My husband wants to let our 10 mo. old pup be loose in our house while we are at work in the afternoon. I'm leery about this but he just seems determined.
Our dog is a cockapoo mutt, just a pet, house trained, knows basic obedience, overall really developing into a good dog. He is only allowed on our main level, living room, dining room (where his crate is), and kitchen. Everything else is closed off or gated off.
I mean, I'm not worried about him chewing on the furniture b/c he's never done anything like that. My guess is he would just sleep like he does in his crate.
But I still don't think this is a good idea.
What are the advantages or disadvantages to leaving a dog loose for a few hours while we are away? I'm trying to build up more of a defense to my husband!

Advantages: none that I can think of.

Disatvantages: doggy distruction, doggy messes, doggy no longer wanting to be crated because he has "discovered" freedom. He may become overly territorial of the house, since he would have the whole thing (bottom half anyway) to himself and nobody else there to protect it.

Why does your husband want to leave him uncrated in the afternoon? If he his determined to leave the dog uncrated, I would not start with the whole afternoon. I would do it in small increments.

Tell him not to be in such a rush. Buy a bigger crate or an exercise pen if you want your dog to have more space, but seriously all WELL BEHAVED ADULT dogs do when their owners leave the house is sleep, so 1 of 2 things will happen.

Either your dog will find somewhere to sleep, in which case, whats it matter if your dog is sleeping by the front door or in a crate?

Or your dog will do stuff you never thought he would do, because dogs know the difference between you being home and you being gone, n with a 10 month old pup, usually something will go wrong sooner or later. You can't correct the dog for it because you didn't catch them red handed, so all it achieves is letting the dog practice bad behavior.

I would wait another 4 months before even considering it. Even longer would be better, until the "i'm an adult now" switch clicks in the dogs head, they will always do some type of mischevious puppy stuff. They might be fine left alone in the room while you're in the kitchen, but just wait, as soon as you are gone for 4 hours n they decide they're bored, something will go wrong

 Quote: mishele barker

Disatvantages: doggy distruction, doggy messes, doggy no longer wanting to be crated because he has "discovered" freedom. He may become overly territorial of the house, since he would have the whole thing (bottom half anyway) to himself and nobody else there to protect it.

To the OP,

None of the above happened with my dog (not even remotely close to anything like that, especially regarding the point about discovered freedom and overly territorial) and I left my dog alone beginning at 9 months BUT (and that's a big but), I think my dog is exceptional in this regard. Put another way, very, very unusual.

Additionally, and this is important, I started out leaving him alone for no more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time at the most. I worked him up to the length of time you are suggesting. My dog is now 2 and has never ever done a single thing to any object in my house. He's happy if he's crated, he's happy if he's loose. He's happy to come in the car with me and he's happy to be left home alone (he always gets a treat when I leave him alone).

Regarding the timeframe, even now, he's never left home alone for more than 3 hours at a time.

I know you wanted comments from people who would support your "argument" and I did not exactly do that but I figured, what the hell, I'll give you a positive experience. Just don't show my post to your hubby . If you do, make sure he reads this last line TWICE -- my dog is highly unusual and, in my opinion, should never be used as a benchmark.

It really depends on the dog and level of drive. Better safe than sorry, once your dog figures out he likes something its harder to break the habbit, so if you just avoid letting it happen then you don't have anything to break later when the dog is past the "destruction phase" so to speak. The lower drive the dog the less destructive he will be, its the hyper restless puppies that constantly want to do something that tend to go nuts around the house when you leave, but some of the calmer lower drive dogs might surprise you one day

Only ever met 1 cockapoo before n he'll tear up the whole house at 7 months old if you let him. But being a mutt breed I doubt theres much consistency as far as breed traits and drives go, so who knows.

Amy, this post gave me a chuckle. I'm trying to imagine what would happen if I left my 9 month old Lab free in the house, unsupervised, for a few hours. He's totally housebroken, has never ever chewed furniture, knows his basic commands, and is also shaping up to be a great dog.

You can share this story with your husband: My fiancee had my dog in the bedroom, on the floor, on the other side of the bed out of sight. A half hour later my fiancee looked over and saw True had eaten a shoe! It was the first time he had done anything like that and thank God it wasn't MY shoe or my fiancee would have been the one sleeping in the crate.

Puppies get into trouble when they don't have eyes on them at all times...not just destructive trouble but dangerous trouble if they eat or chew something harmful.

I think there are exceptions but I know my dog is not at all trustworthy unsupervised and, according to what I've read, I shouldn't expect him to be until at least 18 months or so.

Great responses everybody! Thanks a lot! I think I'm going to talk my husband into just leaving our little Maverick in his crate. I think it's for the best...at least until he's a bit older. And for crying out loud we just spent a chunk of change on a bigger crate anyways!!
I have one more unrelated question. My pup is good in his crate when we put him in at bed and in the mornings before we head to work and even after lunch. Never cries, nothing. I give him a little treat and in he goes.
So here's my deal:
My hubby and I both get home from work around 5 and it seems like every time to go run some errands in the early evening...he cries! He carries on like crazy! I just give him a firm 'no' and leave...not sure how long he cries but he's always calm by the time we get home. Do you think he does this b/c he wants to come along? Sometimes we do take him with us. But it's strange b/c he doesn't really like cars, he's very tense in them. I think he just wants to be with us. Is this neurotic behavior? Should I be concerned? He's been doing this for a few months now.

Amy,

Is this neurotic behaviour? NO! Should you be concerned? Not really. He wants to be with his people. That he doesn't like cars is not the point; it's more a matter of "Yay! My people are home! I get to be around them, sniff them, lick them and clown for them!"

My guess is that he only cries when somebody is around to hear. Try this: when you come home, make a show of going right back out, but instead of closing the car door and driving away... Close the car door, and as sneaky as you can be, go back up to the window nearest his crate. I think you may find that he'll go on for about 1-2 minutes, then settle down. Most dogs (mind, I said MOST) will only carry on if there is something TRULY wrong OR if there is somebody close enough to try to manipulate. *laugh* You may want to change your tack from giving a firm "NO" to giving a "Hush". Hush can be used in many situations, and with proper training (conditioning) can even be used to calm the dog in stressful situations. Kinda like teaching them the REAL meaning of this phrase: "It's okay. I've got everything under control and neither you nor I are in any danger."

Good on you for talking with your husband! No good reason to have your dog running willy-nilly about the house for hours on end.

Luck!
-Jim

 Quote: amy_daws

Do you think he does this b/c he wants to come along? Sometimes we do take him with us.

Ditto to Jim, and also:

Are you ever rewarding the crying by changing your mind and taking him?

Nope! Never rewarding him for wining.
And thanks, I do think he calms right down after he knows we're long gone b/c we listen to him for a minute or 2 from the garage but I think he knows when he hears the garage door closed that we're really gone.
I just wish he liked riding in cars better! I mean he clings to us when we're driving along! For long rides he's in the backseat laying down, but any time we go to grab him or move him, it's like he's resisting, just uneasy I guess. He also gets a little car sick too, not every time, but I would say 3 out of 5 times (depending on the curves of the trip, etc). Is it really ok to give dogs some drugs to make them drowsey? What kinds? I've heard benadryl but haven't tried it.