First Lengthy Alone Time

Well, we have had Bailey for a little over 2 months now. He is going to be 5 months old next week. He is housebroken, fairly obedient (definitely has a mind of his own sometimes), and absolutely hilarious. For the most part, he comes with us wherever we go (except to the grocery store and such). He has been left alone in his crate for up to 6 hours with no problems whatsoever. However, we recently made the plunge and opted to purchase annual passes to Disney World. This past Saturday was our first trip down to Orlando (we live 90 minutes north) to go to the Animal Kingdom. Leaving at 8:00 a.m. and not planning on returning until the evening hours, we knew that this would be too long of a time for Bailey to be in his crate.

We decided to make our large kitchen his area for the day. We got baby gates but one of the doorways to the kitchen was too large. Therefore, we constructed a wall of boxes that were sturdy and heavy. It was 3 boxes long and 2 boxes high and blocked the large entryway into the kitchen. We placed Bailey in the kitchen with his crate, toys, treats, water bowl and such and left for the day.

When we got home (at 8:00 p.m. - 12 hours later), Bailey greeted us at the door......no longer in the kitchen. The gate in the one door was secure and the box wall was intact. We were perplexed. How did he get out? Upon closer examination, we noticed that one of the top boxes was pushed a little, creating a "step" on the lower box that he could use to climb over the box wall. Our corgi is like freakin MacGuyver.

The greatest news was that he did not have any bathroom accidents in the house. He went 12 hours all on his own. There were only 2 damaged items. A single paper towel was torn up (poor paper towel) and he chewed a small chunk out of an old pair of sandals (they needed to be replaced anyway). So this coming weekend when we head to Aquatica for the day, we will have to make the wall 3 boxes high and see what happens.

3 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of MyCorgi.com to add comments!

Join MyCorgi.com

Comment by Judith Andre on May 25, 2011 at 3:17pm: I picked Murray up at a breeder when he was 11 weeks old and 11 hours away in the dead of Winter and he didn't go the whole way home. I did try putting him outside on the way, but all he did was sit and shiver. He had the whole folded down back of the car with newspapers to go on and didn't go there either. I have had him "hold it" for as long as 18 hours when he didn't choose to go and my last one for 26 hours! This was their choice...I did try. They can be very picky about where they go. I joke that their long body is one huge bladder. I started leaving Murray the run of the house when he was about 9 months and usually find him waiting in front of the door I went out. Nothing chewed on, not even the chewy I leave for him.

Comment by Potus on May 24, 2011 at 9:40pm: Potus no longer can be contained either. The whole kitchen was his confinement area for when we went out, the doorways blocked off by an unfoldable exercise pen. Now he knows how to open the exercise pen (sigh) so he's just left out to sit on 'his' chair and watch the world go by. He's almost 3 so fairly trustworthy, though he escaped the first time we left him alone when he was a puppy. Corgis can be quite the MacGyvers :)

Comment by Dani Schwegel on May 24, 2011 at 9:20pm: Disney World has pet care available if you don't feel like leaving your tiny MacGuyver at home all day :)
http://wdw.bestfriendspetcare.com/

Sea World offers kennel options too: http://www.seaworld.com/SitePage.aspx?PageID=130#kennel

Comment by Peggy Woods on May 24, 2011 at 2:12pm: I used to put the port-a-pen around the crate so my dog could have a "house with a yard" in the house. He pushed that apart & I found him in my bed...

Now I just let him have the house (sometimes I shut the bedroom door) I leave him enough water & toys, etc. He's usually in his crate napping when I get home from work!

I don't think mine would last 12 hrs... he's usually ready for a potty-break as soon as I get home after 9 hrs.