[gsd&mal crazy1]

i was wondering if any one else on here has a crate escapee ? mine will escape if i put him in and leave the house. he scraped his snout all up to get out of the crate. he does not destroy anything in the house or mess with anything at all. he just goes through **** to get out of it. the woman i go thim from had him in an outside kennel and he chewed a big hole in the chain link fence..crazy !!!!! i wish i had of taken a picture of that.

 

[CertainlySpoiled]

Emma used to break out of her crate, but not anymore, she grew out of that phase of life!

 

[DSudd]

Rocky escaped his crate once. In the process he also broke on off his teeth in half. He also scratched up his nose pretty bad. He has only been crated once since then.

 

[SunCzarina]

Morgan took her first crate apart, third night she lived here, found her the next morning sitting on the kitchen floor like 'Hi, look what I did!'

Then she got the heavy duty crate with an add on latch - you know the crate, it folds but you wouldn't want to travel with it becuase it weighs like 50lbs and you'd need to rent a trailer to put it on. It's rated for a bull mastiff!

 

[middleofnowhere]

Your dog is fine outside the crate. He doesn't like it in there when you are gone. You insist on putting him in there anyway. Why?

 

[tracyc]

I agree with Middleofnowhere. Crates are a tool to keep a dog safe. If your dog doesn't need to be in a crate in order to be safe (not chew on cords, destroy the couch, pee on the rug), then you don't need it.

After my two older dogs were "trustworthy" we put the crates away and they have the run of the house when we are not home.

 

[BowWowMeow]

I believe this dog is a very recent adoptee. He is probably not crate trained. It often takes time for a dog to get comfortable with being crated. If he is truly trustworthy in the house then you can just leave him loose. But since you just got him I guess there's no way of knowing that.

For now I would start getting him comfortable with the crate when you're home and dog proof your house before you go out!

 

[gsd&mal crazy1]

yes, he is a very new adoptee. and yeah when he does escape out of the crate i do come home to find that he has done perfect in the house. but because he is new to our home i want to be sure. it would really not be good to come home and find things destroyed. so i do put him in there for safety. jsut to make sure. the last time i put him in there i got advice to put an extra clip where he is manipulating the crate and squeezing out. i didn't put it high enough and he still had room to squeeze out. he scratched his nose trying to get out and he succeeded. now i found a good place to put the clip but i am so scared of him injuring himself now. sooo... last time i left out it was for about 35 minutes and he was fine when i got back. house looked perfect. he was laying down and came to greet me when i got home. then today we did our family running around thing and we took him with us. he does perfect in the car.aside frim barking at other people and dogs we pass. so do you guys think that i should just trust him to be in the house when i have an errand to run? i know i was told before that a dog does not truly show his true self until weeks after he has been with you.i don't want him to hurt himself trying to get out of the crate and i don't want the house destroyed. suggestions????

sorry so long......last thing.
i do put him in the crate at night and i always bribe him to go in by throwing a treat or food in there and waiting for him to go in and then i close up the doors. he will usually be unsettled and give some barking and such. well tonight i got him to go in and he ate the food i put in and then pretty much laid down and went to sleep. this is real progress. i know the moe and more he is in there the more comfortable he will get with it, and it's just when we leave the house he tries to escape.

 

[middleofnowhere]

I'd try it for gradually extended periods starting RIGHT NOW. Leave the crate door open and something good in there and leave. Don't make a big deal about leaving, get your stuff together early, sit quietly and leave quietly. (Don't say "bye" or anything.. just leave.)

 

[Maedchen]

yes, he is a very new adoptee. and yeah when he does escape out of the crate i do come home to find that he has done perfect in the house. but because he is new to our home i want to be sure. it would really not be good to come home and find things destroyed. so i do put him in there for safety.

Obviously, in your situation the crate poses more of a hazard to him then the house! One day you might come home and find him strangled or squeezed dead only bc he wanted to get out of his crate. If you are concerned about your stuff, put the valuables away and give him some chew bones to keep busy!
Why is the dog crated at night too?
That's alot of crating for an adult dog.

 

[gsd&mal crazy1]

well for an update what i have been doing is leaving him in the house w/o crating and he ahs been doing great. other thatn some scratches on the door which i can deal with. the only reason i crate him at night is because he had 2 accidents in the house his first couple of days so i was not sure if he was totally house trained. that and i believe in supervising him at all times. i don't close my childrens doors at night. although i trust him like no other with my children. he is absolutely great with the kids, but i would rather be safe.so i crate to be safe. and he is 7 months old, that is by no means an adult dog. even if he was adult, for him to be crated at night and if i have to leave the house to run an errand i dont think that is too much. he's out all other time. anyways there is my update. even though i think i put the clip in the right place to where he would not be able to fit, i am too scared to try it out. i was heart broken when i saw his nose scratched up just from him trying to get out of the crate. and now at night he does not make a big deal out of the crate. now that he knows it's safe, he will come out in not too much time, that barking does not let him out.....he settles down and goes to sleep. good boy.

 

[RonM]

Originally Posted By: Luca_stlI agree with Middleofnowhere. Crates are a tool to keep a dog safe. If your dog doesn't need to be in a crate in order to be safe (not chew on cords, destroy the couch, pee on the rug), then you don't need it.

After my two older dogs were "trustworthy" we put the crates away and they have the run of the house when we are not home.

As an owner of a crate escapee (broke off a tooth, etc. to get out) who never did get a crate strong enough to allow the dog to understand that it's okay to be in a crate sometimes (and no, you cannot destroy it) I don't think you should stop the crate training: I personally regret that I can't stay at a hotel and leave him in the room long enough to get a meal, or take him on a flight, etc. because I gave up and tossed out the crate.

When I do it all over again with my next GSD, getting the dog to understand that sometimes you just have to be in a crate will be part of my training, even if I don't use it often at home once the comfort level is attained.

Ron

 

[gsd&mal crazy1]

for an up date....

well where do i start.!
o.k. i was so upset at how upset he would get if i left that he would actually injure himself to get out of the crate so i left him out... the thing is when he would escape he would do pretty good. once he tore a piece of the tile up in the bathroom but i still shrugged it off and figured i just had to replace the bathroom tile.... anyways though so i left the house once and put him in the bedroom. he always did so well in my bedroom when i put him in there when company came over or something like that. well i put him in the room, left toys for him to entertain him self with. some huge dog bones,etc..... left the house and went shopping. came back about an hour and a half later..my son went in the room and he came out with this freaked out face and said "mommy, look what Doser did to the room." i'm thinking,, what, he probably just is laying on the bed on the pillows or something, or mabybe he has his toys all over....NO NO NO NO
i go in and the room looks like the dog went mad. he went crazy in there, he destroyed my pillows, bit and ripped the pillow cases open and then pulled and bit the stuffing out of my pillows. he had pillow stuffing all over the rooom.
then he was trying to get out of the door so he scratched my beautiful hard cherry wood door frames all up. and bit and pulled the cable wire going from my room to the tv up front. he bit it in two.. and then he pulled on the wire so hard that he actually pulled it our of my 50" plasma tv up front and the input where the cable goes in is now destroyed.
he had clothes, and shoes and everything else in the room all over the place.

i have come to the conclusion that not only do i have a hyper, anxious dog, but he has seperation anxiety like a fool. he is nuts.
he really is a super anxious dog who's surroundings really drive him. other than that he is super loyal, super friendly with family, a play friend, very intelligent, and he really is a great dog, STILL....

 

[SunCzarina]

I'm sorry he trashed your room! Morgan used to do stuff like that but luckily, she was fine crated. Have you thought about a sedative for him? Not sure what's out there but you vet might be able to help with something to calm him down.

 

[gsd&mal crazy1]

sorry, i got carried away and forgot to explain what i did to fix the escaping problem...

well he has one of those heavy duty crates with the somewhat hooks that make it stay together. the only thing about them is if you have a dog like mine that likes to try to escape he will just bite and shake the thing to death so the hooks just loosen up and he can squeeze through the bars after that. well i took some vice grips and tightened up all the 'hooks' and made it so he can not just bite and pull the bars apart because the hooks are so tight now.....
yay!!!!

its been a couple months now and that has worked like a charm. i dont think he even tries any more. so i am a happy camper.

 

[Nerrej]

Wait, I'm still trying to figure out how a dog escapes a crate? I can't seem to think of a way a dog can do this?

 

[gsd&mal crazy1]

he bites and pulls on the bars of the crate until the hooks come unloose and then squeezes out between the bars that are loose.