When We’re Not Home

For years, Moree and Smokey were put in the garage when we went out. Especially when we were gone for 12hrs plus, it worked well because if an accident happened, it wasn’t a big deal. It was a big enough space that they had plenty of room to move around, we had dog beds and dog toys, and water, and pretty much whatever they needed. It worked well for us.

Later, Moree stopped wanting to go down the stairs, so we would just close the dogs in our room, if we weren’t going to be gone all day. When C was laid off, us both being out of the house for long periods of time stopped being an issue.

When Junebug came in to our lives, the garage was not an option. She is just a little too curious, too following of her nose, and the place wasn’t clean enough for us not to worry. She also loved to chew anything soft, including Smokey’s collar, so we weren’t really comfortable with just closing her in our room.

We got June a crate (which she loves) and put it at the foot of our bed. When we had to leave the house, she went in her crate (with a bed, water, treats, and a toy) and Smokey was closed in the room with her. That worked really well for both of them.

Now we have Larry and June. Both like to chew things. The crate is not reasonable for the two of them. However, we had work done in our basement, and everything was much cleaner than before. We pulled out a 4’ pen we’d gotten years before (but never really used) and set it up in a corner of the room we use for a pantry. We put in a dog bed, a water bowl, and toys, then brought the dogs down with treats.

It seemed like we once again had an ideal solution. The dogs could be comfortable with enough room to move around, but since there’s a concrete floor, accidents would be no worry.

We were wrong. You see, Larry is a jumpy dog, circus style jumpy dog. He like to leap in the air. And by the third time we put them in the pen in the basement, he discovered he could jump out of it and have the run of the house. This is not a good plan.

For now, both dogs are being put in our room again. We’re making sure to remove anything they shouldn’t be chewing on, or at least hiding all the pillows under a sheet, now that June doesn’t chew sheets any more. So far, its going well. But its not an all day solution.

C will be going back to school full time this summer, and soon, the dogs are going to have to be left alone for 6hrs plus. We think the option might be to rearrange the pantry so they can’t reach any food, and then block off the exits from it. There are doors which can be shut, but we have missing wall there, as well. I think we can use the pen fencing to block that.

It will continue to be an experiment, until we find something that works for the dogs and for us.