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crate training

arasara

Well-known member
Do any of you think that a snuggle puppy will help with crate anxiety? Kosmo always FREAKS when I leave him in his crate but I have no choice when I am gone in the day. I moved it to the kitchen because there's more traffic there, and I put his food and water in there as well so he can be familiar with it. It has improved a lot since I've done that, but he still hates it when I leave. When he hears me say "Kosmo, kennel up!" he runs away from me. Now he "OCCASIONALLY" goes in there on his own (when the nieces and nephews are over and chasing him, :lol: ) but not too often. I have stepped outside with him in there before and I do notice him calming down after about 5-10 minutes. We live in a new development and the builder came into our house for repairs during the day and said he was "quiet as a mouse." :yikes I have hoped that this would subside by now because he's been using it for a while. Should I try a snuggle puppy or will I probably come home to find it in pieces? That probably won't fix the problem, but at least he can have a friend when I leave. Or maybe I should make a big section in the basement for him? Thanks in advance ;)
 
Can I ask why you need to crate him? I have never crated any of mine and have never had a problem with them. I have left them in the kitchen with a bed and plenty of toys when they were small but I just don't like the idea of leaving them in a crate (or a cage) especially if I was going to work :(
 
Hi Maxxs_Mummy,

I feel that I need to crate Kosmo, because he's a tazmanian devil. He will eat, chew, and find everything in the house that he's not supposed to have. We also have wood floors in our house and if he wees on them when I am gone and it sits there until I get home then it could ruin the floor. I bought a crate that was too big for him and surprisingly enough it didn't really have any potty training implicatons on him. I've thought about sectioning off the kitchen but with my luck he will end up chewing the cabinets or something. He's just a handful, especially at this stage in his life. Avi keeps telling me to leave him go but I'm scared he'd find something that I overlooked when I was gone. Here he is in his crate:

b43823596.jpg


It's not too small, but it's not huge either. Thanks for the reply :)
 
I still crate all of our kids. Rudy (the Bulldog) goes to his bed as soon as he sees me pick up my keys - even if John is still home. (he is NOT the sharpest knife in the drawer!) The girls love their crate and race to get in as soon as I say "get in your bed". They often cuddle up in it during the day and take naps together. I used to think crates were awful but have found that with the girls, it keeps them safe and out of trouble while we are away. I think alot also depends on the dog and how they respond to being "caged". Our rescue girl, LooCee, an Akita/Shepard HATED it. I think she housebroke herself in record time so she wouldn't have to sleep in it. :lol: She would try to hide from us - silly thing would put her head under the bed with everything else showing. I guess if she couldn't see us, we couldn't see her. Bottom line, you just have to go with what works in your household. No right answer, no wrong one.

JaneB
 
I think crate training is important Sara as if or when they need it for health reasons it is good to have them use to it so it is not traumatizing on top of being ill or hurt. Make it a special place. I keep toys in the crates, blanket for laying on. Sounds like he just hates the separation piece from you not the crate. I think most dogs go through this when we go out the door. I give mine each a biscuit before I leave. Don't know if that is right or wrong but it works for me cuz they are excited to crate and get their treat.
 
Everytime I go into the bedroom Jack and TedBear rush into the crate in the hopes of their bedtime treat :lol:

We also have a crate in the kitchen, Rupert "insisted" it was left up after Jack's operation, they often go in there during the day.

Maybe give Cosmo his meals in the crate so he associates it with nice things - and put him in with a treat a few minutes BEFORE you leave, so that there isn't an association with you going.
 
LMAO Nicki! I can just imagine Rupert throwing a huffy fit as you were taking the crate down! They seem to have this knack of getting what they want don't they?

Maxx goes in a crate at the groomers if I am running late to collect him and he's also been in one at the Vets on occasion. He doesn't mind it but I just couldn't imagine leaving either of them in a crate and going to work.

Arasara, we have wooden floors too. The only carpet we have is on the stairs! I wasn't criticising you I was only asking why you felt you needed to crate him.

Charlie has damaged our wooden flooring in the lounge by peeing on it but tbh we've just accepted it as part and parcel of having dogs. The dogs were one reason we had wooden floors and leather suite - no way was I going to stop them from jumping on the sofa :lol:

The one stupid thing I did was to buy white bedding - it's usually decorated with paw prints and fur blobs :roll: Hubby always says to them "That'll teach Mummy to buy silly white bedding instead of dirty doggy paw colour bedding, won't it?" :lol:
 
Maxxs_Mummy said:
Charlie has damaged our wooden flooring in the lounge by peeing on it but tbh we've just accepted it as part and parcel of having dogs. The dogs were one reason we had wooden floors and leather suite - no way was I going to stop them from jumping on the sofa :lol:

The one stupid thing I did was to buy white bedding - it's usually decorated with paw prints and fur blobs :roll: Hubby always says to them "That'll teach Mummy to buy silly white bedding instead of dirty doggy paw colour bedding, won't it?" :lol:

Isn't that the truth....when I go shopping for a quilt I look for what will look good with paw prints and hair or what will you see it on the least. But then again it is their house too and they do not get upset with me if my hair is on the quilt :lol: :lol:
 
An X-pen might be an option that makes him happier. If he's chewing a lot, etc, that suggests he is bored (and also teething at his age) -- have you looked into freezing some kongs and leaving one for him? I presume he gets out at some point midday or so for a wee, and at that point a second frozen kong could be left in for him (subtract that food from his overall daily total of course).

How about leaving a radio on for him, or a television, if you don't do that now?

Personally I hate crating dogs for long stretches -- eg anything more than a couple of hours, when there's no other option -- but at the same time feel it is important to crate train, as this makes transport and so on so much easier. Yes I know a crate is seen as a den and all that, but a dog woud not by choice spend hours sitting inside a den or even in a dog bed, so I don't like keeping a dog in a small space for long stretches. Mine stay in an upstairs room, sometimes my bedroom; I've never had any problems, not even when they were young. I just keep what I don't want chewed away from the dogs (always a good plan! :lol:). Some dogs are crated 8 hours while their owners are at work then crated 8 hours at night while sleeping meaning the dog spends nearly two thirds of its entire life in a space only large enough to stand up and turn around, and I have real difficulty with believeing there's much quality of life in such a situation. We would find that shocking, if a zoo animal was confined it this way for so many hours -- even for an 8-hour stretch -- so I really cannot see why dogs are seen as a different class of animal. If at all possible I think it is better for them to have at least the increased space of an x-pen, if not a room (even a utility room or somewhere small).

Have you actually crate trained him, or did you start by leaving him in the crate? Crate training takes time and some work, to always have good associations with the crate and to contrinually reinforce those. If he was suddenly left in for long stretches without being trained in to using his crate, then he likely has no good associations with it -- only that you leave, and he's left in a crate.

There's a lot on the web on 'crate training' if you google it. I'd certainly work to improve his associations with the crate by using some of those techniques, as that should help. There are many things you can do along those lines.

I'd be very reluctant to leave any toy that can be torn apart by a chewing dog in a crate, unsupervised. Mine like to destuff soft toys so they are not allowed to have them at all except when I can keep an eye on them. For the same reasons I'd not leave things like socks or anything that could be torn up and swallowed. Appropriate toys would be kongs, nylabones etc.
 
JaneB,

LOL @ your bulldog. My neighbors have a bulldog and they said they were going to drop it off at some kind of training camp for a week but the administrators said "not to be rude, but you're going to be wasting your time." LOL He said beyond sit, stay, and lay, there wasn't too much else you can teach a bulldog. I don't know how true that is but it cracks me up to think about it. That's cute that your girls go inside the crate during the day to take a nap. Maybe the reason Kosmo doesn't do it during the day is because when I am home, he's with me. He's MAJORLY spoiled so he gets to cuddle up next to me and lay on me on the couch whenever he wants to.

Mary,

I give Kosmo a charlee bear when I leave too, but he recently started barking with the treat in his mouth! I was kind of afraid he would choke on it. I also don't know how good it is, but you're not the only one! I actually goat him in there with them sometimes.

Nicki,

Ok I must say - you're dog is absolutely gorgeous! I'm in love with the ringlets, they melt my heart. :) Now that you mention it, the vet actually had said something at one point in time about me throwing him in there a few minutes before I leave. I should do that again. I hate it though because from the time I throw him in until the time I'm actually out the door, he drives me nuts!

Maxxs_Mummy,

I didn't think you were criticizing me and I can completely see your side as to why you let the dogs have the kitchen. I am going to let Kos roam freely.. just someday, lol. Right now he's in the terrible puppy phases and I have to keep an eye on him at ALL times. Believe it or not the other day he actually went into the bathroom, hopped up to the toilet paper roll holder, grabbed onto the toilet paper, and DRUG it through the house! I was upstairs drying my hair. By the time I got back down half of the roll was in pieces all over my floor! :sl*p: I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw the mess - it was my fault he did it because I left him unsupervised. When he's finished teething I will rope off the foyer, and then for his first bday present I'll test him to see if he'll be ok throughout the whole house in the day. :) We also have leather couches with a polyurethane coating "just in case." Kos has gone on the floor a few times, but I am pretty quick to get it right away because like I said before, he lives most of his life in supervision. LOL @ the bedding color. You know I have actually noticed little tiny particles of DIRT in my bedding from Kosmo's paws from when I take him out and it's wet outside right before bed time. We have paws all over our cream sheets too, but I can't sleep without my cuddle bum!

Karlin -

Hey, that's a good idea - freezing kongs. Nobody has ever suggested anything like that to me before. The best suggestion I got was to dip his rope toy in a tub of water with a bullion cube dissolved in it. I did it once - but it ended up melting and making a mess. It was fun for a few minutes though.

I have a spongebob squarepants shower radio somewhere in the basement. Maybe I'll find it again and turn it on for Kosmo. I guess I can see where that might keep him a little more calm while I am gone. I've never heard of such a thing though. :) Good times for Kosmo are comin!

Kosmo is crated for an extended period of time right now, but that will decrese in September when I start University. My longest class day will be 5 hours so I will have lots more time here. The time I am gone is also one of my main resons for another dog though. As I mentioned up there I am waiting for him to finish teething completely (he's loosing his canines now!) and then I am going to get a gate to fence off our foyer in the front of the house. The crate will fit in there and it's all tiles so it's ok if there are accidents. I will leave him free to roam when he grows up and matures more. Right now he'd end up committing suicide if I left him in the house alone. Earlier today he was chewing the carpet on the stairs! Can you believe it? The carpet! :roll: I am gone for 8 hours during the day which is the precise reason that I refuse to crate Kosmo during the night. He stayed in his crate for 2 nights when we got him and then I decided to let him sleep in the bed. It was hard on me physically because I got up every 2 hours to let him out in the beginning, but I am young so my body can take it, lol. ;)

To be honest with you I didn't have the time to properly crate train him, as I had no choice but to crate him during the day when I was gone, so he probably knows he goes there and then I am gone "forever." I have been trying to work with him on building up a tolerence to the crate though for the last 2 weeks because I just feel awful for him. Tonight he actually went in there to take a nap while I was doing the dishes. ;) As long as he can physically SEE me, he seems to do a lot better. He's always been like that.

It's good to point out not to leave things in the crate while I am gone. I only leave Kosmo with his kong and a few nylabones, like you suggested. Some nylabones are very soft though I have found so I even limit those. I am extremely fussy with his toys. If I told you how many times I've had to stick my finger in his mouth and down his throat to retrieve things that he thinks he should have you'de probably be amazed. The only stuffed toy he has now is made of nylon and is deemed "indestructable," lol. I've had good luck with it so far, but he only gets that when I can watch him too.


Thanks guys for all of your ideas - I will definately try them and hopefully we can work through these issues. I just feel bad for the little booger. ;) hehe
 
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