• Alex and I can't figure this one out.
    Chance hates his crate period. We have tried to make it a happy place filled with treats and stuff to entertain him while we are away but he just knows when we are about to leave and he will go to the corner of the room and cowel. His hawk will go up and he gives you this look like "please don't do this to me"
    He goes outside before he goes in the crate to do his business which he does but when we return home he will have pee'd in the crate. We know he can hold it but he chooses not to while we are away. He used to pee all over the blankets and we would have to clean em daily. Now he has gotten smart…he now lifts his leg and pee's outside of his crate!
    Can you believe this!!!! Thank god we put a tarp under his crate because now I find pee up against the wall or in a puddle outside the crate.
    Why does he do this and what do I do to make it stop! Were not letting him loose in the house while we are away. There is too much risk of him getting hurt or into something.


  • Some dogs just cannot handle a crate. Sugar will happily go into her crate to eat, but that's about it. And this is after two years. If you lock her in the crate she will poop from the stress and throw herself all over the place. You could try the boy pants, but he will probably chew them off. I swear sometimes they just do it out of spite, but I do know Sugar gets super-stressed by the crate.


  • @nomrbddgs:

    Some dogs just cannot handle a crate. Sugar will happily go into her crate to eat, but that's about it. And this is after two years. If you lock her in the crate she will poop from the stress and throw herself all over the place. You could try the boy pants, but he will probably chew them off. I swear sometimes they just do it out of spite, but I do know Sugar gets super-stressed by the crate.

    So what do you do with Sugar when you are away?


  • I would have to say try to borrow a friends plastic kennel that is larger. Medjai works well in those because he has room for toys and his bowls aside from his bed for him to sleep: also, your B would have a lot more trouble peeing outside of the kennel.


  • @etzbseder:

    I would have to say try to borrow a friends plastic kennel that is larger. Medjai works well in those because he has room for toys and his bowls aside from his bed for him to sleep: also, your B would have a lot more trouble peeing outside of the kennel.

    The crate that he stays in while we are away is large. It can hold 2 B's. When we had him in a smaller crate he would flip out and panic


  • If I'm at home I can leave her out with my boy Shadow and older heeler Calli. They generally won't do anything. Although, I'm lucky, if I travel with her what I will do is put her in the crate for about 5-10 min and then take her out to potty and put her back in. She will generally calm down if she is in the car or in a hotel room with other crated basenji's. Other than that, I have to clean the crate-trust me I've had poop in my hair more than once!!


  • Nicky used to pee outside his wire crate. We had to switch him back to a large plastic Vari-kennel. He would not pee or poop in his crate unless violently ill. He has always been a very clean dog. He would try to dig to China in his crate and about the only time he really doesn't mind his crate is when we are in the car. He has learned that being in his crate in the car means he gets to go somewhere fun like lure coursing. Nicky improved a lot in the crate when we got Rally and he could see her in the crate next to him. At 10 years old Nicky is rarely crated but he does better now than he did. I am looking forward to giving "Crate Games" a try and will let you know how it goes.


  • @lvoss:

    Nicky used to pee outside his wire crate. We had to switch him back to a large plastic Vari-kennel. He would not pee or poop in his crate unless violently ill. He has always been a very clean dog. He would try to dig to China in his crate and about the only time he really doesn't mind his crate is when we are in the car. He has learned that being in his crate in the car means he gets to go somewhere fun like lure coursing. Nicky improved a lot in the crate when we got Rally and he could see her in the crate next to him. At 10 years old Nicky is rarely crated but he does better now than he did. I am looking forward to giving "Crate Games" a try and will let you know how it goes.

    Lisa, can you give a little synopsis of "crate Games" after you finish it, so we can all hear if you thought it was useful. Thanks 🙂


  • Cory eats meals in a crate, has snacks in her crate, and sleeps in her crate…no problem. In fact at bedtime she runs to her crate and waits to be "tucked in" and when her food comes out, she runs to her crate to be fed. However - she can't tolerate us going off and leaving her alone in her crate. She will tear up whatever bedding is in there and, if she can work up any pee or poop, she'll do that in her crate while we're gone also. Once she bruised a foot while crated and limped so badly that we had to have her checked by the Vet. Her sleeping crate is in our bedroom so she does know we're there. With Cory, the problem doesn't seem to be the crate; it seems to be the issue of us leaving. And since it does seem to be an issue of us leaving, we aren't willing to go off and leave her uncrated because we fear what she may do in our absence. Now in our case, we actually found that she seems to do a little better in a smaller crate. I have been trying an experiment of putting her in her crate a couple times a day while I do things around the house. I'm hoping that maybe she'll get so used to me disappearing from the room periodically and figuring out that I always reappear.

    We are also going up to Atlanta this weekend to see Robyn and to meet two of her older male puppies. (Cory's cousins??) The object of this experiment is to see if Cory will accept another dog in the house. We aren't sure how this will work out because Cory was pretty adament about wanting to be an only child when she lived with Robyn before we adopted her. But I think it was mostly the females that she fought with….and they were all getting ready to go into season when we picked her up. We are hoping that if we can get her a little boy playmate, maybe some of her separation and crating issues will go away. We are really keeping our fingers crossed that by this time next week we'll have 2 basenjis and maybe Cory will be a little less anxious when we leave her in her crate.

    Pat


  • I know Sugar is okay with Shadow. (her uncle) Both are Robyn's breeding. She does do better with a male. I do have a younger female and they did fight terribly when they were nearing their season, when they were in season, and about a month after season. They are back playing together again.


  • We had similar issues with Miles- he would pee as soon as he got in his crate when we first rescued him. We had to really train him with positive reinforcement to get into it even. Now he'll run to get in, but he still gives his minute long howl. No more puddles though!! Read Miles: A Rescue.


  • When We Lock Trixie Up In Her Cage Every Day When We Let Her Out She Goes Outside Does Her Business And Immediately Comes Inside And Takes Everything (blankets, Toys Etc.) Out And Try's To Take It All The Way Outside. I Think She Thinks If She Takes Everything Out We Won't Put Her Back In It. And If You Forget To Let Her Do That She Will Scratch At Our Bedroom Door Until You Let Her In. Funny!!!!


  • One thing you might try that others have found successful is to get the exercise pens for a corner of the room (near windows maybe). Then the dog has room to move around and it won't seem so confining.
    When I got EL D he was adamant about never going near the crate (the previous owner had serious problems with him and he tore up two crates). So I simply confined him to the dining room (closed doors and put up barricades) and made sure there wasn't anything that he could destroy that I cherished. I also made sure he had tons of toys and gave him a treat filled kongs to help fill the time. It didn't take long before EL D soon had the run of the house and I've never had any problems since with him being destructive.

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