yep. kongs, bones, a whole chicken...
when i leave, nothing distracts him from the fact that i am gone, and he is still there.
in his mind, what good is a kong filled with treats when he can get out and eat out of the litterbox/raid the cabinents?
for him, the idea of being "closer to me" outweighs any personal injury he might receive, or any treat he gets while in there.

Mallory, I spoke to my neighbor. He is a welder. He said he could build a steel crate that no dog could get out of for $225. The kind that are on the market are aluminum. Steel is much heavier but cheaper. If you don't need to move it often the price might be right for you.

wow, that might be a good idea. I will think about that.
I just need it to have lots of ventilation.

Hi Mallory,

I'm sorry if this has already been addressed but I am not up to date on posts and may have missed it. It seems like the escaping from the crate is secondary to a pretty severe case of seperation anxiety? Are you working to desensitize him to this on a daily basis? My thought from your description, is that even with a crate he can not break out of, there is the potential he will injure himself in his urgency to escape. The muzzle is a good idea to protect his teeth but consider his nails, face and whole body when he freaks.

That being said you definitely need a new crate, the one he has already escaped from is compromised at the points he forced his exit from, short of rebuilding it, it is not going to contain him.

I worked with a rescue who had terrible seperation anxiety. Though he could not be left alone in the house, he could be crated forever in the car. The woman who was fostering him would take him to work with her every day (weather permitting) and leave him crated in the car, this worked until she was able to get the seperation anxiety under control. I also think he may require medication again to help with remedying this. I have some excellent information on seperation anxiety. I'll get it together and send it along to you. Goodluck

Mallory - There would be plenty of ventilation. The steel bars would only need to be close enough to prevent you dog's escape. The bars themselves don't need to be very wide.

yes, he does have a huge separation anxiety problem.
It was really bad up until he was about 7-8 months old, then it settled.
He will be 2 in about 2 weeks.
Like i said, he has only done this a total of about 10-15 times. It is just getting more frequent because i am having them all spend more time in crates.
But he was sedated for a while, and it didn't do much, but that doesnt mean another medication wouldn't work.
But yes, i have worked on desensatizing him. I can walk in and out of doors, pick up keys, put of shoes, etc. Nothing. He doesn't care. The freaking out doesn't start till well after i leave. I mean, he does bark, btu stops within minutes after i leave.
i can never tell when he s going to try and escape. 96% of the time in his crate, he is fine. It's that random 4% where he just loses it.

i really would appreciate that. I could pay that much, just not the 400-1000+ crates, with shipping on top of that.

Well, with good reason, bart is extremely tense.
I know he is sore, and i tries to give a massage, and when i touch certain ribs he jumps and yelps. I don't think anything is broken, but i am sure his ribcage has been jammed craming his body through tiny holes like that.
He is emotionally relaxed right now, but i can just look at him and tell how sore he is. His ribcage is all drawn up, and he is walking stiff.

I have some calm and relax i will give tonight.
I also have baby asprine, but i can't remember the dosage to give dogs. My vet told me, but i forgot.
What can i do to help relieve his soreness.
I want to do this tonight, as i know going back in a crate when you are sore and stiff makes you feel worse.....

i know it sounds dumb, but can he have a hot bath to soak???
are there people medicines he can have? He is 45lbs....so whatever dosage that would be.

 Quote: Mallory Kwiatkowski

He can either slide the tray out, flip the crate over and go out through the bottom.

We had an escape artist that would slide the tray out. We fixed that by turning the whole crate on its side and using the side as the bottom. It makes opening the door awkward, but the tray stays put. Unfortunatley, nothing worked with our dog for long except one of the really expensive crates.

Mallory - I would go to a couple of your local welders and tell them what you need. If you shop around a little bit maybe you can get a better price.