a half hour or 45 minutes. He did good with that so we tried afternoons. From the time I go back to work from lunch and when my father gets home there's a little over an hour and a half. He did great with that so we started the full day and he's been pretty good. There were only a couple of incidents. Once he got into my make up and decided to make my bed all pretty and the other time he tore apart a pillow. The make up part was my fault for leaving it out. The pillow I'm thinking he was just bored. If you can tucker him out before hand or give him a stuffed kong to keep his attention for a while that would help too. Logan still gets a pb stuffed kong which he loves.

[GoudasMom]

With Gouda at about 1 year old she would go in the crate on her own as always when I went to leave and I would give her treats. I left the crate unlocked and open. I was lucky though Gouda was not your typical Boxer and just chilled out the whole time I was gone to work. But until the day she crossed the bridge in her mind she HAD to be in that crate when I left. 9+ years I never locked it but she had to be in there when I left.

Now Kippah...whew...I have NO idea when I can even trust her out of the crate while I am at work. She doesnt sleep in the crate at night and never has since I got her. Randomly in the morning I will find things chewed especially my shoes. I am just afraid I will come home to my furniture destroyed so I am just waiting for awhile before I trust her free roaming the house while Im at work. Gouda was the exception to the rule Im SO finding that out with Kippah

[DaveJ50]

I installed wireless web cams and drove a short distance away with my laptop. I then walked back near enough to the house that I could get the wireless network and watched for a few minutes at a time.

That way I was gone but if things were turning bad I was only a few feet away.

He has never done anything bad. Mostly he sleeps until around noon and then he paces and does some crying while watching for my return.

I would like to have a couple more cams I could only afford to cover the rooms where he spends time. That would be rooms with windows facing the driveway.


Good Luck!

[MYA]

I did what most of the others do..which is leave them for a few minutes - then eventually increasing it over time.

Mya had to go back into the crate because she decided to ignore the ninjas when they decided to party it up when I was gone.

Mya doesnt mind the crate. Shes been using the crate since she was a pup so for her its totally normal. I think she gets more stressed when shes out by herself because she doesnt really know what to do with all the space. Shes 2 years old now.

[MikeNHy]

Excellent, thanks for all the great stories and tips everyone.

Should we put our coats on and everything? He usually stands there and watches us go out the door if we do just to go downstairs to get something.

[PassionateFire]

Originally Posted by DaveJ50

I installed wireless web cams and drove a short distance away with my laptop. I then walked back near enough to the house that I could get the wireless network and watched for a few minutes at a time.

That way I was gone but if things were turning bad I was only a few feet away.

He has never done anything bad. Mostly he sleeps until around noon and then he paces and does some crying while watching for my return.

I would like to have a couple more cams I could only afford to cover the rooms where he spends time. That would be rooms with windows facing the driveway.


Good Luck!

This is what we're looking for, we are dying to know how Cujo is breaking out of the crate. We've gone through 2 pad locks & 1 threaded carabiner so far

[Wyatts_Momma]

Originally Posted by MikeNHy

Excellent, thanks for all the great stories and tips everyone.

Should we put our coats on and everything? He usually stands there and watches us go out the door if we do just to go downstairs to get something.

Wouldn't hurt to put coats on so he thinks you're actually leaving.


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App