Monday, July 9, 2012

Free Ranged

This weekend we officially graduated Luna to a loose-in-the-house dog by taking down her crate.  Luna was not pleased by this changed because she has learned that when the crate comes down it means she is going somewhere.  When we didn't pack up the car she kept looking at us like, "So, what's the deal here?"

For the past few months, Mike and I have been leaving Luna loose in the house while we are out.  She has shown a lot of growth when it comes to being alone.  She still whimpers a bit when I leave, but no more barking.  At first, it seemed like she only stayed on her pillow in the living room.  After a few weeks, I came home to find her upstairs relaxing in the bedroom.  It's nice to know that she understands that she can move around the house.

The next step for Luna is to become comfortable with a canvas crate.  I used one when I was showing Eris and it made traveling so much easier.  The one problem we had was when we left Eris in a hotel.  She was upset in the unfamiliar environment so she tore a hole in the canvas to escape.  This was completely out of character for Eris who normally was more mellow than a goldfish.  To avoid a repeat of that incident, we will be taking things slow with Luna.  I will also make sure we never leave her abruptly in a strange place.

Not only is it nice that we can trust Luna to be good while we are out, but we are rewarded by gaining a huge part of our kitchen.  Yippee!

3 comments:

Auntie M said...

Are you planning on going to Dewey in the fall? Or GIG next spring? I think that would be AWESOME!

Two Greyhound Town said...

Congrats! When we first adopted Jack, we would lock him in the laundry room when we left. He had a window and thought he would like it. Nope! He tried to eat the door knobs. He finally learned to open the door that led to the garage. Not good. I finally decided to let him stay in our bedroom and the problem was solved. He was a good boy after that. (We tried the crate, but he tried to break out of that, too.) It is wonderful when they can be trusted to be out on their own.

genji said...

Freedom! All of our guys refused to go in their crate after the first day here.