Question for GSP owners

wypadek

I was reading the posts about the Vs and how they are so like GSPs and it got me thinking.

Assuming you crate train, how old was your dog when s/he earned his/her freedom? If they haven't, how old are they?

We tried Collins out before Thanksgiving (may Halloween?? I don't remember exactly)... I like my house too much to let her keep doing that to my trim and I was just wondering if, once we have clearance on Ziva for the vet for them to be out together all day for shenanigans if it was even worth it to try her out again or if we should give it more time.

Caz1221

I'm not a GSP owner, but I'll answer anyway!  Teddie was crated until he was about 11 months old.   Then we switched him to a play pen.  He was in the play pen until he was 4 years old but mostly because our apartment was too small and thus we couldn't create a dog-safe area.  Skippy was crated from when we adopted him (almost 4 years old) until he was about 5 1/4 (when we bought our house).  Since we bought our house in September, Teddie and Skippy have had their own room (which is also the office).  I don't think I'll ever give them the whole house just because I can't trust DH not to leave tempting stuff somewhere!

agoodse

Ours is 6 and has had freedom revoked once we inherited a crate large enough (German Shepherd size, have to take it apart to get it into the house) to keep him comfortably during the day.  He used to destroy anything left in his 'room' (a large tiled mudroom with windows) including stripping the walls of wallpaper (it was ugly anyways ha!).

He's always had some pretty bad separation anxiety and destructive tendencies, but once he turned 3 and we adopted his sister, we were able to leave him with less bouts of destruction.  We were baby gating them off in the kitchen (the only placed tiled in our new home), but since his separation anxiety includes what I like to call 'spiteful peeing' aka we walk out the door and he's already hit 4 spots, we've taken to crating him and Pepper gets free reign of the house.

Worst thing Pepper's ever done was eat a brand new box of hot chocolate mix (bit*h lol) and chew on a remote.  Beau singlehandedly ate a bed...  Although, take that with a grain of salt.  I know other GSPs who can be left free and only succumb to bouts of naughtiness when they haven't been exercised well enough.

boylema

I can't remember exactly...he def had run of the house long before his 1st knee surg...so....he must have been 3 or 4?

You have to wean them into freedom just the same as weaning them into being crated for 6,7,8..hrs.... & yeah, exercise is KEY. Which, isn't news to you for crate survival..the same applies for freedom in the house too.

GL!

wypadek

Yeah I should have mentioned that if we're going to be gone for just a couple hours she's usually fine. Assuming the house is picked up, can't blame her for being tempted by messiness. Its when we leave her for work that she's mischievous.

MrsKizdoodle

Renzo stays in the office & kitchen during the day and does ok.  When we adopted him he was 3 and had the run of those two rooms from the beginning.  No wait, we tested him out with run of the whole house but he ate two shoes.  We keep our guys separated during the day because they can get pretty crazy when they play.

It is important Renzo gets enough exercise or he'll get antsy and chew  sometimes.

mainerocks

My parents' GSPs have never been crated and do fine home alone. One of my brother's on the other hand still can't be trusted all day. Every now and then he tries again, but she is a chewer (especially of SIL's underwear, ew!) 

closapio

Trixie's a lifer.

ETA: In the three minutes between the time I took the baby up to bed, answered my husband's phone call and realized that I didn't know where she was, she had eaten half of one of his puzzle pieces.

*Sigh*

She needs to run. Badly.

hecklet

closapio:

Trixie's a lifer.

This!!! Hugo is 3 and I don't believe he will ever have free roam of our house.