no more crate

[sn33195]

I want to start letting our 9 month old Thai Ridgeback free in two rooms in our house when we are gone. He hasn't peed or pooped in the house for months and months now. The only thing I worry about is seperation anxiety. Right now he is in a crate with treats and a kong filled with frozen canned dog food. He doesn't mind being in the crate if we are home or in the room but when we put him in there to leave the house he cries, barks and scratches/digs in the crate.
Is there anything I can do to help him with getting used to being free and us leaving the house?

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

If you want to test the best way is to leave only for a few seconds, then, minute, then two minutes, etc.. usually if you can get past 30 minutes it is a lot easier - because it is when he is in that anxious state that he may cause damage. I would generally recommend waiting and work on him feeling less anxious while he is in the crate - since it seems like he doesnt have a problem with the crate - but the fact that you are leaving, so there is definitely a biiger chance for issues. Doesn't hurt to try small amounts like I mentioned above - especially if you set up a video camera to see how he is acting.

How is Cheyenne when you leave? Is she loose?

[sn33195]

Suprisingly, Slate did great in the house by himself. I thought since he's a dog that loves to be around us and follows us alot he would freak once we left. But not a peep. We started leaving him right after my original post and only in January did he naw on a table corner, all four corners actually. But I think that could be because we haven't been going on our morning walks since it was soo cold outside. We have sprayed those corners with an air freshener and he hasn't touched them and we have limited him to only one room since then. I am hoping now that the weather is getting warmer and we can start our morning walks again I will be able to open him back up to two rooms.
Cheyenne wasn't at the time loose in the house yet. Around Nov we now have her out of the crate in the basement hallway and she's been doing really good. She chewed on the door molding just a couple of times in the begining and scratched 4 spots on the sheet rock wall. But that was mostly in the begining and she hasn't been doing it anymore. We started by keeping the basement door open so they could go up and down the stairs while we were home. Hoping she was get used to it and like it. I think that helped. I still have an issue with her not wanting us to leave so we have to keep her on a leash and walk her to the door otherwise she will go and hide and give us a problem trying to get her out. But I haven't let her hide like that in a while so not sure if she would still do it.
I am just glad they are not in the crates anymore because I know they both didn't like it. I would love to set up a video camera to see what they do after we leave. I need a camera or a webcam for that. Eventually I will do that.