Hello again everyone!!

Its me again and im still overseas and my wife is still taking care of our new 11 month old GSD back home without me. She bought a crate about 2 weeks ago now and has been keeping him in there at night. Everything was going good for the first week, but now it seems like weve run into a snag. Im looking to see if I can poke your brains one more time to help me out.

First thing is that Kizer started off doing great in the crate at night. My wife insisted to start the full training once I get home in a couple of weeks and only keep him in the crate at night because of his barking all night long. Well she put him in the crate and he would be good until the morning. This week though he started to bang around or try to break out of his crate. He keeps doing this and making all kinds of noise until someone finally takes him out. At first, my wife just thought that he had to use the bathroom, but it seems thats not the case here. As soon as he goes outside, he begins barking. I told her to ignore him and she told me he would do it forever and try to flip the crate over. We are trying to figure out what we can do to remedy this situation.

Second question is that when I get home and begin the formal crate training, how long can you keep them in their crates before it is not good for them? What im getting at here is that my wife is wanting to go back to work and school again, and ofcourse when I get off my morale leave I will be back at work too. Our work schedules may coincide and its hard to get back from base to the house on a lunch break, and even if I could it would only be for a few minutes. I need to know if he would be able to stay in the crate the whole day while we were at work or if there was another route we should take.

The emails and phone calls that I have received from her have made it sound like Kizer is trying to display his dominance. He is not neutered, and he is a new 11 month GSD to our home. I would like for her to be able to keep him in the crate at night still but she has had horrible mornings because as soon as he feels like it, he wakes everyone up and insists to get out. Once he is outside with the neighbor dogs next door, he just continually barks. Please let me know if you have any advice for this, and thank you in advance.

Make sure that he gets exercised and has gone potty before getting put to bed. Throw in a toy or tow that are safe and stimulating like a Kong toy. This will help keep him occupied ans a tired dog will sleep better. Do not leave food or water in his crate with him at night.

You can certainly keep a dog in their crate through the entire night. A dog your age does not need to go out for a potty break or water break. Kizer may be uncomfortable in his crate since he is only in it at night. To make it more of a positive place, feed him his food in his crate and throw a treat in the crate when he enters for bedtime. If you let him out of his crate while he is throwing a fit inside, then you have taught him to throw fits in his cage and he will get let out. It is important to be persistent and not let him out unless he is well mannered. Do not let him out and when he is making noise, pawing, whining, barking, etc... the longer he does this, the longer he stays in his crate. (Tie down the crate with bungee cords or box it in so he can't flip it, or chew on the objects outside the crate.) Make the crate a happy place for him and do not let him out until he is calm and you are ready. He will learn after a couple days, of you are persistent, that the crate is a place for him to relax, enjoy his toy, and sleep. That's really "formal" crate training. There nothing really special you need to do other than that.

As far as leaving him in the crate all day when you are at work, you can do this, but it is very important that you make time to fulfill his needs after work, including play, walks, training, and other ways to wear out his mind and body. By this time he may be able to sleep at the foot of your bed if well behaved. If not, he can sleep in the crate.

Sounds like he needs to get some training asap for your wife's sake. You've expressed that she likes you to do the question asking and wants to wait until you are home to get Kizer some training, but I encourage her to get help from a trainer sooner. A good trainer can build her confidence by showing her how to control Kizer. This will also help her gain respect from him at the age where he is testing the limits and possibly showing some dominance & difficulty. Even though you are the man of the house, she still is going to need to be the boss of Kizer too. If you are the only one who makes him behave, or trains him, he will only behave you (usually, for most dogs this is true). It is important for the whole family to learn how to train and live with their dog in a consistent, structured fashion.

I would also recommend a bark collar to help with the obnoxious barking. Ed sells one on the site.

Hope this helps!
Alison Voore

It sounds like you have ruled out an intense need to go potty? If that's the case, my next question is about exercise. Is your pup getting enough? While crates are a "best friend" IMO, dogs still need breed and age appropriate exercise.

Could you share more about the activity / exercise regimen?

Beth

Sorry Allison - we were posting at the same time. Great points with great details!

Beth

Alison beat me to it.

I'd also suggest (with no implied criticism whatsoever) that you will get more in the way of suggestions if you break up your posts so you ask one question in each post. The reason for this is that some folks won't have time to address the whole list, and some will have suggestions for one part but won't post because they don't have all the parts covered.

The part about "as soon as he gets outside with the neighbor's dogs" is fixed by ending that situation. This is JMO, but my dogs' training, play, and exercise comes from me. Just me. Their own "pack" is involved, but no one else's pack.

I too would recommend a lot more exercise, both mental and physical, including walks and playing and training. A tired dog is the goal. Tired = happy !)

A tired dog will sleep when he's crated.

That Leerburg video # 302 -- if you ordered that, your wife will find a wealth of info about living with a dog.

Good luck. I'd recommend again that your wife join this board. Aside from quick suggestions, it might help to have the understanding and camaraderie.

After re-reading your previous post on this dog, I would say that you could very well have a bored dog on your hands. A dog that is lacking mental and/or physical stimulation can often times result in problem behaviors like barking or digging, etc. An adult(ish) GSD does have high energy requirements that aren't going to be relieved by a short walk through the neighborhood.

So I would start there. Even if the dog is getting regular exercise, it certainly won't hurt to give more (if in good health), and could help. It sounds (at least from what you can tell in the post) like it could be that your dog likes the excitement of the other dogs and is seeking it out. He *could* have a dominance problem too, but it's hard to say based on only the behaviors you've mentioned.

Dogs learn by what works. For example: If your dog whines a little and is let outside, he will try whining as a means to get out again.

If that whining doesn't work the second time, and then he kicks it up a notch to barking and THAT works, then barking is where he'll start the third time.

At the third time, if he starts barking and that no longer grants him freedom, then he'll kick it up a notch to banging on the crate and if THAT gets him out, then that is where he'll start the fourth time.

Do you see where I'm going with this? What the dog is learning is to escalate the intensity because that is what works.

The only way to effectively deal with this is to ONLY allow the dog out of the crate when he is quiet. As hard as it is to do that at first (while he's "unlearning" bad behavior) it really is the only way, IMO.

My 2 cents: Exercise the dog's body (walks, fetch, etc.) and mind (basic obedience) more frequently. DON'T let the dog out of the crate when he's demanding it. And this dog clearly needs a strong pack leader.

The exercise/stimulation thing is something that many if not most German Shepherds demand. Some even more than others. It's part of owning that breed, like it or not. I don't mean in any way to discourage you from owning my personal favorite breed , but you should really make sure you can offer what this dog needs: exercise, stimulation and a strong leader.

If you have a dog exhibiting these kinds of behaviors, then I don't think being crated M-F, for 10 hours during the day (as you said in a different post), is going to work.

Please don't think I'm being negative...just giving you something to think about. You seem like someone really trying to solve these problems and I hope you see some progress.

Edited to say: ALL of the previous posters posted as I was writing this so I'm sorry to be redundant!

What about putting a blanket over the crate? My Lab jumps around in his crate sometimes when he can see and there is something highly stimulating to him going on. I just throw a blanket over it and he settles quite nicely. I have also taught him the "quiet" command when he barks or jumps around and he is learning that.

Keeping him crated while you are at work depends on the amount of exercise you are giving him AND how well housebroke he is AND how long you are gone. I work 8-9 hours a day with a 15 minute drive to and from work. Although most of the time I go home for lunch and give them a break, they have had to stay in their crates until I get home in the evening. I do this only in the winter time when it is REALLY cold out. Otherwise they all have outdoor kennels in which they stay in all day. When I get home, all get out to be walked and/or worked one at a time, if the weather is bad, we load up and go to a friends indoor riding arena to work.
I do give my dogs days off of work, but the walks happen daily.

Is there a way you can put up a chainlink kennel away from the neighbor dog? Have you thought about a "bark" collar? Are the neighbors dogs barking also? And if it a chainlink fence he can see through, maybe installing slats so that visibility is lowered.
Does your wife take the dog out for walks or is he mainly just let loose in the backyard? Taking him for walks and doing some mental work (obedience ect) with him will tire him out and lessen the crate episodes and quite possibly some of the barking.

My sisters dog used to bark continuously at the neighbors dogs and what she did is (please know that I do not recommend this with dog aggressive dogs and would not do it with my own dogs) is talked with the neighbors and they actually introduced the dogs and let them play. Now they sleep next to the fence together and do not bark at each other. Depends on what type of behavior he is displaying at the other dogs.
Hope at least some of this helps....
Keep us posted.



Geez, when I started typing this there were NO replies so I apologize if some of this is redundant.....

Thank you for all the great advice. I am fairly new to the boards and will try to post my questions in separate posts from now on to help you out as well. As far as exercise goes, my wife takes Kizer walking about a mile everynight. She doesnt like the task though since he is constantly dragging her around. I have told her that we need to purchase a prong collar but she does not want to have to use the prong collar personally and would rather those kind of things be left up to me. During the day he is also let out in the back yard of our home in base housing to run free all day long. These yards are not very large but they are big enough for a dog to get out and use the bathroom and stretch just a bit. It actually just a little bigger than the chainlink kennels that ive seen. I am very focused on starting formal training with Kizer as soon as I touch ground back in the states and also devoting as much time and effort into the training as necessary. If I see that it will take someone stronger than I am or more personal attention then I will gladly look for a better home for him. I would rather it not come to that though and that is why I came here. I will talk more with my wife and recommend once again that she joins the forums. Thank you again for all your help and I hope that I can return the favor some day for someone else.

I truly believe that Ed Frawley's Basic Obedience video will give your wife the confidence and the knowledge to deal much more comfortably with the dog.

Connie,
I completely agree that Ed's DVd will help a lot in this area. Tim trust me you will learn to handle your dog, it take time and work but it can be done as long as you are willing to put in the time, REMEMBER Your bond with your dog is more important than what your dog can or can not do. As far as a prong collar goes, your wife will love it the first time she uses it they get a very bad rap but are great tools. Prong collars are much better for your dog than a pinch collar is. Take the advice of the good folks on this board, get Ed's DVD.. build a Good Healthy Bond with your dog. Do not push to fast or too hard as your dog at 11 months is still very young and really is more like a two year old child and ask yourself what would you expect from a little two year old child. Keep smiling and be happy your dog will become more than you ever wanted.
Jay