Really Big Crate With Stairs And A Carpet Training

ShaShaBear

And we're on the fourth consecutive night with no damage whatsoever in the hallway while we slept! I'm still getting up at 7-8am to let him out (since I get up to give baby her bottle at that stage anyway), so no accidents either.

We're going to give it another few days and then hopefully start trying him out in the hall while we go out as well.
Any tips or advice for this? He doesn't have any toys in the hall at night, except for his pillow, blankie and rug. Our room is connected straight to the landing wall so rubber Kongs doing a runner down the stairs wouldn't be great for the auld shut-eye
We're hoping to start with a walk to the garage and back (roughly 7 minutes in total) to see how he gets on, and move it up from there. Stuffed Kongs, toys that make an immense racket and new things he hasn't had before are the way to go, I take it?

muddypaws

How dark is the hallway, will he know its not night time? How long will he be left, once you're over the initial trial period?

ShaShaBear

muddypaws wrote: »

How dark is the hallway, will he know its not night time? How long will he be left, once you're over the initial trial period?

At night time it would be completely dark, no lights on. But during the day the light would filter in from the glass in the front door and in the hall window, so I would safely say he would know the difference.
Honestly never long, I don't work and my partner coaches kids football so is off for the rest of the summer and will only be gone an hour here and there. It's more so I can take the baby for a stroll in the day for a few minutes (can't walk the dog with the pram) or be able to go grab some milk or head out to get our shopping etc. I'd safely say the most he would ever be left alone would be about 3-4 hours. Any longer than that and we have my brother come up and tend to him until we get back (as we have done so far with the crate).

muddypaws

I think stuffed kongs are good, but probably wouldn't go for noisy toys, as they may get him too worked up, and then he could progress to your carpets and stairs. I'd say you want him to see that area as a quiet zone, where he goes to chill and sleep, so yes, make it pleasant, but not exciting or over-stimulating.

ShaShaBear

muddypaws wrote: »

I think stuffed kongs are good, but probably wouldn't go for noisy toys, as they may get him too worked up, and then he could progress to your carpets and stairs. I'd say you want him to see that area as a quiet zone, where he goes to chill and sleep, so yes, make it pleasant, but not exciting or over-stimulating.

Excellent point on the noisy toys, I never would have thought of that! We have one medium Kong but I might get a larger one too, as I'm not too sure how quick he'd finish the smaller one with frozen stuff in it! To be honest, he's only had one destructive episode so we are probably being over cautious in that regard, but I'm determined not to let him develop separation anxiety like Shadow had!

tk123

Lucy drives us mad throwing kongs around the place - but we have wooden floors lol!

ShaShaBear

tk123 wrote: »

Lucy drives us mad throwing kongs around the place - but we have wooden floors lol!

Our hall is carpeted, but yeah we've had a few nightmare screaming matches from the baby being dragged out of a nap by a monster stampeding dog with toys in tact :P