Thanks for all the great information.

We have a 4 month old lab who is crated for a couple hours in the morning and afternoon and at night for sleeping. My question is about the time of introducing her to the entire house? We have a bungalow. Her crate is in the basement and when we are home we are with her in the basement family room. She is pretty much housebroken but, being a lab, she is a chewer (on top of that we have started teething!). When is it safe to begin bringing her into the upper level of the house, when we are around to watch her.

Thinking ahead to the future, any guess when she will be ready to left safetly in the house when we are out without being crated? I have no false expectations that it will happen soon, just trying to get a ball park idea on this topic.

Many thanks
spinsv

From 7 weeks, I have my Labs loose in the room when I can watch them. I don't advise leaving any dog loose in the house by itself. I like to see dogs given a break at least every 4-5 hours. You can find many details in the sticky starting at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post251809