Protective of crate

[Zisso]

Nadia does not like people poking their hands through her crate or really even coming close to her while crated. I tell anyone who comes over to leave her alone and stay away. That is not a problem.

We started Dock Diving last summer and even went to an event. When I have Z away to do his activity, I usually cover Nadia's crate to help keep her quiet because otherwise she will howl while we are out of sight.

I am currently training the quiet command to stop the howling. It is a distraction for Zisso & myself and I am sure it has to bother the general public. When we were doing SchH, I always left the crates in the truck, and of course SchH people know to leave other dogs alone.

But in Dock Diving, the events are all day, and consist of leaving dogs crated and unattended. Once the quiet command is solid, this might not be an issue, but I worry that a kid or someone might try to reach a finger in to pet her, so I cover her crate when I not there to stop it. Especially when she sounds distressed by howling.

I am thinking of having a little sign made that I can clip onto her crate, but I don't know how to word it. I mean she is not aggressive under normal circumstances, but she is very protective of her space in her crate. I don't want to have to keep her covered all the time, so thought a nicely worded card on her crate door would help. What should it say?

[cassadee7]

I would make it RED with white words, "DO NOT TOUCH." Simple and not too scary. However I would worry anyway. If a toddler or 3-4 year old wanders to her crate and starts poking around what might happen? You know how parents are these days, not watching their child. That would be my main concern for Nadia. Maybe you can get together with some other dock diving friends, set up a canopy with the crates under it and take turns having one person stay with the crates. That's kind of what our club did at the fair.

[Zisso]

Thanks Shawn. You nailed it with my concerns. Parents not watching their kids, kid walking by, running fingers across crate door, Nadia snapping. These events being public makes it hard to protect Nadia from crazy(Stooopid) people! I was lucky having one other member and her hubby sitting by us in Oct at that event so they kept watch. The bright sign makes sense!! I will worry anyway but it will help a little to ease my stress

[jocoyn]

May consider attaching a small mesh hardware cloth on the crate so fingers cannot go in ....Even the mesh like the kind on a nylon crate?

I had one that was very crate reactive but a nice dog otherwise and I worked with him on positive reinforcement (catching him being good and rewarding him) it seemed to really help.

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

Originally Posted by jocoyn

May consider attaching a small mesh hardware cloth on the crate so fingers cannot go in ....Even the mesh like the kind on a nylon crate?

Along those lines, you could attach some chicken wire to the crate. It's inexpensive and you could even do two layers if you wanted to and have them not quite line up, that way the holes would be too small for even a kid to stick their fingers through.

[Zisso]

I like the mesh idea. Not too keen on the chicken wire, sorry. Whichever I use, it is just to let strangers know this is not an ordinary dog crate.

I was thinking about a sign to go across the front that says Stranger Danger....sadly toddlers can't read though.