Yes full run of the house. Initially I blocked off rooms when they were pups. The boxer boys never do any damage. They go on the furniture and both kip on my bed. We have no resource guarding issues so it’s not a problem. I love a cuddle and Loki thinks he’s people who am I to tell him otherwise?

 

Yep.

They're free to go where they like.

Rosie could sleep on my bed and did used to, but, these days, she prefers to sleep in her own bed.

 

Whisp isn't allowed upstairs, Dad's rules (he likes rules) not sure why not.
When I was very ill with my mental health Whisp was allowed upstairs into my room, but that stopped. I'd like her in my bedroom but it's house rules unfortunately.
We have a baby gate secured with a bungee tie to keep her from going upstairs.
Downstairs she is allowed everywhere.

 

Whisp isn't allowed upstairs, Dad's rules (he likes rules) not sure why not.

I know a fair few people who have this rule, no dogs upstairs. I think mainly to have a part of the house that's "dog-free," no hair, no dog smell, IDK? I just know that it's a fairly common thing.

Penny is allowed upstairs, she's not interested really other than to annoy the cat or look out the front window from the top landing. When the kids are home she goes up there more often because they're up there.

 

Timber gets almost everywhere but we try to keep him out of the guest room because not all our guests would want a dog to have been there. Well, we haven't actually had guests since 2019, but you know ...

In our front room he has one chair with a cover on it that he uses and to be fair, that's the only chair he does use. In the den, he sometimes hops on to one of our chairs, my only worry is that the seats are black leather and he might not be seen and get sat on. When we are sitting in here, as we do most evenings, he has a mat between the seats that we use (facing the TV) and either lies on that, or in his bed in a corner.

Upstairs he has a better bed, for sleeping. He didn't always sleep upstairs but a couple of years ago he decided he wanted to and that's fine. In fact, when he slept downstairs (with all the internal doors open) he would sometimes come up and pad round the bedroom. We never wanted to take the chance he might need out so one of us would have to get up. He would take the opportunity, but really he would just be checking up on us. Because in all the time he has slept upstairs, he has never asked out overnight. So this way, everybody wins.

 

Yep free run apart free apart from 2 rooms as they are my stepdaughters (they don’t live with us) and both my dogs like to steal there socks for some reason 😂 eldest dog was confined to the kitchen at night and when I was at work and he seemed happy with this until he was a year old and we stayed away at my dads for the night and realised how good he was so that was that lol. Little one has the run during the day and cage at night for a few weeks.
Neither have caused any damage and just sleep by the front door, my bed or the bed in the landing when I am out.

 

Free access - no
Allowed in all the rooms - yes

None of my rooms are dog-free, but more than half of them are only with direct supervision. And free access is further limited in winter when I close doors to keep the heat within the rooms that I have the central heating on in rather than dissipating into those which are unheated.

 

Mine are allowed where they like. When I go to bed my oldest dog jumps straight on ‘my side’ of the couch but comes upstairs sometimes during the night. My Yorkie either sleeps on my bed or in hers which is a covered cave. The only damage that I’ve had from either of them is some slight nibble marks in a piece of wooden furniture.

 

Dan has free run of the house and is allowed on the furniture with the proviso that there is a cover there. He likes to lay on the back of the sofa and armchair and of course he sleeps on the bottom of the bed on yet another fleece blanket! He does have a bed but only goes in it to sulk or hide chews, rarely to have a daytime nap. Favourite bed is a £10 velvet cushion that I bought a couple of years ago from Matalan that just fits the seat of the armchair.

 

Full run of house and furniture
But
Only allowed in bedrooms when we are in them too
And
Not in hallway, if the front door will be opened, as they're runners, even at nearly 13

 

free rein during the day but sleep in the kitchen at night. When we first had dogs some years ago they would sleep on our bed but we had 3 then and it was very crowded, so when they died we always kept the dogs and cats to the kitchen at night. The dogs we have now even ask to go to bed at 9pm each night. We live in a bungalow, so no stairs, we do use covers/ throws on everything and I have a baby gate to the kitchen to keep them out when I'm cooking.

 

Generally she has free rein APART from the kitchen because of the counter-surfing. During the day while I am working she can move between living room, my bedroom and my study. Outside of work the study door is closed.
she is actually pretty good but I do have to be careful not to leave clothes where she can get them in my bedroom because they will get shredded…

 

APART from the kitchen because of the counter-surfing.

I spent a lot of time with the danes teaching them not to counter surf because the way our house is set-up, keeping them out of the kitchen is just too much of a pain, so it was easier to teach them not to counter surf. Plus with two small children who left food everywhere I had to have pretty strict rules. With Penny, I don't even think about it LOL. She will try to get stuff off the coffee table, but I can generally deter her with a verbal reprimand.

we separated downstairs and upstairs to keep him and the cat separate, especially when we were out.

Penny is the first dog I'm not paranoid about the cats being accidentally left inside with the dogs. We did teach all the dogs that the cats were not prey, but I still never trusted them alone and always worried I'd accidentally leave a cat inside when we left the house. Now I purposefully leave the cat and dog home alone together. I have no evidence they interact while we're gone they seem to stick to their respective spaces but if they do, I have no worries about either of them. It's a weird feeling!

 

Free rein all rooms apart from at night when we keep the bedroom door closed, having said that previous dogs have slept in our room. When puppies then kept in the kitchen diner until house trained then prevented from going upstairs until older
During the day Isla tends to stay with me downstairs, but if she hears Mr Siskin go into the upstairs lounge and sit down on the settee then she whizzes up to,join him on there. She only gets on the settee in the lounge, doesn’t get on the downstairs settee or any of the beds, not that she has been told not to, just chooses not to for some reason best known to herself

 

Yes and no. It depends. (lol) Like @Torin. they are allowed in all the rooms but not all unsupervised. Nooka is a good girl and so can go where she likes. In the evenings she prefers to go upstairs and sleep on a bed of her choosing, whereas Fly likes to be in the warmth and company of the front room with us on the sofa despite having options. He's generally good unless there's food in which case he can be a bit naughty! So no sneaky snacks hidden in the bedroom as he'll find them.
It's a bit different with Bronte as he's at the age (and personality) where he doesn't make the best choices, so his access gets restricted to 'safe' areas. The kitchen is where his crate is and other beds (they all sleep in the kitchen at night) so he is in there a lot. And now he's getting better at not chewing the sofas or cushions he's in the front room at lot more. He is allowed to follow me into other rooms, but I have to be careful he doesn't steal an item of clothing, pillow, shoe etc. We're only now getting consistent calmness in the front room, so other rooms are still a bit exciting for his tiny brain to cope with! He's generally not left alone for any length of time in a room without supervision though, just too many tempting things to chew! (despite the house being strewn with appropriate chews and toys).

 

Not allowed upstairs (apart from to my room at night).
We weren't going to have Tilly restricted but when we got her she weed on the landing each time she went up, even if she'd just been out, climbing stairs is just too exciting. She was drinking buckets so several towels for clean up were required.
Plus the litter trays are up there anyway so makes sense to prevent anything.

She's allowed on the sofas but doesn't often go on and even more rarely would lie down, she just stands or sits there for a bit.
She can't get on my bed and I wouldn't want her to. I didn't want her in my room either but all attempts to have her sleep alone failed.
She has phases of urinary incontinence so I don't think anyone would want her on their bed!

 

Teddy has run of the house. He hasn’t always, when we first got him, I think for the first year, we separated downstairs and upstairs to keep him and the cat separate, especially when we were out. But he can go where he likes, on sofas and beds etc. at night we close our bedroom door so he’s restricted to in here but he can go out if he asks (very rare). We do it because the cat will just walk around the room and around your head and it’s very annoying!! He doesn’t sleep on the bed, has his own bed but he does get on when i snooze the alarm for 10 mins in the morning

 

Pretty much free reign. Although at the moment most of the doors are closed to help keep the house warm. He just isn't allowed in the kitchen unsupervised. Or the spare room, but only because there is lots of stuff in there are the moment and Rufus would love to have a rummage and chew on things!

When he was a pup he was limited to downstairs, but we slowly introduced other rooms. When his access to upstairs was blocked, he would door dash and be desperate to go up there. Now he's allowed up there, he's not so bothered as it's less exciting 😅

He sleeps in bed with us. He generally likes to be wherever we are, and is very cuddly, more so in the winter, so he wouldn't appreciate not being allowed on the sofa or bed 🤣

(He is fast asleep in this photo with the covers over his bottom half. Rufus agrees with Loki. Rufus is people.)

 

Yes my chihuahua has the run of the house, although my brother won't allow her into his room. But I let her in sometimes when he is not here. She gets so excited, like a little kid jumping up and down on a bed. She now bugs me to let her in. I think it's my brother's scent she detects and that's why she likes his room so much.

She's gated at night, I removed the gate couple of times, once she slept through till morning but the next night she came bugging me so the gate is back up, but eventually I want to take it down maybe when the weather is warmer so I won't feel cold if I get up in the middle of the night to lead her back to her bed.

As for the furniture, I don't like her jumping on the sofa without permission, but that's a work in progress.

 

Chi's do seem to suffer with the cold so wondering if she is cold and that's why she wakes up. Do you put a coat on her at night ?

 

I live in a small flat (due to the layout in a converted Victorian terrace it’s effectively a two up, two down) and Gelly’s a good old boy so he has free roam.
When I go out he tends to take himself off upstairs to bed and doesn’t even wake up when I get home until I go to say hi.

 

When I go out he tends to take himself off upstairs to bed and doesn’t even wake up when I get home until I go to say hi.

Aw
When Bates got to be an old man and before Penny was around to alert him, I used to have to go wake him up to let him know I was home. Don't know if it was his hearing going or just sleeping really hard, but he often didn't hear me come home until I would go to him.

my personal opinion is it's unhygenic because of the hair and the fact dogs coats do get oily and grimey, no matter how much they're groomed.

That's the beauty of slick-coated dogs One quick swipe with a towel and grime is gone. No oil either.
Haven't had a furry dog in years, and our last one didn't like getting in the bed anyway.
I wash sheets frequently though. I love fresh sheets!
Funnily I find cats more unhygienic than dogs. Dogs don't walk around in their own toilets. And then when people let their cats on countertops - yuck!

 

Originally Goose had the living room, landing and spare room. Then my partner knocked down the wall separating the living room and kitchen so it’s all open plan, so Goose then had access to the kitchen. She eats A N Y T H I N G so anytime I leave I always have to scan the counters to make sure there’s nothing close to the edge she can grab and eat.

Since we finished off her den, we’ve been closing the door to the spare room also. Next year we want to redo it so it’s a fully functioning spare room, as at the moment it’s a bit of a dumping ground while we refurb the house. So she now has access to living room, kitchen and landing.

Only supervised access to our bedroom, as my partner is an electrician so god knows what she’d find his side of the bed to eat. And I am prone to bringing drinks upstairs to take my tablets and then forgetting to take them down and I know 100% Goose would do something.

Doesn’t have access to the bathroom as the door can swing closed, and I just have the fear she’d walk in, nudge the door and get herself trapped in there and she’s scared of the dark so it would be hectic.

If my partner had it his way she’d only be allowed downstairs and wouldn’t be allowed to sleep in our bed. But ever since I’ve had Goose she’s always slept in bed, so I managed to win him over by saying it’s not fair to suddenly change it and also it’s getting cold so she needs to stay warm 😉

 

And why or why not?
No right or wrong answers, just thought it would be a fun way to talk about our dogs and different ways we do stuff.
Also partially inspired by @Jobeth with her white carpets

So, do your dogs have free access to the house? All rooms? Furniture?

We've done all sorts of combinations over the years. Ideally the dogs are allowed throughout the house mainly so I don't have to worry about making sure doors are closed or gates up. But realistically at times I've had to block parts of the house off. When we had rambunctious youngsters and an oldie, I gated the youngsters away from the oldie when I wasn't home. And of course idiot youngsters are crated or gated off until they can be trusted.

We've always bought pet-friendly furniture. Dogs allowed on sofas and beds. Though I don't particularly like having a dog in the bed with us, when the kids were little the dogs slept in their beds Penny starts on her bed and sneaks in to our bed at some point at night

Right now Penny has full run of the house and furniture except for one bedroom. We do have a couple rooms where the doors stay shut, but that's just because we don't heat or cool them, not necessarily to keep Penny out.
The bedroom is for our cat who I'm very slowly transitioning to an inside cat so his food and litterbox are in there. I have that room gated, Penny could jump the gate, I've seen her jump way higher, but fingers crossed this works so far.

What do you do with your dogs?

Yes pretty much full run of the bungalow. They have to stay in the kitchen for about 30 minutes after a walk this time of year as I don't fancy sitting on a wet sofa....LOL

 

We had a few rules when we had Amber no going in the kitchen when I was cooking and no going on the furniture, but with Dillon all rules were broken. The only rule we that we were firm with was no hanging round the table when we were eating, they had to lie on their bed until we had finished then they could come over and get a small treat.

 

When I first had dogs, they had access to the kitchen only as that was the way family dogs had always been kept. It wasn't until I joined forums I realised other people let dogs on the furniture etc. It was when Jed got ill that Mum let the dogs into the living room, so that I could keep an eye on him, and then they just stayed there.
Ritter has access to downstairs, strictly no access upstairs and definitely not on beds. Those are my Mum's rules but tbh, there's no way I'd want a dog on my bed anyway, my personal opinion is it's unhygenic because of the hair and the fact dogs coats do get oily and grimey, no matter how much they're groomed.
Not allowed on furniture either but that's a bit more of a relaxed rule. It's only when invited really, and not free access.
Ritter is crated when unsupervised as he cannot be trusted, the others werent.

 

Mostly free access. There's a gate at the bottom of the stairs and I sometimes close that - like if we come home wet and I don't want them going on my bed. They tend to be where I am, so when I'm working upstairs (all my weaving stuff is there), they usually come up too, and there's enough dog beds in the weaving room. Apart from winter or really bad weather, the back door is often open, too so they can go in the garden when they feel like it.
They can go on the furniture, but my side of the sofa when wet is off limits (I pile stuff there).

 

When I first became a dog owner, dogs mainly had access to downstairs. Upstairs wasn't strictly out of bounds but with my boys being young, a room full of toys and I didn't want any toy chewed or broken it was easier. When I went for a bath in the evening, our dog came with us and would sit at the side of the bath. It might seem a strange thing to do, but that's what OH mum and dad did with the family dog.
At night dogs slept in the kitchen or crate which was pretty much my rule until Stan came along.

Maisie stays downstairs nearly always, especially now we have cats. Though she does occasionally run upstairs and throws herself on our bed acting like she's been there for ages. We do have the door open with access to the stairs a lot for the cats to come in and out which Maisie ignores the majority of the time. At night Maisie sleeps on the sofa or her chair there really isn't any room for her at all upstairs.

As for minibeasts, well I can never shake off Harley she follows me more than Eevee used to. She sleeps in the bed this time of year. Every night she does her little bark to come under the duvet.
Stan sleeps at the bottom of the bed.
Eevee is usually with my eldest son. Wherever he is she usually is. She's well known in his work place for popping her head up in zoom meetings. Before she attached herself to my son she used to sleep in her own bed on the floor in my bedroom in the summer months and in the winter she would wedge herself between myself and OH in the night sleeping under the covers with her head on the pillow.

The only real room that is pet free is my youngest son's room. The dogs are allowed in by invitation only.
Ivy the cat is allowed in invitation only but Pixie the mentalist cat is not allowed in at all. She's a complete hooligan not helped by her being deaf and leaves a trail of destruction wherever she goes. My son is a collector of various figures which I think she would just knock everything off.

 

Chase pretty much has the run of the house. Though some rooms we always keep the doors closed, like the bathrooms and kitchen. He doesn't bother going upstairs until bedtime when he comes to bed with us (yes it's a squeeze)! He's allowed on furniture (sofa covers are great). While I work from home he is usually curled up in my recliner - which he reluctantly gives up for me in the evening. Lol
He comes in the kitchen when I'm cooking, lies there and supervises. 😉

 

He comes in the kitchen when I'm cooking, lies there and supervises. 😉

Ha ha! The big dog laying on the kitchen floor so you have to step around them, and hopefully spill something for them to clean up
I do miss my big dog clean-up team! When the kids were in high chairs the dogs were so very helpful!