Where is/are your dog(s) when you are not at home?

[WebLady]

What do you do with your dog(s) when you are at work or not home?

I am just curious, lets not make this a debate over what anyone thinks is right or wrong now :p

*poll coming ;)

[WebLady]

Me; our dogs are crated in their own separate crates in our bedroom when we are not home. Luckily I work from home and don't have to leave them often and when I do it is not for long periods. But I like to know they are safe and can't get out or get hurt while we are not there.

[MrsGrady08]

We have a three pound yorkie that sleeps most of the day. So we just leave him out in the house. He can't really destroy anything or hurt himself. When we first got him we had a problem with him going potty ALL over the house. So we would put him in a huge crate while we were gone. He was broke of that in a few months.

Also DH and I have opposite work schedules so Im home during the day and hes here in the evening.

[NowAShelton]

i let my puppy run free in the living room. we only have one room right now so we just close the bedroom door. that way he can play with his toys or get water if he wants

[Whitewater]

Our dog(s) (we're getting another one at the end of this month! hooray!) and cat have the free run of the house. They are well trained and don't chew or pee where they're not supposed to or destroy anything. They don't sneak food out of the trash and they don't try to get out the back or front doors -- though we lock them anyway! They also don't jump on countertops.

Roxie, the current poodle, has a phobia about being locked in a crate, so her crate hasn't even got the door attached. She'll very rarely use it if she needs to have a 'den' but more often than not the cat uses it as a protected, comfy place to sleep.

Our home is designed specifically for the dog's and cat's safety. We don't leave anything dangerous lying around, all the chemicals and so on are in pet-safe cabinets, and the decor is deliberately placed (furniture and so on) so that the animals won't get hurt or lost or stuck or whatever. It's a bit like child-proofing a home, we're pet-proofing, so that when we're not there, we don't have to worry about our pets getting (or doing!) damage.

The four-legs can have the run of the house without danger or destruction, and it's been very nice.


Whitewater (not sure about the new dog, we'll see!)

[PGDesigns]

Luckily, our dogs are lazy bums and actually love their crates. We've videoed them sleeping when we aren't home. LOL

They have over-sized crates with soft, fluffy blankets that they stay in when we are not home. They tend to get into stuff if they have free run of the house. I'd much rather them be crated and sleeping and be safe than them getting into something and get hurt when we aren't home.

Our larger girl is dominant and while she loves her "sister" dearly, I've seen her get pissy before over something she sees as a "treat" or food. I've heard way too many horror stories, too, of dogs who got along fine for years getting into a squabble resulting in serious injury and even death when left out together unsupervised. For their safety, I just prefer to eliminate the possibility of that happening when we aren't home. :D

[saltyveruca]

We work at home, so we are here A LOT, but when we're out of the house or asleep, we corral all of our animals into our bedroom. When our dog was a puppy, we used to crate him to help potty train him, but now he can hold it just fine-and using a crate his size would take up a lot of room.

We're getting ready to buy a house soon, and one of the things I'm looking for is a big utility room that we can use for kitty litter and putting our animals in while we're gone.

[Jenna5366]

Our dog and two cats have run of the house while we're gone. My dog sleeps all day, and so do the two cats, mainly. Our dog doesn't even eat when we're not home. The most she ever does is get up to move from the couch to our bed.

[Rainbow Brite]

At 8 years old, we still have to crate our dog when we're not home, because she never did get the house-training thing down pat. I've heard Dachshunds are known for that. It's rare that she pees inside...but it does happen, so that's our only option. We use fluffy fleece blankets, so she's nice and cozy :)

[Jacobs_Girl]

Our dog runs free in one room, but its the largest room in the house. We use 2 baby gates because he likes to jump over it if you just have one. We have to baby gate him now since he likes to sneak onto the couch and scratches up the leather. But its the kitchen with hallway and into the bathroom. We leave his crate out for him if he wants to go sleep there and his bed as well. He also is accessible to his food and water bowl.

Our dog is house broken. During the day MIL lets him out in the yard while she walks her dogs. Then lets him back in when she is done. He loves running around in the yard.

[joeyz_gurl]

Bubba is crated... he is good with potty right now... but not great... needs the crate to keep him focused or i come home to accidents... he is only 7-8 months old... we are still working on house training...

[joeyz_gurl]

I will add ... our doxie who passed away this past spring never really got potty so she was crated 4-6 hours a day while i was at work or school...

[Danielle9608]

Ditto has the whole house to her self, but she never goes upstairs unless we are home since she is afraid of stairs.

[ger]

Bella has the entire house to herself. Her puppies, however, spend their time in the kennel outside. She goes out there in the morning and evening, if Bruce & I are working...or is out there most of the day, if one of us is home. She can (and does) jump out of the kennel, so we can't leave her in there if we're not home.

We are down to 4 puppies. I sure wish we could find GOOD homes for these last 5. They are so sweet and cute!!

[KMS]

Our dogs are living with my dad, but they're in the same situation now as they were when we were living with them. My dad lives on 6 acres and about 1 acre is fenced in for the dogs. They have a pond to swim in and they have access to the porch where their dog house, water, and food is. They just run around outside all day long and when somebody's at home they get to hang out inside when they want in.

[Hope75]

Our dog has the run of the house with the exception of our living room which we gate off since she will climb on our (new) couch, drool and shed on it and generally wreck it.

She is a 70lb lab, 5 years old, housebroken.

[081608Bride]

Our baby girl (he he), Belle, has free rain of the house. When we first got her and she was being potty trained she was in a crate. She was only in the crate when we were at work. If my parents or his parents are home on the weekend and we have to go work then she usually gets to go to the "grandparents" house. She goes almost every where with us! We will be getting another doggie soon and that one will be crate trained but then will have free rain of the house also.

[Dani]

Our 5 year old golden, Summit has free reign of the house, she is really good. Dasie on the other hand (9 weeks) is crated when we are not home.

[brendalin]

My baby (a 75lb chocolate lab) does not have "complete" free reign of the house, but pretty close. The door to the second floor is closed, as well as the bathroom door downstairs. When FH's brother and his dog were living with us we had to kennel them during the day because his dog was not potty trained and they always made a mess when left out together.

[EarlyBird]

the mornings when i go to work, mike is still home so they stay in bed with him (he works nights)
when he leaves they go into a small crate *for some reason they get spiteful and potty on things when we leave them*

[Scrwballsgrl]

well if we only intend to be gone for a short while we close all the doors to bed/baths and let Daisy have reign over the kitchen & living room. but if it will be for more than a few hours we put her up in my mom & Dads bathroom(HUGE!) where she has a pillow, food & water, & gross as it may sound knows to potty in the shower(its a handicapped accessible shower so its slightly sunken shower floor) so we can just clean it out when we get home.

[amisteratwisterandme]

Our dogs get free reign of the house, and a crate. We crated them when they were puppies and chewed on everything. Now though, Twister learned to open his crate on his own when he was sick (allergies) so now we just leave the doors open on both kennels and they come and go as they please.

[candars]

We just have a maltese and two cats in the house. My maltese (Sofia) usually sleeps with Danny until I come home for lunch. After Danny and Sofia wake up, she sleeps with me on my lunch break. Patches (my fat kitty) normally sleeps upstairs on the bathroom floor or in the work-out room, but most of the time she sleeps in the sink. My other cat, Shwag, just runs around the house, goes outside and explores, and she sleeps all over the place! We have no kids, so these are our babies and we love them and spoil them rotten!

[bichonlvr]

Our dogs OWN the house, come on...they are on the couch, running around, but honestly I think they mostly sleep when we are gone!!!!!

[Mrs.Panda]

I've got a shih tzu that is a year and a half. He has been trained to not chew wires or pee all over the place so he gets to run around the house, we normally just shut the door to the bedrooms. My 7month old American eskimo, however is crated until we can get her properly potty trained and can trust her not to electrocute/poison herself! :grinhappy: