Where in the house does your dog go when you are out -ideas please

[lepetitchienbrun]

Where does your dog go if you are out, assuming they do not have a free run of the whole house?

My little guy is still a puppy so is crated but I want to plan ahead.
I have got the following options:
-utility room, quite small but big enough (dog will be at the small end of medium sized when he is grown up), lino easy clean floor, would be able to add a dog door to the garden easily, but our clothes are in there and not sure I want the two to mix. Also closer to a neighbour's if he barks.

• kitchen but he is already trying to jump onto the worktops and so I feel unsure, easy to clean floor though, large kitchen dining room for him to move about in
  
• convert back half of the double length garage to a proper room with heating. Would add an easy to clean floor, window etc and probably a doggy door but there is no door into the main house so this would not be ideal for every day use or overnight
  
• convert the old shed into an outdoor doggy den, not ideal when very cold though and well away from the house so again, it would only work when we are out and if we are happy with him roaming in the garden (not keen on this one)
  

I would appreciate more experienced dog owners' views! He will never be left alone for more than a sensible amount of time. If it were more very occasionally I would get a dog sitter. Having him wandering about the whole house is not an option at least for the forseeable.

[Lilcamper]

Mine has had the run of the downstairs since he got past any chewing phases.

[VanitasVanitatum]

As a puppy she would be in her (large) crate for up to a couple of hours, always happy there. Now, on the living room sofa :D

[Gooner123]

We've got a small sofa in the dining room,& have put his bed on it,he loves it there,we also leave the radio on quietly which I think helps.

[lepetitchienbrun]

Yes we leave the radio on as he seems to like that.

So which of my options would work best for an older dog or is it hard to say as it varies?

[NCISaddict]

My 10 month old puppy has just picked his spot in our new house. It's in DH's study/office behind his chair. Up until last night he was crated but he spent all evening on his vet bed in the study so I left him there. He isn't allowed upstairs and didn't come up all night, we have wooden floors all through and I think the study is cosy for him. I don't shut the doors apart from the sitting room so he has free run of kitchen ,dining room and study.

He's back in there now after his walk.

[LEMmingaround]

Back living room and kitchen. Ordinarily they have whole house but tend to sit in windows at front of house and go ballistic when people walk past

[Pagwatch]

They have the ground floor. I only keep the door to the sitting room shut. They mostly like the sofas in the tv room which are way more comfy than their beds.
Small dog perches on the back of one by the window and generally goes batshit at any movement nearby. As we live in town and opposite a school he gets quite tired.

[Pagwatch]

Ha!
Idiot dog and LEMs dog should be friends.

[StarDustInTheWind]

Our boy has the downstairs....

he was crated til age 18 months since he was a chewer and a bark at anythinger... would not leave him in there for more than 2 hours

has mellowed with age. He now sleeps where he wants (in my hubby's spot on the sofa) and has free run when we are out.

[Spottybra]

We have a spare corridor attached to the side of the house that links our outbuildings to us. Eventually it may be a kitchen extension with the outbuildings joining it to make a kitchen/diner+utility. For now, the door to the house gets bolted and the dog has the run of this area and a small enclosure outside too. We leave the door to this area open. If a burglar wants to try and get past the trees and the fences and the dog....good luck! The only things we use the outbuildings for are the chest freezer, the Christmas stuff and junk which we try to keep on top of.

[soddinghormones]

we have a big open-plan kitchen/dining area with comfy sofas - he's not allowed upstairs as that's the cats' zone (and also means dc can leave stuff on their floors without it being purloined ...)

[Floralnomad]

My dog has his bed in the hall ,it's quite large and his bed is in an alcove . He sleeps there overnight and when we are out. I would trust him to have the run of the downstairs but he makes too much noise if he can see outside and won't settle because he is on constant cat watch . When we are in he sleeps on the settee or armchairs , he is not allowed upstairs .

[lepetitchienbrun]

My problem is floors - we have original wood floors in most of the downstairs other than the kitchen and I don't want to risk accidents even though I suppose with older dogs they are only very occasional. They would be hard to clean especially the parquet.

The kitchen's downside is if he starts leaping onto the worksurfaces when he is bigger (do they do that?) but the utility room would be ok I suppose as we could just not keep clothing in there anymore in baskets or whatever.

[haggisaggis]

When pup was younger it was a pen in the dining room - then dining room / kitchen - now he has the run of the house (he's 9 months now). We have wooden floors - but reckon he is safe enough. I do try to keep our bedroom door shut as he likes shoes - but tbh he usually just sleeps. (favourite place at moment is our utility room funnily enough - it's pretty small and he's a large dog but he just sleeps against the door to the garden - it's a tile floor and he's a rough collie so think he likes the cool)

[insanityscatching]

Eric has the run of the downstairs with stairs gated off purely because dc leave things out in their rooms that he would most likely steal. Eric either sleeps or sits on the windowsill watching the world go by when we're out.

[lepetitchienbrun]

Do any of you have a dog flap type door for them and what are the pros and cons of letting them go in and out freely?

[BellaVita]

Those of you whose dogs are not allowed upstairs, do you have stair gates or are they just trained not to go up?

We are new dog owners. 19 month old pug. She came to us fully house trained etc and has fit in so well into our life, but in her previous home she slept on beds. Now whilst she has accepted the fact that she has her bed in the utility room and goes in quite happily at bedtime, whenever I go upstairs during the day, she follows. I have tried saying "stay" to her but she just ignores.

[BellaVita]

lepet, one of DS2's friends who has a springer spaniel has a dog flap, the dog sometimes goes out in the middle of the night and howls. They then obviously have to get up and bring him in.

[Pagwatch]

We have stair gates because while PenisDog never went upstairs unless we were there, idiot dog went up all the time and seems to like peeing on beds better than anything else.

(we should have stopped at one)

[BellaVita]

I think a stair gate could be for us then. I hate seeing dog hairs on beds and ours is a black pug so they are very evident. I get out of the shower and she is on our bed giving me that "look where I am sat" kinda face

[popperdoodles]

When our dog was a puppy she was restricted to large kitchen diner with a gate, only allowed in living room supervised. As she got older and more trustworthy we let her have the run of downstairs. She is not allowed upstairs as she has a thing for cuddly toys and socks and peed on our bed once.We have a door at the bottom of the stairs so easy to stop her.
We haven't installed a dog flap because I don't want her outside when we are not in. Dog theft is one concern also with none to stop her she would get muddy and then jump up on the sofas.

[NCISaddict]

I have trained ours not to go upstairs, has taken a while but now he only gets taken upstairs for a bath which he hates so avoids going if possible.

[BellaVita]

NCI, how did you train your dog?

[NCISaddict]

I sat at the top of the stairs just out of sight and everytime he put a foot on the stairs I said a firm 'No' and chucked a treat down as soon as he had all four feet off the bottom stair.
If he tried to follow me up I told him to sit and wait and treated. If I wasn't around then the stairs were blocked so he never got the idea it was ok. Took a while and he's only been 100% reliable recently at 10 months.