6 months old, crate freedom? - Page 1

hey everybody. so my boy Jake is 6 months old now and im thinking of letting him have some freedom in the house when i goto work. right now he's in his crate and i come home at lunch time to let him out do his thing then back in the crate til my wife or i get home from work.   i'm thinking of gating off a small space for him. i will still come home at lunch to let him out. what do you think?

If he is clean in his crate try it.You can always put him back in the crate if it doesn't work out. Or you can try it for the morning before you come home for lunch and then crate him in the after noon till your wife comes to let him out.Start in small doses.
Good luck!!

As long as there is nothing in that space you want very much..lol

They will get bored and they will find something to do, its up to you.

Mine decided to chew up a bed spread, several shoe strings, and she wanted to make sure nothing was in my trash that shouldn't be there.

Other than that it's all peas and carrots.

im thinking he's ready. i just hope he dosent break out of this room, cause the kids toy room is right next door and there's noway to block that off.  i may try it this weekend for a bit and see how it works out. hopefully i wont have to post  how he ate my leather sectional!!! hahaha.

Just leave him something else to chew on.

Yea just make sure that there isn't anything bad he can get in to. Granted my dog is 6 he still trashed the kitchen area I had him blocked off in.Actually I think it was my little mutt dog that did the worse part.My GSD ripped down the blinds though cause some guy was on the roof of the house next to me.They were crappy blind anyway.lol

WAAAAAAY back when I was Yoshy's age, I had a boxer (did some sch with him, too), and a couple I was friends with had his brother. One night the three of us went out dancing and drinking, woohoo! We decided the boys were old enough at 6 months to just play in the house nicely together.

When we got home, LUCKILY heavily under the influence of booze, we peeped in the front window...and it looked like a violent snowstorm had blanketed the Sierras. The husband opened the front door and went ballistic; my friend and I screamed with laughter so hard we couldn't stand up! Those dogs had destroyed everything in sight, and then had opened four feather pillows on top of all the destruction! Well, we were up all night and LONG sober before we got it all put right, but there were feathers and coffee grounds in that house from then on, coming out of the woodwork or something.

 I can just picture it VomMarischal -- *two* youngsters?  I'm sure they colluded to get at things that one couldn't!

I'd think that six months might be a little young Red Leg, but every dog is different and you know yours best.  If you do try to leave him out make certain to leave lots of good distractions, like a knucklebone filled with peanut butter, and some Kongs suffed with frozen kibble and other good things. Otherwise your dog *will* find ways to amuse himself that you won't appreciate!  (For what it's worth my previous dog was impeccably good at 8 months, but I wouldn't have tried it for longer than an hour or two unattended before that.  This current fellow needed to be around two before he was safe, but I suspect he was kept back developmentally by neglect before I got him.  Now he's fine, but he needed the extra time to learn to only chew on his toys and not the furnishings.)

you guys are scaring me.  maybe i will wait then. Jake still gets into everything. i caught him chewing on my wifes heels, both jake and i are lucky she didnt see that.

 If he's committing vandalism then he's not ready to solo.  (Just think, how would you explain him annihilating not just one pair of shoes, but all of them?)  :D