[How To Transition From Crate To House]

I'm glad that you posed this question because we have very similar hounds from what it sounds like. We've had our girl for a little over a year now. We have to leave her in the crate for 9 hours while we are at work during the week, and she happily runs into and stays in her crate. She is quiet as a mouse (so our neighbors tell us) and sleeps happily while we are gone. When we have left her loose even to take the garbage out, we can hear her howling and it's obvious she has a bit of a panic attack and jumps on the door (wreath torn), counter (knocked things off) and we worry about our books being pulled off the shelf. To be honest her howls sound like someone is murdering her. We have worked slowly with short lengths of time leaving her out and loose (and I mean we haven't gotten past 5-10 minutes on a good day- but we have not put a lot into it due to our schedules). She just obviously feels safest in her crate.

 

We would also like to move towards letting her have the run of our house, but we need to take the time to work with her. I agree with comments above that you may need to work on some house-breaking, first. We have read all the posts on here stating to follow the, "I'll be home soon" by Patricia B. McConnell but we haven't been able to work with her consistently. We do wish to adopt another hound in the near future and think this will definitely help, but for now that's not in our budget. From what I've read, it seems most people are recommending to hound-proof one room and leave some sort of long lasting treat. Totally agree with leaving the crate accessible, and work in small increments until your girl is doing okay. The tricky part is you have to leave and come back BEFORE she may start exhibiting her anxious habits. Walking in while she is howling or scratching only rewards it. That is what we are struggling with right now because it seems without practice our girl has regressed. Now she only howls though, and doesn't seem to be pacing/jumping as she did before. So maybe that is progress.

 

Wishing you luck and looking forward to other comments on this thread.

 

It's nice to know our's isn't the only one with this behavior! I hadn't heard of the Patricia McConnell book -- I will definitely look into that. Thanks! She does so well when home alone in her crate that it's easy to forget that being alone is still very new to her. We leave music on, but I'm sure the security of the crate is definitely a huge help. I think we also eventually want a friend for her, but probably not for at least a year. New dogs are such a learning experience! I think after reading this thread, I need to let go of the idea that having a happy, crated dog is still "bad" for her just because she's crated. It's really encouraging to read that others still crate their dogs after several months -- it helps to know that as long as she's content, we have more time to learn to trust her alone, and more importantly, for her to learn to trust that we'll be back.

 

I hope your girl keeps making progress on her separation anxiety! She sounds like such a sweetheart!

[How To Transition From Crate To House]

For ours, we put him in the crate with a peanut butter kong and leave the door open, then we leave. Most of the time, he goes upstairs to his bed that is in our room and sleeps. He still loves and uses his crate for naps. He hasn't had an accident or done much damage. I think we crated him for the first 6 months, then stopped closing the door.

 

When we are home, he will steal shoes and get into mischief. "Look at me!"

 

Hmm. I wonder if we just need to leave her out alone while we go to the store and see what happens. We've tried just going for a quick walk around the block, but I wonder if she can sense that we didn't *leave* (no car noises from the garage) and is getting stressed about that the same way she does when she knows we're in a room that she isn't in. Six months is probably a more reasonable timeline for letting her run free in the house. Thanks for the advice!

[How To Transition From Crate To House]

There is nothing wrong with continuing to crate. It keeps the dog safe and gives you peace of mind regarding the dog being alone.

 

When we gave Rocket the run of the house, we started leaving him out in small increments of time and worked up. We also left his crate in place with the door open. Make sure that the door can't be knocked closed by the dog, preventing them from having the crate available. We left that crate up for years and he would still go in there to sunbathe since it was next to a window with lots of sunbeams.

 

Good luck!

 

Rocket is so adorable! <3 Thanks for your advice. There are so many people who have posted that they've never crated their dog, which made me worry we weren't moving fast enough to give her free reign of the house. I think we will continue to crate until she is a bit further trained and less anxious, and then try to leave her out in small increments like you suggested.

[How To Transition From Crate To House]

We adopted a retired racer a few weeks ago. She is generally well-behaved, but is still learning. She tries to counter surf, occasionally chews on blankets or scratches at the carpet, and likes to fling her toys and bones around. She also has the occasional bathroom accident if we don't stay on top of letting her out every couple of hours when we're home.

 

Her adoption group advised crating her when we aren't home, so we do. We are both out of the house every day for about 10 hours (commute/work). They said that this length of time is not a problem, and they're right -- she's never had a bathroom accident in her crate, and she just sleeps until we get home. She gets tons of attention and exercise in the evenings, and usually a bit in the morning, too, so it's not as if she's neglected. But the plan has always been to transition her to having run of the house when home alone so that she has more freedom to move around.

 

However, she gets very anxious if left to roam while we're in other rooms -- barking, howling, and searching for us. In her crate, she's fine -- she'll just lay down and sleep even after we leave. There's also the issue of having accidents in the house -- she can hold it while crated, but she doesn't think she needs to when she's left to roam the house. Plus, she's so energetic and curious about things that we worry about her safety when she's not crated (like, what if she's jumping around and knocks the tv off onto herself, or what if she's zooming and hurts her leg?)

 

So, how do you make the transition from crate to house? Is it necessary to do so? How do you keep them safe, and help them to feel secure? Is there anyway to prevent/reduce bathroom accidents? (We don't have the option of changing schedules or coming home during lunch, so the 10 hours is fairly non-negotiable -- dog walkers are about $300-400/month here, which is out of our budget.)

 

Thanks for any advice!