6 mo with anxiety

[briantrahansr]

Kerah is the perfect girl when we are home. When we go to work it flips a switch. She becoms a playful destructive beast. We are trying to crate train her, but in the past she would get so anxious in the crate she would potty in it and then when we approach the crate she would be very excited and the mess would be flung all over everything and us. Any suggestions?

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[Yamizuma]

I hope some of the truly awesome and more experienced members here will weigh in for you. I've had an easy time crate training mine, so I don't really know what might have gone sideways for you.

The crate needs to be the right size...not to big, not too small.

I started with lots of treats, in for a very short time, door stayed open -treat, praise a lot...made it fun, fun fun...possibly the best place on earth to go...for very short periods, gradually building up time, gradually closing the door for shorter, then longer, then longer times...lots of praise and high reward treats.

Tali was much younger, though. She started at 8 weeks, and had a blanket from her momma and the litter. Irrelevant to you, so not helpful.

Covering it with a blanket helped too.

I'm sure others can help you further. Maybe your pup needs you to make it fun and take extra time and patience?


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[glen]

Id try putting the crate in a room that you use a lot put a bed in there and leave the door open,put a treat in there and let her go in on her own when she sees its not a bad place she should start to use the crate,try not to rush things praise her and eventually she should settle and be comfortable with the crate,then you can start to close the door,do it for short periods at first then let her out she will see its not a bad place.

 

[Dreadz]

There's a few things that may help.
Exercise. Make sure she's had a good walk before you have to leave her, generally speaking a tired dog is a happy dog.
Encourage use of the crate even when you are there, reward her every time she goes in the crate, give her any special chews she may get in there, do everything you can to create a positive association with the crate and covering the crate may help to make her feel more secure in there. Start for small periods and increase duration gradually.
If those two things don't help it may be worth considering some natural supplements, passion flower extract helped with my presa but there are others you can try, a Google search should throw up a fairly extensive list.
Good luck

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[DDSK]

Just a thought maybe she needs a playmate.
My girl Zoey does ok by herself but Abby Ned's company.

 

[Marky]

Herbie was about nine months when I crated him, after a couple of bad experiences when he was young. As others have said, little by little, putting him in there with the door open, treats and walking him so he was really tired were all essential.

The other thing that seemed to work for me was changing the crate type. The old one was a transport crate, plastic sides and top with just a wire door. The new one, which he much prefers, is a fully wire crate. Might be worth considering, if you haven't already.

 

[season]

Keep working on the crate. Work work and more work. Don't feed into the excitement. If u are giving attention when excited you are simply reinforcing the behavior.


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[briantrahansr]

Thanks for all the suggestions

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[briantrahansr]

We've finally gained ground. She has gone several days without pottying in her crate , it was a long hard road but finally it's easier.

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[briantrahansr]

So proud.

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[Vinny]

That's great!!! What a good girl. When Gemma was a puppy she destroyed 4 crates. Two of them the indestructible kong type. She would push down the metal pan flatten it out then bend the door up and squeeze through the space she created. We would come home and she would just be sitting there nothing else destroyed. We then started to secure any thing that looked like an escape route with industrial strength zip ties. This resulted in her smashing the crate with such force she popped the welds off of the support posts then bent everything and climbed out. This scared me because I didn't want her getting hurt on the sharp ends while she climbed out. I wound up buying a super duty crate for almost 400 dollars the thing is like a prison cell with steel bars. She manipulated the locking bar once and came out though the door. So we zip tied that. She didn't escape any more but some how she managed to unplug a light from an outlet 3 feet away on the wall and chew the cord in half. Luckily the outlet was switched and there was no shock hazard. Eventually we tried leaving her out in the home. Short periods at first. To this day not once has she destroyed anything. The only time she is in the crate//prison cell now is when there are service people or workers here.