@debradownsouth your post rings true and though I hate that this has to be the solution- unfortunately if I lock her in any sort of room she instantly scratches frantically at the carpet, ripping it from the tacks in 5-10 minutes. I’d love to give her free roam of my place- as I did my last place- but she’s not comfortable enough yet and will destroy the carpet and maybe the couch as well.
She is odd in the way she acts. She has plenty ability to get away from the kids and loud noises but does not move away from them. She will just give a short protest growl as they walk by.
Giving her treats in the crate doesn’t work. She’s still to frantic to even think about them while in there. She goes nicely into the crate and doesn’t have to be forced, but has now taken a step backwards since she got out the one time.
We go to the dog park frenquently and she gets long walks everyday as we live in a town that’s easily walk-able. I even have the 6 year old wall her.
The Prozac, thus far, has helped her to not be so frantic during the day when the kids are under toe.
Basenjis are hard (as we all know) and this is not my first by far.
Suddenly Destroying Crate
-
it seems like Saavik has developed some separation anxiety with her crate… She has been fine up until this point and accustomed to her routine during the week. We have only had her about a month but everything was going smoothly til Thursday Zack was home with her most of the day, and he put her in the crate around 2:30PM. Normally she wines for 10 minutes and settles down.. I got home at 5:30 and she had pushed her tray out of the crate and destroyed her blanket. The vet said she may have some mild anxiety and gave me an all natural med in the form of a chicken liver dog treat..No issues on friday... Saturday gave her the dog treat which she was on day 3 of at that point... put her in the crate and went to the gym for literally 1 hour returned and found she had started chewing the plastic tray!!! Sunday same thing gone to gym for one hour and she had destroyed the plastic tray... she was put back in the crate a few hours later while we left for some errands...when we came back she was fine no chewing of her new blanket etc... We are going to invest in a metal crate tray and hope that will stop the destruction... She is perfect when out of the crate with the exception of being one nosy basenji!!! she sleeps in the bed with us all night... So I don't think she is getting too much crate time
-
What besides the blanket/tray is in the crate for her to chew on/play with? And before putting her in the crate, do you play with her to tire her out? And have you tried a kong filled with goodies to keep her busy?
-
She has a Kong and a chewy squeaker in there with her… Most of the time she has is tired out by the time we put her in there... It's weird b/c all of the times we've had incidents she had plenty of play time before the crate... our weekly morning routine is that i feed her and take her our before work and she gets back in bed with zack and sleeps another hour or so before he goes to work... She never chews anything during this type of routine... Seems to be happening on weekends on days off from work.
