Quote: lauren bricking

she is not in her crate all day as of right now. i put her in for intervals, and take her out. Under the Q & A under Dog Training Articles on the index to the left was where it was talked about to leave a dog in the crate the entire day. A lady wrote in with a similar problem with a rescue dog, and the man suggested to leave the dog in the crate all day to "get the ghosts out of its head." She wrote back and said after 2 weeks, the dog had completely changed its behavior, and it had established confidence, and no longer whined. I don't know if this would be an option for my situation or not (maybe if the whining never ended!)

Lauren, I read the Q&A you mentioned on Ed's site. It was a different situation than yours; her dog was tearing up the carpet and window blinds and probably doing other things which it seemed the owner had previously written Ed about. There was destructive behavior going on while the owner was away.

Besides, the 24/7 crate time was not Ed's words, they were the emailer's words. Ed said to crate the dog 30 min before leaving the house and not let the dog out until 30 min after coming back.

You originally wrote regarding the 24/7 thing, "However, I'm afraid that she will become distrustful, and less sociable than she already is." Those are your instincts, I'd go with them. Make the crate an enjoyable experience as previous posters wrote, which will take a while for your dog. Give her a treat when you do crate her. In the meantime, play with her, praise her when she does something good even if you haven't asked her, spend time training her basics and giving her treats and praise, generally do what you can to build her up (her confidence and trust of you). She follows you around cause that's what dogs do. She wants and needs the bond with you.