HELP?! Advice or tips? 8 month cane corso bored in crate and chewing.....

[kguitarchic18]

We have crate trained zola since we brought her home and she has always been fine with her crate. She is usually in there 3-4 hours during work, and we come home for lunch to let her out and eat, then she goes back in for another 4-5 hours until we get home. We always play and tire her out in the morning, and then when we get home. She is easy, I mean 15-30 mins and she will pass out tired for 3-4 hours easy.

We usually never try to leave her in there more than 5-6 hours, but we have never had any issues until lately. One night we were out and got home, and somehow she had unlatched the bottom and slid the tray out and chewed up about half. I don't think she ate any because there were pieces everywhere. We tightened everything up on the crate and bought a new tray and no issues for the past 3 weeks. Today, I played with her in the morning, fed her, then played with her again. All she wanted to do was sleep so it was a perfect time to leave. Left for about 5 hours, got home, and she had tried to open the door (the latches had been pulled inside the crate and i could barely pop them out to get the door open) and she started to chew the edge of the new tray. She didnt seem like she needed to pee because she was excited to see me and just wanted to play.

I feel really bad that she got bored, and I know that I can't yell at her if I don't catch her in the act. Wondering if pushing the 5-6 hour limit she is getting restless? Any tips or tricks? we tried putting treats in her kong but she gets the small ones out too fast and tends to fling the larger pieces outside the crate, in which she freaks.

Should I try to put her in the crate a little more while I am in the room so I can catch her in the act?

 

[BeckyN]

How old is she? It sounds like boredom. Do you leave a TV or radio on for her?

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[TWW]

Agree with Beckyn on the tv or radio.

Also does she have toys in her crate? And 5-6hrs in a crate for a 8 month old a day. Guessing 5 days a week?
At that age I would say that is to much crate time, not a CC owner, so could be wrong but 15-30 mins seems a be short to tire out a CC for that amount of time.

 

[kguitarchic18]

She is about 8...8.5 months old. Yes the radio is on, and she has a bone and two different kongs. 15-30 mins is good, I don't want to overwork her as you can't play too hard with them at this age. And you can tell she is tired, I know all puppies are different, but 15-30 mins of back and forth ball and running she barely walks in the house and plops down on her bed to go to sleep.

Not sure, but maybe because my husband was gone for 2 days and got home tonight? Maybe she was acting out. Don't really have much choice on the time as we both have full time jobs. We do usually stay home with her 2 days a week, but I know cc can get very attached and I don't want to create an issue with sep. anixety if we try to spend all day with her and lessen the crate time. Honestly when we work from home all she does is sleep anyways, so we figure she must be sleeping all day when we have to be at work.

Which is why this is kind of a random thing, she doesn't always do this, and its only the second time.

 

[musicdeb]

CCs require exercise. At 8 months, you should be able to walk her for about 30-40 minutes twice a day. Play mind games with her like hide n seek with her treats or you hide yourself. Freeze treats in ice cubes so she has to figure out how to get the treats out.

It is true, it is best to limit excessive walking, running and jumping until about 12 months but you can still exercise the pup.

I believe walking him and giving him mind games will reduce his stress in the crate. The crate should be his "decompress" area.

When he got out of the crate, did he destroy any part of the house? If not, why not keep him blocked in a room with his crate in the room so he can move around freely?

 

[kguitarchic18]

I think I figured it out. We are usually home with her all day on the weekend, except for maybe 1-2 hours of errands. But the only time she has done this is when we got stuck at a party for 4-5 hours. So yesterday and about 2 weekends ago, so maybe its the fact that she knew its "her" time with us and we left her. She is great on workdays probably because she sees us get ready and leave. So maybe thats it, I guess for now if we plan to be gone for a few hours on the weekend I will drop her off at my parents for doggie playtime. Shes a smart girl.

Shes already a pretty lazy one, so after about 10-15 mins of ball, we play a chase game with a stick (because I know it wears her out, not sure if chasing is the best idea) and after that if I try to play with her she kinda just walks around, so I usually take that cue as she is done when she no longer seems interested in playing. If we go for a walk first, I maybe get 5-10 mins of play outta her before shes exhausted.

 

[musicdeb]

Dogs cannot tell how long you've been gone and I do not believe they know when it's their time and act out when they do not get it. JMO

I still recommend increasing her exercise time to at least an hour a day, if possible. When she gets tired, she could be bored with the event.

 

[kguitarchic18]

I think an hour in the morning would be too much for her, honestly after 30 mins she comes inside panting pretty hard. I know they may not be able to tell, but i also think sometimes they can be smarter than we think.