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Old June 15th, 2013, 02:35 PM
it'spuppylove it'spuppylove is offline
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Exclamation New dog hates being crated

Good afternoon dog lovers,

So our family has finally adopted a lovely dog (and we've just passed our 2 week trial period ) unfortunately, she HATES being crated!

She's 10 years old and her previous owners never crated her but our family doesn't want her to roam free in the house because we believe it's better to crate her.

So here's the story:

When we first got her, we crated her on our main floor at night and let her out during the day (since there's always someone home) but she would constantly bark and whine and then when we went to get her out in the morning her cage mat would be covered in blood (but there were no cuts on her). We then decided that we'd let her sleep in her crate but move her up into our bedroom and she's been perfectly fine!

Until we put her in her cage this afternoon (for about 3 hours) and we came back and not only was her cage mat covered in blood but her paws were all cut up and her nails were worn down to the quick.

It seems like she has separation anxiety so now we're looking for some solutions to help her so she doesn't get hurt. I've come across the thundershirt that claims to help reduce anxiety but I've read mixed reviews about the success of this product.

Now here's the question I have:

Does anyone have any ideas how to help reduce her stress or any relevant stories that could help her?

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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  #2  
Old June 15th, 2013, 02:53 PM
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Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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How have you introduced the crate to her? Putting her into the crate for 3 hours and expecting her to like it isn't going to get the best results

I'd suggest crating her while you are at home and use the crate as a positive thing. Feed her in the crate. Give only the super best treats in her crate (like a frozen stuffed Kong). Do 15 minutes at a time.

For a 10 year old dog who has NEVER been crated before, you have your work cut out for you.

Why do you think it's best to crate? Is she destructive at home? If you can't crate, can you keep her in a bedroom with a door shut, or something?
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Old June 15th, 2013, 03:47 PM
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Dog Dancer Dog Dancer is offline
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Sorry you're having these problems but thank you for adopting a senior. Honestly if she's 10 and has never been crated she probably doesn't need it. What we think, is not always what is best. Could you not give her a bed to sleep on in your room at night. My two older dogs just took to their beds at bedtime and never moved. My last dog has seperation anxiety and was also diagnosed as claustrophobic so couldn't be crated. Perhaps your new dog is claustrophobic hence the trouble with the crate.

Give her a chance to prove herself trustworthy at night unless you have been told something that you didn't share with us. The poor girl is no doubt traumatized by being rehomed at that age anyhow - you are adding one more very hard challenge to her life. She will reward your trust and love if you give her the chance.

Do you know why her previous family decided to bail on their commitment to this senior? I could never part with my old girl (or the young ones to be honest), they deserve so much more than to be dumped in their old age.
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Old June 15th, 2013, 05:33 PM
it'spuppylove it'spuppylove is offline
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Thank you both for your ideas, it is much appreciated!

We don't want her running loose in the house because we were told in all the dog training books that it's better to crate your dog and because of this we wanted her to be crated.

We don't know if she's destructive left alone in the house to roam but we also don't want her to have problems in her crate.

The foster mom had told us that she had crated her at night for the 2 weeks she had her so we thought she would be okay being left alone for a couple hours during the day...

And as for giving her a treat in the cage to make it an exciting thing to go into it... the previous owner gave her too much table scraps (which we are NOT doing) and she's a couple pounds over weight with food allergies to meat so it's not a good idea to give her treats if we're trying to get her to lose weight (which is unfortunate because it might help the training)

PS. her previous family was an elderly couple where the wife passed away and the husband got a girlfriend (who had 2 dogs of her own) after the wife passed and the girlfriend told him that she wouldn't be with him unless the dog was gone. BUT I completely agree with you that dogs don't deserve to be dumped once they get older
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Old June 15th, 2013, 06:00 PM
Jull Jull is offline
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One of our dogs hates being in a crate, but he is a very good dog and can be left alone in the house with n problems, he has never chewed on a single thing. If she is already 10 and not used to it may be hard to get her used to it, so you will have to do it slowly, you can try treats that are healthy, and wont affect her weight. Also if you give her bones or something to chew on that could help.

Personally I wouldnt crate her if she is this upset about it and if she is not destructive. But that is me. Have you tried flower essences for her anxiety? Having moved its also tough on them and flower essences can help with that too, the rescue remedy could help. You could also try a diffuser with essential oil of lavender or chamomile, they are both great to help relax.
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  #6  
Old June 15th, 2013, 06:00 PM
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Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by it'spuppylove View Post
And as for giving her a treat in the cage to make it an exciting thing to go into it... the previous owner gave her too much table scraps (which we are NOT doing) and she's a couple pounds over weight with food allergies to meat so it's not a good idea to give her treats if we're trying to get her to lose weight (which is unfortunate because it might help the training)(
You could feed her kibble or whichever food you are feeding to her as a treat in that crate then?

Honestly, I would be surprised if there was any destruction at this point.. why not try without a crate for short lengths of time? You may find the crate completely unnecessary.
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  #7  
Old June 16th, 2013, 10:53 AM
it'spuppylove it'spuppylove is offline
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We've decided that we'll try leaving her in one room in the house (without the crate) for a short period of time and see if there's any problems leaving her out.

I shall post an update with how it goes leaving her out!
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Old June 16th, 2013, 12:39 PM
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Dog Dancer Dog Dancer is offline
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If you decide to leave her in a room make sure it is fairly puppy proofed, and you can always leave the crate in the room with the door off. She may like sleeping in it. The foster probably crated because they have their own pets and it's easier to separate them.

Sorry I have nothing nice to say about the fellow who's wife died and he ditched her dog for another ...... I'll leave it unsaid. I don't like her either. If my hubby told me to choose I'd pack his bags!!

I think your girl will do fine so long as she has some toys to keep herself busy. Try stuffing a kong with some low fat peanutbutter and freezing it and then giving it to her as a treat when you go out. Make sure you walk her before you go out. A tired dog is a good dog. And just try her for a few short times first before leaving her full on by herself.
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Old June 16th, 2013, 12:40 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by it'spuppylove View Post
We've decided that we'll try leaving her in one room in the house (without the crate) for a short period of time and see if there's any problems leaving her out.

I shall post an update with how it goes leaving her out!
If she has a habit of chewing in things it would be a good idea to unplug all the cords. When I brought my dog home he chewed on cord and I am so glad
the fan was not plugged in.
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  #10  
Old June 16th, 2013, 04:48 PM
it'spuppylove it'spuppylove is offline
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So as promised here's the update on my little Lilo (who's a 10.5 year old, 18 lbs lhasapoo btw):

We decided to leave her in our kitchen (which was fully doggy proofed) and gave her a Kong with treats in it (and we gave her a long walk before leaving so she'd be tired). We also made sure to leave so there was no big show about leaving and how much we'll miss her just walked out and shut the door behind us.

Now before I continue, you must understand that our kitchen has 3 entrances to it. One door is able to be closed and locked, the other door is one that you push to close but can't lock and the one entrance has no door on it.
So we shut both doors (and put a heavy book holder behind the door that doesn't lock, think of a box that has about 15 hard cover encyclopedia's in it). We also put a locking baby gate with 2 chairs and cardboard behind the door way with no door(incase it fell over).

So we come back after about 30-60 mins time and come home to what appeared to be a clean and blood free kitchen... only when we started investigating did we notice that she had pushed the door with the book holder and then ran into the next room (which had closed the door to). Now that would have been okay but..... then we noticed that she had chewed the door to the next room at the bottom and scratched it to pieces. Then we went back to the first door (the one with the book holder behind it) and noticed she had chewed and scratched at the door on both the front and the back!

Even though we only got her about 2 and half weeks ago we've already fallen in love with her and it breaks our hearts to think we might have to give her back to the rescue we got her from to find a family that will be home ALL day but... we're running out of options. We're a family where there's someone home most of the day except for about 3-4 hours at most when we need to run errands or something.

That being said, If ANYONE has ANY more advice or tips I'd LOVE to hear it!

P.S. Now that Lilo has ruined our lovely doors she's peacefully sleeping at my feet (hard to be mad at her when she's so cute and sad looking).
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Old June 30th, 2013, 09:03 PM
Mowglipup Mowglipup is offline
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Have you tried going out for mini periods and coming back before she can do anything destructive?

It could be that she is not used to being alone and has to learn to understand that you are coming back.

And yes, you're right to not make a big deal about coming and going.

I have a 12 week old puppy and he has pretty bad separation anxiety (and HATES the crate). So I have been leaving him for 10 mins at a time, coming back, ignoring him for a while and then once he's calmed down going to greet him.

With the crate I have completely given up on locking him in it - it is now just his bed with the door open.

However, if you can get her to sit peacefully locked in the crate with you in there that's good.

And if you wont give her treats then training her will be very challenging - if she is on a diet you could give her some of her meal normally and the rest as treats. The hungrier she is the more impressionable she'll be!

You're one of the wonderful rare people that will take an older rescue dog - not many people like to take them on!
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  #12  
Old June 30th, 2013, 11:24 PM
glee070 glee070 is offline
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Crating dog

Do you really expect a 10 year old dog that's never been crated to adapt to that kind of treatment? If you must, try crating her with the cage door open or put up gates so she can roam in a particular area. Why do you feel it's better to crate her?butherck Try
Quote:
Originally Posted by it'spuppylove View Post
Good afternoon dog lovers,

So our family has finally adopted a lovely dog (and we've just passed our 2 week trial period ) unfortunately, she HATES being crated!

She's 10 years old and her previous owners never crated her but our family doesn't want her to roam free in the house because we believe it's better to crate her.

So here's the story:

When we first got her, we crated her on our main floor at night and let her out during the day (since there's always someone home) but she would constantly bark and whine and then when we went to get her out in the morning her cage mat would be covered in blood (but there were no cuts on her). We then decided that we'd let her sleep in her crate but move her up into our bedroom and she's been perfectly fine!

Until we put her in her cage this afternoon (for about 3 hours) and we came back and not only was her cage mat covered in blood but her paws were all cut up and her nails were worn down to the quick.

It seems like she has separation anxiety so now we're looking for some solutions to help her so she doesn't get hurt. I've come across the thundershirt that claims to help reduce anxiety but I've read mixed reviews about the success of this product.

Now here's the question I have:

Does anyone have any ideas how to help reduce her stress or any relevant stories that could help her?

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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  #13  
Old July 1st, 2013, 07:13 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Quote:
We don't want her running loose in the house because we were told in all the dog training books that it's better to crate your dog and because of this we wanted her to be crated.
Please explain WHY it's better. Hopefully all those books you read gave reasons. Blindly following advice you don't understand is scary.

That said, people have had dogs for years and not crated them. None of my dogs has been crated. However, I do not have destruction problems. Now destruction that wrecks your house and imperils your dog's life (electric shock, poison, obstruction) are good reasons to confine the dog when you are not home. Still, you don't have to crate her. Mine were penned or gated in the kitchen. We built sturdy gates on the two kitchen doors.

Please read the threads here on crate training if you must. Start slowly; crate, pen or gated room, you must start slowly. Don't put the dog in and leave her for hours cold turkey. Many people find a puppy does better at night crated in the bedroom with them, good on you for trying that. Also read the threads on separation anxiety. Poor old girl, she knows what it is to be abandoned or you wouldn't have her. Two weeks is a very short time. It may take her a year to settle in and trust that you are coming back for her.

Did you get her from a shelter? They should have told you what to expect and they should be offering help to make her transition to your house easier for your family and her. Good luck and thank you for taking her in. I'm afraid it's going to be more work than you anticipated but I hope this poor old girl is not abandoned again.
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Old July 8th, 2013, 07:59 AM
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Marty11 Marty11 is offline
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I have crate trained every single puppy I've ever had! Having said that, once they are potty trained and not destructive anymore, I pretty well give up the crate all together. It's just a way to have time away and know they are safe. I would not bother on a 10 yr old dog. Sounds like your having separation issues. That's a different problem altogether. A dog that panics when your not home. I bet your pooch is afraid of thunderstorms?
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Old September 26th, 2013, 04:21 PM
echowolf echowolf is offline
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crateing

I have always crated any of my dogs until this one. Kona is a 8 week old border collie.......and she hates the crate,howls,chews scrathes//aftraid shes going to hurt her self.........lucky for me she is very good about asking to go outside to potty,and she sleeps in the bedroom with us .........sleeps all night and never makes a fuss.so no crate traing here
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