Crate training tips, por favor. All the things that I thought I knew how to do from raising Juno... apparently this dog says No, I don't. opcorn:
Cajun isn't too pleased about being crated, but she's not really too bad, either. She's fine at night - she's sleeping in it right now - doesn't make a peep. She has some good associations with it, I feed her in her crate (but my mom doesn't) and she kind of equates meal time with crate time - when I grab her food bowl, she goes and runs into her crate. She'll go in it to chew on a toy. She'll randomly hop in and out of it because she knows I'll give her a treat every time she goes in it.
However if we put her in it during the day she is less of a fan. She gets a stuffed Kong every single time, and she gets SO excited and throws herself into the crate and then completely focuses her energy on working at her Kong. But once the Kong is emptied? We start barking. She usually stops, it's not endless barking... but it's barking nonetheless. Then she usually pees in the crate. Which I thought was maybe a result of her UTI, but it doesn't seem to be an issue overnight. I wouldn't be comfortable making the crate any smaller and I think she lays in it and doesn't care, anyway. And finally, when you go to let her out of her crate, she thrashes around like a wild animal and throws herself off the sides of the crate and just... ugh. I wait for her to settle down before I let her out. I don't think my mom has that sort of patience, though.
I kind of think I know some things I should be doing, but any suggestions would be great. Honestly it's the peeing and the thrashing that irritate me most, if it were just a little barking I could deal. I suppose they all go hand in hand though.
Cajun isn't too pleased about being crated, but she's not really too bad, either. She's fine at night - she's sleeping in it right now - doesn't make a peep. She has some good associations with it, I feed her in her crate (but my mom doesn't) and she kind of equates meal time with crate time - when I grab her food bowl, she goes and runs into her crate. She'll go in it to chew on a toy. She'll randomly hop in and out of it because she knows I'll give her a treat every time she goes in it.
However if we put her in it during the day she is less of a fan. She gets a stuffed Kong every single time, and she gets SO excited and throws herself into the crate and then completely focuses her energy on working at her Kong. But once the Kong is emptied? We start barking. She usually stops, it's not endless barking... but it's barking nonetheless. Then she usually pees in the crate. Which I thought was maybe a result of her UTI, but it doesn't seem to be an issue overnight. I wouldn't be comfortable making the crate any smaller and I think she lays in it and doesn't care, anyway. And finally, when you go to let her out of her crate, she thrashes around like a wild animal and throws herself off the sides of the crate and just... ugh. I wait for her to settle down before I let her out. I don't think my mom has that sort of patience, though.
I kind of think I know some things I should be doing, but any suggestions would be great. Honestly it's the peeing and the thrashing that irritate me most, if it were just a little barking I could deal. I suppose they all go hand in hand though.