[Nursejulie]

I'm wanting to teach her to enjoy the crate, and it's a huge one (I can get in it with her, and we could probably fit another person or dog as well)) She does not like it, though she doesn't got berserk when I get her in, but she has figured out how to undo the top latch on the door and then squeezes out the opening that makes that's about 7 inches at most, which the bottom latch still in place. Next day I tried a bungee cord around the whole thing and she just chewed through it and then let herself out again. I leave her between 1 -3 hours at the most. When she's left out alone/ free, occasionally she does fine, but usually she leaves some trail of destruction in her wake; i.e. drapes are down, pillows are all over the house - some un-stuffed. I leave her with stuffies and a good bone, and again, sometimes she does great. I've tried baby gates and she can knock then down as well . . . . I leave her outside in the yard for one stint in the morning when it is still fairly cool, but it's really too hot to leave her out there in the afternoon. I'm home at least 3-4 times during my workday (9 hours/ 4 days a week) to check on her, and I'm also wondering if it makes it worse coming home more often than not. I'm thinking I just need to stick with it because the crate can be valuable in some situations . . . maybe just add some latch reinforcements? She will go in it occasionally in the evenings when we are just relaxing and lay down in it, so she doesn't absolutely hate it, but hates when I leave the house.

 

[middleofnowhere]

It sounds like you are using a wire crate. And perhaps you have not taught using crate games? Crate games are great in my book. They get a dog so she will race to the crate. My dogs will both go in the crate and stay there without fuss -- except for when I take the older one out to train - then I get yowling. I do use airline style crates. Going in the crate in my house usually = nice reward, certainly praise.


Crates save dogs lives because 1. they limit the "resources" available for destruction 2. #1 = happier human 3. #2 = better chance for a long-time forever home


Crate games. Start now. Maybe a better crate or at least think through how you are going to secure the one you have because 1. you don't want the dog to injure herself as she executes her escape & 2. (I'm big on numbering things in this post!) you want her to stay in the crate and not be injured in there either.

 

[Pytheis]

I had a crate escape artist. The airline crates were worse, IMO, than the metal ones. The plastic ones were not nearly as strong at the door, and they were much more chewable. I used a carabiner to keep the handles latched and never had any problems after that. The door was slightly bent, but the dog was still inside. Eventually he gave up.

If your dog really wants out of the crate, I don't think there will be much you can do to stop it. A determined dog can break through almost anything. Hopefully you don't have a dog like that, and she will learn to calm down when she can no longer get out.

 

[Nursejulie]

This is a large wire crate, yes. I can get her in there with treats easily when we kind of play at that, but are there other more specific "crate games" I don't know about? I'd love to hear! She can certainly sense/ pick up on the difference between times when I'm just playing, and actually leaving- although I try to minimize the clues as much as possible - putting my purse in the car awhile before having to actually leave, etc. . . . but somehow she knows . . . so I have to leash her to get her in and she's pretty cooperative with that (will lay and play dead on the floor if I don't). I've only had her two weeks today, and she's only been in the crate a total of 4-5 times in the last 5 days . . .so I'm thinking she will improve and give in to it before too long? But I agree, that I don't want her harming herself just trying to get out of the dang thing- my preference is always to leave her free but I do agree with the value of at least being agreeable to be in the crate, especially in case of some type of emergency.

 

[Pytheis]

Do you ever feed her meals in the crate? Do you give her a toy, such as a frozen, stuffed kong, when you leave her in the crate?

Crate Games by Susan Garrett is what Middleofnowhere was talking about I think.

 

[McGloomy]

Praise her A LOT, go crazy on the PRAISING when she's calm in the crate. Agreed with Pytheis, you can feed her there too. Throw some treat in there, praise. Teach her to go into the crate by command, my dog goes to the crate when I say 'Crate!' so that's his command.

https://animalso.com/crate-games/

Check out this link too

 

[Thecowboysgirl]

If I were you I would buy an aluminum crate. Wire crates only work if the dog does not know they can get out or isn't motivated to get out. I have a dog who lets himself out of stuff for fun, no anxiety about it and he has never damaged anything he has opened. The one time he escaped at an event he pretty calmly walked thru the crowd ig and oring everybody until he found me. So, in order to be sure THAT never happened again he got an Impact crate. Problem solved.

I fixed a dog from breaking out of a wire crate with a lot of supervision via camera system, but it was such a sensitive dog that I could verbally correct her to stop her biting the crate and it was enough. As soon as she was calm I would go let her out as a reward. When we werent working on it she was in a heavy duty kennel because if she had been really crated for any length of time before she was ready, she would have just kept coming out

 

[Thecowboysgirl]

If I were you I would buy an aluminum crate. Wire crates only work if the dog does not know they can get out or isn't motivated to get out. I have a dog who lets himself out of stuff for fun, no anxiety about it and he has never damaged anything he has opened. The one time he escaped at an event he pretty calmly walked thru the crowd ignoring everybody until he found me. So, in order to be sure THAT never happened again he got an Impact crate. Problem solved.

I fixed a dog from breaking out of a wire crate with a lot of supervision via camera system, but it was such a sensitive dog that I could verbally correct her to stop her biting the crate and it was enough. As soon as she was calm I would go let her out as a reward. When we werent working on it she was in a heavy duty kennel because if she had been really crated for any length of time before she was ready, she would have just kept coming out

Hope that helps