[amoseley]

Trying again hopefully more clear this time.. I'm seeing lots of posts about people who leave their dogs roam when the people aren't home after the dogs are houstrained. We are getting two pups late June. We have only ever been a 1 dog household before. Normally when we leave we crated our dogs. Should we do this with our 2 as well? Or let them roam? We are planning on crate training to help with house training and so they have a place to go when they want quiet from our busy household....

 

[Raindrops]

Trying again hopefully more clear this time.. I'm seeing lots of posts about people who leave their dogs roam when the people aren't home after the dogs are houstrained. We are getting two pups late June. We have only ever been a 1 dog household before. Normally when we leave we crated our dogs. Should we do this with our 2 as well? Or let them roam? We are planning on crate training to help with house training and so they have a place to go when they want quiet from our busy household....

There are many ways of doing things successfully. In general people usually confine until the dog is trustworthy on their own. This usually lasts until 1 to 2 years of age. But for some it works best to never leave unsupervised, or to restrict access to some parts of the house unless supervised. My 14 month old is still penned when I'm out of the house, though he is fine being left loose while I shower or something. I do not trust him to not get bored and get into trouble!

 

[For Want of Poodle]

Yikes?! 2 puppies?! I would never, ever put myself through that again. 2 puppies = way more than twice the work.

I would be crating in separate rooms or confining in pens in seperate rooms, and only having an hour or two of supervised interaction between the two of them a day, and individual training sessions for both. Have you researched litter mate syndrome? We didnt know about it before we got 2 dogs when I was in high school, and they never bonded as well with us as they mostly bonded with each other, despite my mother who was retired at the time spending half her time trying to individually train and walk puppies, with me helping after school.

As for letting dogs roam, I wait until they prove themselves trustworthy. Annie was maybe 7 or 8 months, some dogs are 2 years, some dogs are never trustworthy. I started with one or two rooms gated or with the door closed, and gradually, over months, added rooms. And with two puppies, double the opportunity for troublemaking and they egg each other on.

 

[cowpony]

It depends on what you need and what the dogs need.

I stopped using crates with Pogo and Snarky pretty early. Pogo simply hated being crated. However, I have a decent sized sunroom with a slate floor. I used to lock the pair out there when I couldn't supervise them. After they were a year old and had stopped shredding things I let them loose in the house. They were fine.

Galen is not housebreaking as quickly as Pogo did. He also seems content sleeping in a crate. Therefore, I intend to keep crating him for the immediate future. I'll reevaluate as he matures.

 

[amoseley]

Yikes?! 2 puppies?! I would never, ever put myself through that again. 2 puppies = way more than twice the work.

I would be crating in separate rooms or confining in pens in seperate rooms, and only having an hour or two of supervised interaction between the two of them a day, and individual training sessions for both. Have you researched litter mate syndrome? We didnt know about it before we got 2 dogs when I was in high school, and they never bonded as well with us as they mostly bonded with each other, despite my mother who was retired at the time spending half her time trying to individually train and walk puppies, with me helping after school.

As for letting dogs roam, I wait until they prove themselves trustworthy. Annie was maybe 7 or 8 months, some dogs are 2 years, some dogs are never trustworthy. I started with one or two rooms gated or with the door closed, and gradually, over months, added rooms. And with two puppies, double the opportunity for troublemaking and they egg each other on.

Thanks! Yes we researched. There are 6 of us home. We will be ok. Thanks u for sharing your concern.

It depends on what you need and what the dogs need.

I stopped using crates with Pogo and Snarky pretty early. Pogo simply hated being crated. However, I have a decent sized sunroom with a slate floor. I used to lock the pair out there when I couldn't supervise them. After they were a year old and had stopped shredding things I let them loose in the house. They were fine.

Galen is not housebreaking as quickly as Pogo did. He also seems content sleeping in a crate. Therefore, I intend to keep crating him for the immediate future. I'll reevaluate as he matures.

Makes sense thanks

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Whatever you choose to do when you're not home, just make sure it ticks these boxes:

• Safe for both puppies
• No opportunity to learn or rehearse destructive behaviours (such as chewing a beloved sofa)
• No opportunity to learn or rehearse undesirable behaviours (such as barking incessantly at a high-traffic window)
• Comfortable temperature and easy access to water

Aside from that, it's up to you. I personally (and for a number of reasons) wouldn't leave them alone together until they're more mature.

 

[Rose n Poos]

My two boys were restricted access til they were reliable in the house, no accidents or destruction. That could have been around 7 months old but it was their first year with a Christmas tree so I played it safe. They got main level full access after the holidays and we've never had an issue. They're just turned 3 years.

We crated the first few times we left them alone but one smarty pants figured out how to unzip his crate, leaving his very sad brother penned up.

When home we just used baby gates to restrict them to the family room and kitchen, where most of our time is spent, so we did the same if we left, after the jailbreak by Neo.

To further ease my mind, I got some Wyze cameras to keep an eye on them while we're out. They wait in the front room on the sofa, looking out the window, barking at passersby, or napping.

I've always given free rein to all my dogs, after they prove reliable.

 

[Mufar42]

Our boxer was 2 before he was trustworthy. We would let him roam while we were home and at about a year or so we began to walk outside and leave him in. Sometimes he would start to get into things so we knew he wasn't quite ready. Later we would make a quick trip to the store. Renn my standard poodle is 2 1/2, he still isn't ready. While he is fine now when I'm home he doesn't like to separate from me and gets anxious. I gate him off in my foyer/dining room area. Thats now "his" room. He was no longer comfortable in his crate and I finally got rid of it. He is safe in these rooms and hasn't destroyed anything. I think there is too much he could get into should the mood strike. The boxer would just lie around, Renn not so much. LOL A lot depends on the dog itself but I would figure 2 years before they are trustworthy.

 

[Dianaleez]

Every dog is unique. Ours have varied in how trustworthy/active they were. I agree that it's an age issue. Younger dogs tend to get into more scrapes.

Do you have one room that you can dog-proof? If so, I'd start with that for increasingly longer periods.

You could dog-proof now and let them sleep there in their crates when you bring them home.

 

[Whoiscoconut]

When I had larger dogs and someone wasn’t home all days I’d do what I called the expand method. I’d start with a puppy pen and as they showed progress I’d expand. Leaving them in puppy safe areas. I’d eventually move pup to a room for us it was always the kitchen and baby gates blocking all the other room and hallways. Then I’d remove them one by one.
my parents, when we had the labs (same as your poodles, week apart different litters) they did separate crates at night first for like a week, one in my room the other in my brothers. Mainly bc someone was always home. If mom went to the store my brother or I had puppy duty, we never minded. the biggest mistake I think, is leaving the dog home with out anything to do. None of our dogs that we got as pups were destructive. My mom used to foster and she occasionally got the destructive pet, she said leaving the tv on was huge for them. Never knew why it helped so much but she thought maybe hearing talking made them feel less alone. So with any of our pups we always left the tv on and would give them a bone. (way back then it was rawhides, obviously those aren't safe now. But something that lasts awhile that they like) she'd also rub table legs with tabasco the first week when pups came home (now they have bitter apple, back then it wasn't around.) one lick and they never touched it again.
it's just finding what works for you, I'm stricter than my parents are but there's stuff I use that I learned from them and then I adjusted to find what works for me. I couldn't do anything other than free roam just because I wouldn't be comfortable having my pet crated for long periods. I'd be the crazy lady running through the store, forgetting numerous things trying to race to get back home. lol

 

[cowpony]

My experience is that adolescents will egg each other on in destruction. One will find a sock. The other sees the sock, and a tug-of-war ensues. Bye bye sock. (Or, with Snarky and Pogo, it was a sofa. )

Something that helps is if you can keep them both physically and mentally exercised. With Snarky and Pogo I was able to take them to the barn. After all the running and sniffing they would come home too tired to even think of causing trouble. They'd just crash.

With Galen I've started playing a game I call Poodle in the Middle. Several of us will take a handful of treats and disperse. Then we take turns calling him. His job is to seek us out and get the treat. For extra challenge we move around, so he has to keep looking. Again, this game usually gets him nicely tired, so he crashes afterwards.

 

[lily cd re]

cowpony that issue of two dogs together doing things that neither of them would seriously consider if alone happens with Lily and Javelin frequently enough that I never have the two of them out and about with me unless they are on leashes. For example for either of them alone if my gardener rings the door bell I don't mind if they go out front to say hello since neither of them would ever go off the lawn let alone out to the curb, but I have no misconception that if playing together on the lawn they would not pay any attention to staying on the lawn and might well take off down the street. I can call one of them off chasing my chickens or chasing some other critter in the street but I'm not convinced I could recall both of them.

Back to the OPs question though: 2 crates, not next to each other, used for anytime the pups can't be directly supervised. Another thing the crates facilitate is training one pup without the other. Some training time should be both pups together but lots of things will be be taught separately.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

My experience is that adolescents will egg each other on in destruction. One will find a sock. The other sees the sock, and a tug-of-war ensues. Bye bye sock. (Or, with Snarky and Pogo, it was a sofa. )

This just got a big LOL from me, as I recalled walking in on my two mini mixes, catching them in the act of DESTROYING a queen sized foam mattress topper. It was like it had snowed in my bedroom.

Gracie, of course, froze and stared at me, like, "Ohmigosh can you believe what Tucker is doing??? I was just about to come tell you!"

Tucker, on the other hand (bless his wild little heart), just kept shredding joyfully.