When to allow more access..

[rhessdorf]

My 4 month old pup is crated when I am at work... From 8am-5ish..
I have a dog walker take him out and feed him from 11:30AM-12:30AM..
He is very comfortable in his crate.. he adjusts very nicely to it when he is in it..
He appears to be house broken as well..
I am wondering if now is the time to give him access to the Kitchen with his Crate in there when I leave..
The Kitchen will be gated and he will have access to his toys and crate..
Is he too young to start that?
When I am home and leave him in the kitchen and he does not see me, he does cry and bark.. but I have left him in the Kitchen for 30 min to an hour.. he does calm down once I walk out the door..
So my question is can i start leaving him in the Kitchen when I go to work, etc..
Thanks..

[Benny2k1]

No he is not 2 young, we started the same thing at 4 months, just make sure you take him to the toilet before you leave etc,

we leave molly (4 months and 3 weeks old) in the utility room gated off, with crate open, cuddly toy, filled kong and a marrow bone, and of course water! usually when we get home she walks out of her crate stretching!!

[lmtoth2]

we did something very similar with Dexter...we partitioned off some of the kitchen and had him in there while we were at work...his crate was in there too, but I don't think he ever went into it.

[DebBrown]

We do basically the same thing for Charlie. He is crated overnight so I don't like to leave him crated for long periods during the day. We gate the kitchen so he has access to his toys and water and is able to move around a bit. When I come home, though, I notice he is usually in his crate napping.

Deb

[lauren46]

Just make sure you dont leave any bones or dangerous toys out for him, you wouldnt want him to choke on something while your gone...

[blueteal]

Denver was in his crate till he was 9 or 10 months old
while we worked. He had no problem with it at all
He was a little older than most here but we also have nine
cats in the house and needed to make sure that he was mature enough to handle it.
When he was 10 or 11 months old we gave him free roam of the
house and he adapted extremely well......................
He is going on two..............

Maya has had free roam of the downstairs since she was 7 mos old. I would try and leave him in the kitchen and see what he does. IF he behaves then keep it up. If he doesn't it's a little early and then try again in a month or so.

[2kidsNadog]

Cody had the gated kitchen with his crate from early on. This lasted until he was 9 months old. He had gotten too tall and would counter surf and destroy whatever he could fish off the counter. No matter how much I though I had gotten everything possible out of reach, I was always proven wrong.

So at 9 months we started doggie daycare.

At 11 months we started allowing him free reign of the downstairs while we are out for a few hours (not while at work - he still goes to daycare on those days). We eased into that - quick trip to pick up kids, longer errands, Saturday morning kid sport committments, etc.

He's now a year old. We think maybe in a year or two we'll be able to cut out doggie daycare and leave him in the house while we work. Though he does love doggie daycare - lots of doodle buddies there.

Now maybe it would've been different if we had a dog walker come the days he was gated in the kitchen all day.

I would say go for it.

[sdrudge]

Cacao is only crated when we go to church on sundays. I work from home so she doesn't get locked up during the day. Even if i just run out for a hour she has free rain.

It works for us.

[Shaia]

at 6 months, shaia was doing really well having run of the house. she's rarely alone, but when she was, she started jumping the baby gate out of the kitchen and would just sleep on the couch. but recently (she's now 7 mos) she's begun pulling mail from the bookcase and chewing it up. i also recently came home to chewed up matches and gum i know she shouldn't have "access" to this stuff but she really has to get creative to pull it down. so i'm kind of wondering if i take her freedom away and start crating her again if she'll "get it" that she abused her freedom. i obviously can't give her a time out or discipline her after the fact (other than voicing my disapproval when i walk in).