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Crate Training suggestions

Behavioral Issues
  • My wife and I have enjoyed the company of two B's over the last 3 years. They are perfectly crate trained to the point where they sleep in their crates with the doors open all night.

    We've recently adopted a male foster B, and we are overjoyed at the new addtion to the family (the resident male B probably isn't at that point yet, though). However, we've noticed that our new B, a 10-month old, acts quite anxious in the crate. We suspect this stems from having been stuck at a Petland store in a display crate for more than 4 months before being purchased and consecutively owned by two previous families before coming to ours.

    Any good tips on deconditioning the bad experiences of crating for our new B? We've got him going into the crate and sitting for a treat, but closing the door seems to make him frantic. We've left him in there for a few nights, but his constant anxious behavior has trained us to let him sleep with us. It's gotta end so when we travel, he'll be ready to sleep in a crate at night at the dogsitter's place.

    TIA

  • Check out our post on Miles: A Rescue – you might something useful. ;)

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    Sorry, I forgot you asked for advice to reduce the incidents. I can only say watch when they're playing and stop the play when it starts getting 'over the top'. When that happens with mine I don't physically intervene but say 'Stop' in a firm voice. I then give them each some calming massage.
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    @luvsmy2bs: Have things gotten any better? Just curios,,,,,,I was reading your post and felt really sorry for you. Currently I have turned my dd's bedroom – thankfully she's away at college -- into a kennel. There is a 6 x 4' ex-pen w/top taking up the entire floor space of her room. Both Jazzy's and Keoki's crates are in there. At night he sleeps okay in that ONLY as long as BOTH crates remain open into the pen. If I close either crate, he flips out. During the day when we have to go out, as yesterday and today, I have to remove all "real" bedding and leave just paper toweling. Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving a small piece of carpet UNDER Jazzy's crate, and when we got home it had been pulled out and torn to shreds. It is obvious that he still wigs out, even in the large pen w/Jazz as today I noticed that the front of his crate {above the door, which was open} has been all chewed up, even though he was not shut in. Still working with the behaviorist; she and the vet are thinking long-term meds may be in order. That is still being discussed. He's going to hurt himself one day if we don't get a handle on this...and eventually dd is going to be home from college; then what? We can't travel with him like this either.