Background:
I have a 4 year old Mali / Shepherd mix, that is a full service working dog. He was originally bought by a security agency, that quickly realized that a working dog, in of itself is a full time job. I own a private security agency, but work with dogs on a regular basis. I obtained the dog, after testing it. The dog does great on odor (meth, marijuana, cocaine base, and heroin), only thing I am working on changing is his alert. His drug foundation consisted of an active alert, and I prefer passive. However his bitework was comparible to sport, and would only engage a helper / decoy with gear. Through muzzle work, and a good decoy we have worked on this, and he now alerts when told, and will engage a helper with no equipment (he was a social little butterfly, that although aloof to people, he did not see anyone as a threat).

Problem:
Here is my problem. Since building his drives, mostly through fustration, and defense he has became a real pain in the crate. What I mean is that he often times chewes an aluminum dog crate to the point where he leaves teeth marks, and claw marks in the metal. This compounded yesterday when we where training, and a shutzhund group showed up. He scratched so hard at the crate door (aluminum box) he broke his nails, and ruptured his quick on 3 toes, not to mention he bit his tounge. Now this does not happen on a regular basis. At first it started when he was watching other dogs work, and got loaded off of the whip. So we moved him out of site, and further away and covered the crate to calm him down. Yesterday there was a large schutzhund meeting, and he went berzerk. Everytime a whip popped, he loaded and tried to get out of his crate to engage the decoy. Even though he was out of site of the helper / decoy, he loaded off of the sound. He was moved to about 200 yards away, and his behaviour continued. We have tried to use a long line to a prong collar to give a correction in the crate, he will comply, but chews the rope. Used an E-collar, but overrides it / loads off of it. Banging the crate and telling him to "OFF" loads him as well. We have tried marker training for this, and well once he gets that high in drive, it doesnt work.

We will continue to use the longline method, we are considering using a smaller wire braided long line to prevent chewing. But I am looking for any other ideas that you may have. For most dogs I wouldnt care if they "loaded" in the crate, as this creates fustration, and fustration builds drive, but when it comes to the dog doing harm to itself in the process, I have a problem.

Joshua, I know nothing about the type of training you are doing and what might be good or bad for the dog so take this for what it's worth.

Have you seen these: http://leerburg.com/1109.htm

Filled with their favorite treat, it can be an incredible distraction. If he’s at all ball driven, I would have him retrieve it a few times when introducing it, see if he has an interest it in. Then when he’s nice and relaxed at home, I’d put his highest value reward in it. Get him used to lying calmly, working on it and take it away when he’s really into it. This should build some desire for it.

Then when you take him out to the field, before the excitement starts, put it in his crate with him. It may provide a distraction. And if nothing else, will give him an option to chewing on the metal. That’s gotta be painful.

Again, I know nothing about the training you’re doing and perhaps the chewy distraction may not be conducive to it.

Just a thought.

In addition to being out of site of the dog that is working, can you leave the crate in a vehicle, where the sounds are not as loud? Leave the radio on, in addition to CJ's suggestion of a high value treat reward. It sounds like he need to be completely isolated when other dogs are being worked so he can retain some level of calm.

The everlasting treat balls are great. You can fill them with wet food, peanut butter, cheese, kibble, raw HB or chicken bits (they are dishwasher safe.) I realize this probably will do NOTHING to distract him if he can see and or hear the protection work going on- my dog won't touch it when he can hear another dog working.

Is he calm in his crate when he's in a relaxing/normal enviroment?

I can sympathize. Koenig (my DS) broke a lower canine last week. I have no idea how he did it, other then assuming it was while he was in the crate at training. it sucks.

We have tried Kongs, Cow hoofs, pig ears, etc to get him to distract to an object that he loves. He doesnt care, he knows where we are, and why we are there. Even training at diffrent locations, he seems to know. Futhermore the crate is in the vehicle, Ive tried windows up, A/C on, and even radio on. If he hears a whip, he is in drive, and wanting to work no matter the harm he causes to himself. Luckily he hasnt broken a tooth yet!

As far as at home in the crate, or at work. He isnt as worked up. If he is in the car with me at work, or around town he tends to whine, but we are working on that behavior. At home, he is fine, and doenst whine, or destroy his crate (anymore).

I know nothing at all about these super type dogs.
Advice people have written to me about my dog becoming super hyper, trying to force an outcome, was to just have what he wanted to happen, not happen, until he settled down.
What would happen if you went to these training places, and if he got all crazy, you just drove home? Had a boring game of fetch? So that you only let him do his work when he was a "cool head" in his crate, otherwise you just went on home. Could you do that?

http://leerburg.com/cratewarning.htm

This is for a dog with separation anxiety but what your dog is doing IS a form of anxiety. You may get some ideas from the article.

Thank you Cindy, we had a round table meeting about this (decoy, trainer, and I), and have came up with the conclusion of trying to first correct the problem by using a muzzle in conjunction with a long line for corrections. This will be replaced by an E-collar, as soon as I get my Dogtra 1900 back from service. Its hard to train for this in a low stim enviroment, because he is great in the crate at home, and at the training field until the whip is popped. He busted out of 1 crate, when I first got him, and we worked on it. The crate he busted out of wasnt in the absolute best condition, and the new one he got is a new skykennel. I believe the plastic in the old one was a bit brittle. I do like the Bark Collar suggestion. And do appreciate all of the responses. Luckily, and thankfully I am able to get sound advice from members here, and from great trainers such as Bob Gailey, and Gottfried Dildei. Thank you leerburg! and keep up the good work.

 Quote: joshua mercer

Thank you Cindy, we had a round table meeting about this (decoy, trainer, and I), and have came up with the conclusion of trying to first correct the problem by using a muzzle in conjunction with a long line for corrections. This will be replaced by an E-collar, as soon as I get my Dogtra 1900 back from service.

I told myself I wasn't going to get involved in this discussion. Primarily I was going to stay out of it because I feel you caused the problem with your "frustration and defense" techniques in the first place. Now I read to solve an anxiety/frustration problem your going to cause more anxiety and frustration. I guess, in the long run, pouring gasoline on a fire will eventually cause the fire to go out. Of course that's when there is nothing left. At any rate, the article provided by Ms Cindy will provide a lot more help than a long line, prong and electronics. This from a guy that worships at the alter of Dogtra. Like any tool however, they have their time and place.

DFrost

Frost:

While I respect your view, and see your view on this matter, this is a bi-product of standardized training. Atleast for the trainers I work with, and haved worked my dog. I have seen this done to other dogs, and as every dog is different, this dog in particular became a prick in the crate. While I don't like the behavior, nor expected this extreme of behavior, it is a behavior I have to shape, and deal with quickly to prevent it becoming an imprint. Barking in the crate was the goal, scratching and biting is a serious bi-product of that goal behavior. We knew that this "could" happen, but are taking steps early in the training to prevent it from being carried over. We are working to fix what this dog does, and will use any method that works to prevent injury to the dog. Thank you for your input.

 Quote: joshua mercer

We have tried to use a long line to a prong collar to give a correction in the crate, he will comply, but chews the rope. Used an E-collar, but overrides it / loads off of it. Banging the crate and telling him to "OFF" loads him as well. We have tried marker training for this, and well once he gets that high in drive, it doesnt work.

We will continue to use the longline method, we are considering using a smaller wire braided long line to prevent chewing. But I am looking for any other ideas that you may have.

I'm a bit confused... The new plan is a long line combined with a muzzle, and an ecollar when it comes back from being repaired?

Isn't this exactly what you were doing, except for adding the muzzle, and not getting the results you wanted?