What's my dog's problem with my boyfriend's house?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So my dog (neutered male, pit bull, 3, I rescued him last year) has been a total rock star lately. He hasn’t trashed my house since I started crating him when I go out, and he’s always been quite happy in the crate. Also, he hasn’t had any pee-related accidents at all except for a few indiscretions the first time I took him to my parents’ place.

So I brought him (crate and all) to my boyfriend’s house for the weekend. Dog and BF are mutually smitten so they were delighted to spend even more time together. At one point we went out, leaving the dog in the crate. And when we returned, there was the dog - at the door, to greet us. He’d escaped from the blasted crate!

I suddenly recalled a time last year, when he was still new to me, and I had a bunch of guests over so I crated him, and next thing I knew he was sitting on my lap. At the time I figured I’d just latched the crate improperly or something, there was only the most minor damage to it, and he’d never done anything like that before. But when I saw his smiling face at the front door last week I realized he’s known how to escape the thing the whole time and just didn’t want to, in my house. FWIW he’s also spent time in a crate at the dogsitter’s place, with no problems at all.

So we patched the crate back up using copper wire and creativity, and went out again with our fingers crossed. Sure enough when we returned he’d escaped again. Thus ensued a prolonged game, where we would put the crate back together, stuff the dog in, and find the dog escaped upon our return. One of the escapes resulted in a scratched-up face for the dog, which made me start to worry.

I figured maybe it was because at my house and at the dogsitter’s, the crate is right beside the front door, so he can see us leaving and coming back. At the BF’s house, the only place the crate can possibly go is in the basement, so he couldn’t see us leaving. So we moved it to a position from which he could clearly see us leaving through the side door, but that didn’t seem to matter. (There is no way to put the crate on the main floor, the house is just too small. I worry that maybe he doesn’t like being in the basement? We live on the 2nd floor so he’s not used to basements.)

The most recent attempt at security involved two 1/2-inch wide zip ties and six or seven loops of thick copper wire. When we got back we found that he had busted the zip ties (just by pulling them - I always knew he was strong! … I can’t help but be a little bit proud of him), untwisted several of the copper wires, and somehow removed a couple more. Fortunately, it also resulted in such distortion of the crate that future escape became impossible. (Ha ha! He’s his own worst enemy!)

So the immediate problem of crate-escaping appears to be solved. (Oddly, he didn’t take the opportunity to trash the BF’s house, the way he always has when I’ve left him alone in mine. But the BF isn’t comfortable just letting him roam in the house; I’m not really either because I have seen the damage he is capable of.)
But the ongoing problem remains - my dog is really distressed to be left alone at my BF’s house!

The puddles: He peed on the floor a number of times too. This is (with aforementioned exceptions) unprecedented in my experience. The first time it happened I took him for a walk in the morning at around 8 (as I always do), and the puddle appeared no later than noon. It’s not like he had to go (this is a dog that has held it in for 15+ hours in the past), he just wanted to!

We’ve spent two weekends there now and it’s always the same story.

In general I try to keep the routine (feeding, walking etc) as standard as possible but obviously it’s never going to be the same. He’s got blankets and toys from home, I can’t think of what else I can do to make him feel at home.

Any ideas?

2

It’s probably just going to take time for him to get used to the fact that he’s going to be OK when he’s there and that you are going to come back. It’s really too bad there isn’t a place for his crate on the main floor - you could very well be correct that he probably doesn’t like the basement. It may make him feel isolated, especially if you don’t use the basement as a main living space. I had a dog that didn’t like being confined to our bedroom, as it was in the back of the house and he couldn’t see anything that was going on outside. When he could see what was going on out on the street, he was fine.

Is there a place on the main floor where he could be baby-gated into a room, perhaps? One where he can see outside? You could dog-proof that room (removing anything that would hurt him or that would upset you to lose if he chewed it), put the gate up, leave for 15 minutes and then come back and see how he did. If he does OK, leave for a bit longer - say 30 minutes, and then keep extending the time if he does all right.

If there are no alternatives to crating him you could try wearing an old T-shirt and then leaving it in his crate so he has something that smells like you nearby. You could also try leaving a TV or radio on for him. If he doesn’t like where the crate is, though, this may not help.

3

Good luck. A determined dog can do anything. I can’t keep my dog in my fence. She always finds a way to dig out no matter how secure I make it.

I put up a running chain with a leash. She dug out under the fence anyway, and apparently tugged and wiggled the chain till the clasp worked loose while she still connected to it on the other side of the fence. I strapped her into a harness. She chewed it off.

I’ve tried a shock collar, which worked for a few months, till she grew tolerant of the pain. That’s actually inaccurate…she dug out despite the pain. She was otherwise afraid to go near areas where the collar started clicking. I talked to another guy who had the same problem with his pit bull. He said his dog chewed the collar off himself. Not by the strap, mind you. He tore off the shocker part of it with his teeth.

Catching her in the act doesn’t work. It just means to her I shouldn’t dig out while daddy is watching. Luckily, she hangs out at my neighbors and they’re cool about it.

4

Dogs do not always let you know what they can do. I walked my shepherd/husky mix everyday for years. One day a chow got loose and attacked him. He flipped his neck and off came his collar. Then he beat the hell out of the chow. It was obvious he could have gotten out of the collar at any time but didn’t feel the need.

5

Do you leave him with anything interactive to play with in the crate? A Kong filled with peanut butter or a similar attention-getting toy? Is he warm enough?

How long is he left alone at your boyfriend’s place? Maybe you need to start from scratch and try walking him through the crate training process again. It doesn’t sound like he considers the crate a ‘safe’ place to be in.

Do you think that as a rescue he may have had some bad history in the past that has created an aversion to basements?

And where’s the obligatory photo? :smiley: