Progress!

Morgan just made a huge step yesterday in earning back his "free range" status.

A little backstory, for those who may not know/remember: Morgan is almost two years old. We tried several months ago to allow him time unsupervised and uncrated while we were out of the house. Though it worked fine for the first couple days, it ultimately resulted in the chewing of furniture and the eating of laundry, thus landing him back in the crate while we are gone. We ruled out SA, and determined that he was a combination of bored and too lazy/confused to seek out his own chew toys.

Fast forward to last night, Jon and I are upstairs in the sewing room working on a project. Naturally, Morgan and the cats follow us up, as none of them can stand missing out on the action.

After a little while, we notice somebody is missing. Morgan. Where did he go? What is he doing?

Before I could even call his name, Morgan wanders back into the room... carrying a NYLABONE(!!!), and he proceeds to lie down and chew on it.

He went all the way downstairs to find an appropriate chew toy!!! He CAN learn!!!

Later in the evening, Morgan disappeared again. We went looking for him, only to find he was sound asleep on his bed in our bedroom. This was about 10:30pm. So I guess I can also be proud of him for putting himself to bed when he was sleepy.

What a good dog. <3

A-w-w-w...it sounds like Morgan is growing up. It sure is a relief when they start showing signs of becoming civilized. Good boy Morgan. When you're home, he isn't likely to be as bored or stressed/lonely and less likely to go after the furniture and such.

I'd keep crating him or using a puppy proof room though, for a little while more so he doesn't get an opportunity to practice anymore of that inappropriate behavior. Have you looked into more interactive toys? Or you can hide treats around the house for him to hunt for.

But it sure sounds like he's getting there.

Oh, he's still being crated for the time being. I have to dog-proof the house again before we even start testing him with short periods of time. Believe me, I am not about to rush this process again!

I don't have much by way of "interactive" toys, either... but I should look into that again. I'll admit, I shied away at the prices quite a few times. Do you have any suggestions for toys that would be safe to interact with while unsupervised?

I do have a big ball that you can put kibble in one end and the dog has to roll it around through a "maze" inside for the food to fall out the other side. He also has a couple Kongs that I can stuff with some oversize dry treats for a challenge, so we do that from time to time.

THat's great news. I love when a dog makes steps towards his freedom wings because one step leads to the next. Once they "get it" the rest begins to make sense. Congrats.

You might want t check Amazon.com for some good prices on interactive dog toys. I bought the hide a squirrel thing for Lola. She had no interest in it at first until I put a small piece of a begging strip in it. Kongs are good to get treats out of also. If packed the right way and with the right stuff they can play with them for hours. When it comes to Kongs I think the balls are the best because you can pack a lot of stuff in them. If you put peanut butter in them along with other treats and freeze it then they have a really hard time getting the stuff out keeping them busy.