We’ve had our first crate training set-back, but it was not catastrophic, which gives me hope.
For the last two days my routine with him is to bring him for a nice long walk as soon as we get up (like a half-mile) and then feed him, letting him eat while I get ready for work. Then when I’m ready to leave I load up his Kong with some kibble and peanut butter and but some kibble in his other busy-toy and have him go into his crate, which he does on command willingly. I give him all his toys and bones, close him in and take off for work.
Then I’ve been coming back mid-shift to find him lying politely in his crate wagging his tail. I take him out for a pee and a poop in the back yard, and for a quick walk down the street and back. I give him another little lunch meal and then play with him a little and repeat the morning crating routine. However, both afternoons, he’s protested, howling and yipping as I leave. Yesterday I came home from work and he was in his crate, a little antsy, but fine and dandy. We had a fine afternoon - long walk, playing in the back yard.
Today was a different story. Again, he protested, barking and whining. As I was leaving I stopped outside the house in the car with the window open and listened to him protest in 10 second bursts in between 20 second silences. Once he seemed to shut up I went back to work. But when I got home from work today, Bob met me at the kitchen door, big goofy smile on his face, wagging his tail, just feeling fine and full of himself. So, yeah, big brain or no, he’s got the nose power to pry that door right open. He bent back two heavy-duty metal latches (its a plastic coated wire crate, so those sort of loop latches) and he bent back the base a little bit. He must have just squoze right out of the thing. The good news is there is precisely no damage to anything else in the house. Nothing got chewed up. There are no puddles of pee nor piles of poop. So I don’t know I feel about this. It seems like he might be close to free house privileges if he’s not going to be destructive - but I’d really like him to stay in his crate when I need him to as well.
I may try to leave him all day in his crate tomorrow - he can take it - and it seemed he didn’t have a problem with staying in his crate, just going back into it after only a fifteen minute break.
Another epic failure in the crate department. If you recall, the idea was - hey, maybe he just doesn’t like going back into his crate after so little time out - so he was going to be on his own for the entire day in his crate. I gave him plenty of stuff to do in there. I took him on a nice long walk before I left, so in theory, this was doable. Nope. He actually balked at going in this morning, not good, but I didn’t have to force him in, he went in a laid down, but started protesting as soon as I left the room. In past days he’s been very calm in the morning, only protesting in the afternoon.
As I was about 50% expecting, he met me at the kitchen door when I got home from work. Again, no real damage to speak of; he shattered a glass butter dish (and apparently had a stick of butter for lunch) and that’s about it. He even knocked a rolled closed bag of Doritos off the counter, but didn’t dig at them. No poop, no pee. So … fuck it … tomorrow I cut out the middle man. If he’s not going to do any damage, what’s the point of crating him? But again, it would be nice if he would go in there when I might need him to.
Yep, he’s got the run of the place tomorrow. I’ll probably put the remotes and my laptop somewhere safe in case I’m wrong about him, but I think he’ll do good. He didn’t have access to his toys as they were still in his crate after he busted out - no way he could get back in - and he still didn’t tear anything apart in here.
If he’s fine in the house, that’s probably better in the long run. You can keep doing crate training occasionally in case you need it, but I think you’ll need a sturdier crate if you ever want to keep him in it.
If you have a room you can prep as a “safe” room for him, and shut him in there, it might be a good idea. Secure things he shouldn’t get into, and keep him in a confined area. Put in some toys, water bowl, bedding. Your bedroom maybe, or the kitchen, if that’s where he waits for you. If he does well with just the room, then you can start expanding his range.
Bob is doing really well, despite being a very bad boy yesterday. On his first day alone he flew the coop. He left a dog shaped hole in a window screen and I had to come home from work to round him up when the cops called. Cops were super-cool about it, but still that kind of sucked. Again, I see where I failed. I didn’t have him calm when I left. I figured he would protest but would calm down like before. I didn’t even consider that he’d chew threw a screen.
In the meantime, I’ve been re-working on his crate time, in smaller food-laden increments and I’m not going to try to push him on that. Slow and consistent will win the day. Ditto on Mort. We’ve had a few more meetings with Bob tethered to the piano and Mort in his crate so everybody - mostly me - is safe. It’s harder on Mort at this point than on Bob, but I’ve got a game plan. I watched an episode of the Dog Whisperer where he introduced a dog to a cat using a cat crate, focusing on respect of the cat’s space, getting him to ignore the cat. Work in progress.
In all other respects he’s great. He’s great on the leash. He walks right at my heel with only the occasional correction. Squirrel lunging is minimal as he’s responding very well to me now. I was working on sit and wait with him and he was getting it right off the bat. He pulls it off with no vocal commands at all. He’s already used to that at meal time so it’s obvious that he picks up things really quick. I tried to get him to shake when I first got him and it was a mystery to him. Now, I think in about ten treats, he’s pretty much got it. I swear, before I’m done, I’m going to train this dog to do my dishes.
Next tests - how well he’ll stick to the deck, tethered, while I mow the lawn. Or will he be just fine if I leave him inside. We shall find out. We’re going to have to; my lawn is out of control.
Then the most important test of all. The how will he tolerate me plugging in my amp and jamming to backing tracks on YouTube. I haven’t jammed out since I got Bob. I generally play every day. He’s going to have to get used to that. He was absolutely fascinated by my piano. I mean, I don’t play particularly well and my piano is way out of tune, but it was hilarious. He was up on the bench, staring at my fingers, tilting his head from side to side, and then going down below to check out the sound board and try to put it all together.
I have to tell you that I knew a dog years ago (not my dog, thank goodness) who chewed her way through walls. Not brick walls; they were drywall and I forget what the outside was, but probably whatever exterior siding was available really cheap in the 1970’s USA.
I don’t think being calm when people left had anything to do with it. She just freaked out when left alone.
Was it a fiberglass screen? They’re really easy to tear; anybody even with cats needs to have metal ones. Dogs who go through screens require hardware cloth over the screen, however; once they’ve got the idea regular metal screen won’t stop a dog of any size (though hardware cloth won’t stop the bugs so you need both layers. Result will not look pretty.)
Goddamnit, I love this dog. He’s learning things so quick. I had him sit to get his leash on the first dozen or so times and now as soon as I grab his leash he walks up to me sits automatically. He sits and waits for his meal with no vocal cues - so polite. Ninety-five percent of the time on walks he is right at my side with a slack lead. He’s doing better going into his crate and laying down with some peanut-butter in a Kong.
This morning I gave him another alone-in-the-house test, just as long as it would take me to run down to Dunkins and back, about 15 minutes. I made sure all the window’s were sealed, so if he were to get out of the house at this point - shit, I’d be impressed. I detected no whining or protesting as I left through the garage and when I returned, Bob was perched in the living room window patiently awaiting my arrival. Of course when I re-entered the house he was as excited to see me as the French were when Lindbergh landed, but I’ll take it.
I’m pretty sure now that his previous escape through the screen was due to an uninvited squirrel in his back yard. I’m getting his prey drive well under control, but without me around I suppose he would get a little excited that some little rodent is just frolicking and shit back there.
Boy, dog ownership is fun. That sounds sarcastic - and it is, but at the same time … what a ride so far. But I am hopeful.
Bob’s first day alone in the house outside of the crate with all the window’s sealed. Yes, there was some separation anxiety damage, but manageable. Essentially, I no longer have any curtains in any of my windows. Everything else is fine for the most part. He chewed up some paper towels and got into my Doritos - and it looks like he had a go at the cat door, but Morty is safe. I don’t think Mort has any designs on coming up and dealing with that dog any time soon. No remotes, nor computers, nor electric cords, nor guitars, nor walls, nor anything else got chewed up. There are no puddles of pee nor piles of poop. So, I’ve just got to figure this out. I think tomorrow I’m going to try to leave him his room where his crate and his bowls are. I’ll move his dog bed and all his toys in and try to get him nice and calm before I close him in the room and hope for the best. Maybe I’ll check in on him mid-day.
But holy shit, when I walked in the door he practically attacked me, he was so excited to see me, it was kind of cool. It took me a few minutes to calm him down and get his paws back to earth - almost literally.
Do you have time to take him for a walk before you go out? Putting him away tired may help. If you have a place to put a radio that he can’t reach, it may help to leave a news station on, so he can hear voices. It helps some dogs.
