My 2 year old DDB has started doing something that just seems odd to me.... I've had her for about a month now (she was a rescue), and she has just started this in the last week or so. She spends a lot of time in her crate..... Like every time she comes in the house (I have a doggie door) she goes straight to the crate. When I first got her, she would come and sit beside me on the couch and get petted while we were watching TV, or lay down and take a nap at my feet. But recently she has begun not showing any interest in us whatsoever and just goes and lays in her crate all the time. If I close it, she sits in front of it and stares at it.
I thought at first it was because she was trying to get away from our Beagle puppy (he's 5 months old and wants to play all the time), but last night as an experiment we put him in his crate, and left her out and she still went to her crate and stayed there. She doesn't seem like she's sick or anything... she's eating plenty of food, drinking plenty of water, she romps around the back yard with the beagle and plays during the day. But she spends plenty of time sleeping during the day as well. If I call her over, she'll come sit down beside me and get petted for a minute, but then goes straight back to the crate.
I don't know what kind of past she had, other than her owner surrendered her to a local animal shelter, and a rescue picked her up from the shelter. I think from the time she got surrendered until we got her was around 1 month. I'm pretty sure someone was mean to her at some point as well, she's afraid of loud noises, and if you reach toward her too quickly she will flinch away from you. I think this kind of started because every time we reprimand the beagle (He's a puppy and gets into all kinds of things he shouldn't, so us saying "NO!" happens quite often) she would go to her crate like she was in trouble. I'd call her back out and talk to her and pet her, but it never fails, anytime we tell him no she goes to the crate too.
I'm just not sure if I should just leave her alone and let her be in there if she wants to, or keep the crate closed and try to keep coaxing her to stay around us. Anybody else been through anything like this?
I thought at first it was because she was trying to get away from our Beagle puppy (he's 5 months old and wants to play all the time), but last night as an experiment we put him in his crate, and left her out and she still went to her crate and stayed there. She doesn't seem like she's sick or anything... she's eating plenty of food, drinking plenty of water, she romps around the back yard with the beagle and plays during the day. But she spends plenty of time sleeping during the day as well. If I call her over, she'll come sit down beside me and get petted for a minute, but then goes straight back to the crate.
I don't know what kind of past she had, other than her owner surrendered her to a local animal shelter, and a rescue picked her up from the shelter. I think from the time she got surrendered until we got her was around 1 month. I'm pretty sure someone was mean to her at some point as well, she's afraid of loud noises, and if you reach toward her too quickly she will flinch away from you. I think this kind of started because every time we reprimand the beagle (He's a puppy and gets into all kinds of things he shouldn't, so us saying "NO!" happens quite often) she would go to her crate like she was in trouble. I'd call her back out and talk to her and pet her, but it never fails, anytime we tell him no she goes to the crate too.
I'm just not sure if I should just leave her alone and let her be in there if she wants to, or keep the crate closed and try to keep coaxing her to stay around us. Anybody else been through anything like this?
