Mini is a little over 9 months old and has been crated ever since we had her. She has been great with pottying outside, she also rings the bell by the door when she needs to go out. We had no potty issues since she was around 4 months old, well she hasn't messed up at all for a long time. My wife and I decided to leave her out and give her free run of the living room and kitchen part of the house. Is this too soon, she was great for about 4 hours last night. We have been slowly giving her free roam now for 30 to 60 minutes at a time and she was great. Should we leave her out during the day, we still crate her at night when we go to bed and that will not stop. Thanks!

Is there anyway to start her in a smaller area like the kitchen first?

I would take it slow too. If she's in her crate during the day and you want to give her more free space, gate off the kitchen and leave her in there while you are gone instead of in her crate. Then if she does well with that for a while let her have the kitchen and living room. Just don't get upset if she slips up and goes in your living room. Especially if you have carpet, they seem to think carpet is one giant puppy pad lol.

PS your baby is the cutest little thing!

we're planning on putting lily in the kitchen during the day when it starts to get a little nicer out. right now she's in the bathroom, and that's going to start to get even stuffier once it warms up outside.

i'm thinking we'll probably start off by giving her a section of a kitchen to be in, and then expanding it until she's got the whole thing...

at least, that's the idea. she's regressed a bit on the potty-training since she spent almost 2 weeks in vet hospitals and whatnot... but she's relearning quickly!

Thanks for everyone who responded. Mini was great yesterday, we left her out all day and she didn't have any problems. Mini is not a morning dog, so when we take her out in the morning for a potty break she wants to just come back in and sleep until I get home from lunch to take her for another walk. Well we normally put her in the crate, but yesterday we left her out and she just sat on her section of the couch. She slept the entire time until I got home for lunch. Then I left her out for the second half of the afternoon with a kong ball filled with liver paste and also some chew toys and she did just fine.

Our biggest worry was her chewing on the couch and table but that stopped a few weeks ago and now her demeanor has just recently changed. She still goes crazy when I see her and plays with everything in site, but when I tell her that its time for Daddy to go to work she just heads up to her part of the couch and goes to bed. I think our lil'girl is just growing up.

We tried sectioning off the kitchen, but she hates to be cornered off and she spends more time trying to get out of the area. She is like houdini, she can escape from anything she even knows how to unlock her crate so we have to tie it off so she doesn't get out.

Again thanks.

I don't trust Caesar yet, too mischevious. But I don't like to leave him in the crate during the day. So I bought a portable exercise pen off of ebay. It's wonderful!!! I can use it inside or outside. He's contained can't chew on furniture or cords yet can play with his toys. The cat will even jump in to take a nap or play.

We still don't trust our two dogs alone, loose in the house because they're both still mischievous. They will both jump on furniture that they're not allowed to, chew up couch pillows and other objects at times when not watched. Sparky still occasionally pees on carpets too and she's almost 2.5 yrs old now.
So, when we leave the house, they both go in their crate and we don't know if and when they'll ever be trusted to be alone. Our other dog who's a beagle is 3.5 yrs old but still has her moments when she'll opt to chew up a pillow.