My new PSD is a 15 mo. old malinois. When he is in his crate, he is constantly licking, scratching, biting, spinning in circles and DROOLING! This dog will coat the entire bottom of his crate with drool. He also barks at anything that moves. When outside the crate, he is an excellent dog. We are in our 1st week of training, and he is doing great. Except that this dog has no down time, because of his behavior in the crate. any suggestions. We have one other mal in our academy class that drools in his crate, but it is not as bad. Is this common for these dogs?
Although Mals are often "high-strung," these may be symptoms of extreme stress. You may need to break him in more gradually by having him spend only short sessions in the crate at first.
David C.Frost Webboard User Reg: 01-23-2002
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The dog knows there is activity taking place and he is not part of it. Behavior like that is not uncommon in classes that crate thier dogs. All my dogs are kept in thier cruisers when then are not particpating in training and rarely do we have a problem. The dog being young, obviously has a lot of drive that is why he was selected for training, I think you will begin to see him calm after sometime. Seperation anxiety can be such a nuisance in training.
DFrost
Any behavior that is reinforced is more likely to occur again.
Yes, this only occurs when he is in his crate. At home he stays in an outside run and is fine, but as soon as i put him in the crate he gets worked up. He doesn't hesitate going into the crate, it is only when i close the gate. I'm going to try and keep him in the crate for shorter periods of time, and then build on that. Thanks for the input, I'm getting tired of toweling him off everytime he gets out of the crate. He is literally soaking wet from head to toe.
For now you may want to try giving him something else to do in the crate than just worry about what he is missing out on. Suggestions would be a bone, or better a Kong with biskets inside. If the dog isn't really interested to start out, try smearing some peanut butter on the large opening. Break the biskets in small enough peieces that they will come out of the opening with some work and large enough that it isn't easy. After some distraction this behavior should decrease as the dog gets used to being calm in the crate.
If you can't be a Good Example,then You'll just have to Serve as a Horrible Warning. Catherine Aird.
It is not infrequent that such behaviors are seen in dogs. In the mal in particular, if they are not being worked and end up having spent a lot of time in the crate they develope some strange traits. I currently have one that was licking himself until totally soaked while in the crate. It occured after the dog had to sit in the kennel for a few weeks not getting worked.
Now that the dog is being worked with consistently the problem is gone.
Create a good schedule for the dog that includes training and excersise and the behavior will probably become at least tolerable, assuming no underlying health or temperment issues.
I was going to try and put him in the crate for shorter periods of time, but thats not going to work. The second i put him in the crate he starts "acting up". I'm going to try Kevin's suggestion of plenty of exercise. After each training exercise, I'll reward him with a long game of fetch & tug. I didn't want to do that before, because I thought I would be over doing the reward.
Thanks for the input.
Mike T.
The exercise idea is a good one - I would also give him something safe inside of his crate to occupy him a bit and help him establish his crate as safe and as "his." Good luck with him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
For anyone still interested. I tried giving him several different items while he is in the crate. The only thing that pre-occupies him are dog biscuits and I can't keep feeding him them. This is what I have been doing though. In between exercises, I either leave him in a pen at our training area or on a tie out in an isolated area. These are the only places were he will relax and actually lay down. I've also been giving him plenty of exercise/reward. At the end of the day, I then put him in his crate and bring him home. He still gets worked up, but not as bad because he is tired out from training. Hopefully he will just grow out of this, from consistent training.
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