Can this terrible dog be crate trained still?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ll call her Crappy, because that’s what she is.

Crappy is a nice dog. She likes people. However, she’s the worst dog I’ve ever seen. If she’s left alone in the house for more than an hour or two she craps and pees all over the place. The carpet, unfortunately, is a light berber, so you can see the places she’s been. It’s not like she doesn’t get to go outside. She goes out all the time. Morning, noon, night, midnight…a lot. She gets more opportunities to go than I do. But she still craps all over the place. She’s not a little dog either, so it’s not a little bit of crap.

This happened twice yesterday. Twice.

She also barks. She’s got this piercing bark, and she barks a lot. She’ll bark in your ear when you’re trying to eat and no amount of yelling will make her stop. She barks when she’s excited, she barks when she’s outside, she barks when she’s bored or when you try to go into the bathroom. She doesn’t STOP. After a few minutes I have a terrible headache, and I’m not exaggerating. None of this is exaggeration.

She will bark all night. No one gets any sleep. Again, this is TRUE. She will sit outside the bedroom and bark.

She digs holes in the back yard. I counted them the other day. There were eight. I think she started a new one yesterday. These are not small holes. My friend fills them up, but she digs them up again. She’s not bored. She never stays outside by herself for more than a few seconds. She just digs as soon as you go inside to get a soda. The yard looks like hell.

Crappy also nips at my hands. Never mind that I don’t have a treat, she’ll nip anyway. I’ve only given her a treat once, and forever afterward she will bite. Sometimes it hurts, although she hasn’t broken skin yet. She’ll wait until I’m facing away from her, and come over and nip.

She also chases her tail. A LOT. I’m not talking cutely, I’m talking obsessively. She will chase her tail for ten minutes, snarling and growling and barking and chewing it. It’s so bad I suggested cutting it off. My friend told me quite a few people have told him that.

She also will try to steal food off your plate. She will try to grab it from your hand as you’re eating. She jumps on people, too, and she positively knocks kids off their feet. The kids that come around always ask my friends to keep her on a leash but they DON’T.

I guess that’s the real problem. Her owners don’t want her upset, so they don’t yell at her. They don’t put her in a cage at night, and they give her human food all the time.

I guess I’m just complaining. My friends have been letting me stay with them while I work in their state for the summer. I sincerely want to be back home with my kitties, so I don’t have to smell dog shit every day.

If you’ve read this far, I would like to know if she can still be crate trained. She’s a year old.

2

She can still be crate trained, but what’s the point? It won’t do much good until her owner is trained too.

No offense to your friend, but it sounds like a classic case of You Reap What You Sow. It takes serious Fing up to have a dog that behaves like this. (And I do consider doing nothing at all to be the equivalent of seriously Fing up.) So, yes, the dog can be crate trained, although at this point it will be more difficult than if you started right away. But I suggest the owners get some books or a trainer or into some classes or something. Sheesh!

3

Dog trainer chiming in.

Crate training won’t help with the global problem. The OWNERS are the ones who seem to have the problem. They need to get their butts into an obedience class like NOW and learn to train their DOG. The dog is looking for direction and isn’t getting it, so it’s doing what it thinks is right.

If they are not willing to teach her to behave, and teach her manners, then crate training won’t do diddleesquat. Training doesn’t involve screaming at the dog or isolating him or her to “punish” them.

Tell them to take the dog to school, get help, and start sticking to a program of some sort. Take her yourself if you have to. Buy them a “dog training for dummies” book (excellent start for beginners) or to put the dog in rescue and let him or her be trained by someone who is willing to spend the time with the dog to teach it to be a manerly canine citizen. If she’s knocking kids over, she could end up in deeper trouble if she meets the kid of a lawsuit happy parent.

Training is what’s BEST for the dog and especially her owners. Like, PRONTO. Otherwise, they risk losing their dog to a bite (or a nip at a kid’s nose), or to having destroyed something in the house… or to having run off under the fence and run over by a car. Tell them to do the humane thing and get some help to train their dog…

Elly n’ the hounds

4

A million times ditto what Elenfair said, and would like to add that it sounds like this dog needs some serious physical activity. Tired doggies are good doggies.

5

Of course not. When you shout, she thinks you’re joining in the fun. The best thing to do to stop this behavior is to distract her. Command her to sit, then give her a treat, or throw a ball for her to fetch.

Is there any reason why your friend won’t let her in the bedroom? My dog has a bed at the foot of mine (though she prefers our queen-sized pillowtop.) This dog may have seperation issues. Isolating her will only make them worse. It’d be better to leave the door open and let her come and go freely. Once she’s inside, she may decide she doesn’t want to be there anyway.

If the soiling is the trouble, putting the dog’s crate into the bedroom may help.

Can’t really help you there. Some dogs are just diggers. Try distracting her when you see her digging, or giving her some toys to play with. It may not work. Some dogs just love to dig.

Whenever I fill up a hole in our yard, my dog gives me an indignant look as if to say, “All that work! Hey, bi-ped, I dug that hole for a reason! Sheesh!”

This needs to be stopped NOW. She could really injure someone someday.

I broke my dog of this bad habit by putting my hand around her muzzle and gently squeezing and saying firmly, “No bite!” As soon as she nipped, I would stop playing, and correct her.

You might need to carry a water pistol. They’re excellent training tools. When the dog misbehaves, shoot her. The shot of water should startle her and make her stop whatever she’s doing. Immediately give her a command, and when she does it, praise her.

Nothing wrong here. Some dogs just love to chase their tails. It’s their version of Nintendo.

This sounds like an excess of energy. Simply put, your friend needs to play more with the dog and wear her out.

The kids need to learn the knee trick. When the dog jumps, put up your knee and gently knock her back while saying, “NO!” Then give a command and praise for obedience. (Are you seeing a pattern here? Praise is so much more effective a training tool than punishment. Dogs really do want to please the humans around them-- they just don’t know what you want. By giving them a simple command and praising them, you not only distract them from bad behavior, but you make the dog feel like she’s finally pleasing you. She’ll want to do it more.)

The food issue is a problem. The dog has no respect for the humans around her if she’s willing to try to steal their food. Begging is one thing-- the dog knows its place, but attempting to snatch the food from your hand cannot be tolerated.

How big is this dog? If she’s small enough, try this test. Gently knock her over till she’s on her back and hold her down. How long does she struggle? A dominant dog won’t give up, but will keep fighting to be let up. A submissive dog will give up almost immediately. Your average dog will struggle for a few moments and then give up. This will give you some cue to the dog’s personality type.

If she’s a dominant dog, she’ll need more attention and training. Dogs like these are harder to train than submissive ones. Your friends will have to devote a LOT of time to her.

Unless they change their minds about not wanting to “upset” her with any discipline, their lives will always be hell with this dog. Discipline does not “upset” a dog, anyway, especially if you immediately temper it with a command and praise for obediance. The dog will have forgotten all about it in moments. She’ll focus on the good, rather than the bad (“He told me I was a Good Dog and scratched behind my ears!!!”).

6

Question for dog trainers here.

I know relatively little about dog training, but from a layman’s view re the tail chasing and other OC type behaviors this dog sounds like it’s got serious mental issues beyond what even training the dog and owner can correct.

Seriously, does a dog like this really have a decent chance of being a well behaved dog with behavior mod training? Is this dog really ever going to be capable of being a good indoor dog?

7

Sure. Almost any dog can be a good dog (except, of course, if the dog has serious mental illness.) Some dogs just take more time and patience than others. Sometimes trainers say something to the tune of, “There are no bad dogs-- just bad owners.” While there are a few exceptions to this rule, almost any dog can be trained to behave if the owners put the time and effort into it.

The only way she will ever be a good dog is if her owners have a firm dedication to making her into one. Without consistant discipline, patient training, and loving praie, this dog is doomed to be a pain to every person that enters that house.