In one of Ed's videos regarding Pack Structure he mentions the expectaion the person should impress upon the dog that the dog will be calm in the crate. How does one do this?

I have a young Mal, she's just a year old. We acquired her only 2 months ago. She is housebroken and able to sleep loose in my son's room all night without any problem. Likewise, we can put her in a crate in my son's room and she will remain calm and clean so long as we are around. When loose she follows us around the house and will lay calmly on the floor anytime we stop or have a seat.

We have left the house in the past for a short time and confined her to my son's room. She has done fine with that. We have also confined her to the crate in his room when we know we will be gone for longer times. She remains clean in the crate, but she spins circles inside of it so much that we have had to weigh the crate down so she cannot move it; otherwise, she'll have it scooted across the room in short order.

Recently we put her in a wire crate in the garage. We did this in anticipation of stomach upset following her spaying surgery. Her eating schedule and bathroom schedule seem to be back on track now seveal days after surgery, but she will not keep that crate clean if we leave her in there and leave the house. I believe it is tied all to seperation anxiety. Once she is alone in the garage and the door is closed for us to leave, she starts her whining, barking and spinning around. Without fail over the past several days we have returned to a soiled crate. The first instance was prior to the surgery. That morning my wife put her in the wire crate in the garage prior to leaving for work. I was to be home within the hour. By the time I got home she had soiled the crate and made a real mess of things by trampling through it over and over again while spinning around. Since then, it seems that in just a matter of minutes after we leave the house and put her in the garage crate she will soil it. We can have her in that crate while we are doing things outside, walking past her from time to time and staying in her sight, and she stays clean and only moderately wound up. Once the garage is closed up and we appear to be nowhere around, all bets are off.

Given her recent history, I am hesitant to leave her alone in my son's room or the crate in his room despite that she has never soiled there in the past. Regardless, I also want her to remain clean in the garage crate.

On a related note, she is fine if we leave her loose in our fenced yard. If we conifne her to the 10' x 20' kennel at the corner of the yard she will also go nuts spinning in circles and whining non-stop.

Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

What type of daily exercise does this dog get? Have you tried to exercise her before leaving her in the crate? Have you tried treat-filled toys in the crate when you leave?

What is this dog's history? Where did she come from and what was her life like prior to you obtaining her?

Edited by Konnie Hein (10/02/2010 09:51 AM)
Edit reason: added more questions

A wire crate in a garage/non-living space is a big change from a crate (I'm assuming a plastic airline crate) in a very familiar and safe living/sleeping area in the house.

I'm going to guess that she would be fine back in her crate in your son's bedroom. You will never know until you try it. You can put down a shower curtain under the crate so that any flung poop and pee is easy to clean.

If you want to keep her isolated in an unfamiliar area then introducing it more slowly may help her anxiety. You could try closing the garage door and then immediately opening it again, repeat with gradually increasing times that the door is closed. Leaving a cloth/toy with family member's scents on it with her may also help.

Have you tried leaving a stuffed kong in the crate with her? Do you tire her out with play/exercise before you crate her?

I also think you need to look at your long term plan for her. Do you intend for her to stay in the garage or the outside kennel while you are gone, or do you plan on having her in your living area?

Edit: After you are sure she is comfortable in her old spot and crate you can start moving the crate around the house so she will be comfortable in more than one area, then the garage won't be such a shock to her.

Putting a blanket over the crate can go a long way towards making a dog comfortable. An open wire crate just feels like confinement. A covered crate is more of a den. You can even turn it around so it faces a wall to make it even less stimulating. And treat stuffed toys are great too. If your pup gets the treats out too fast try a frozen kong. Just smear peanut butter up the inside of the kong, press treats into the peanut butter and freeze it. It also works with cream cheese, tuna(dog favorite!), wet dog food, cheese spreads, a mixture of any of the above, etc.

Thank you for the insight and suggestions. You ladies have pointed out things that I can put to use; small changes that may make a big difference.

I have never put a Kong with food in it in the crate with her. I'll give it a try. I have left a Nylabone in with her when she's in the crate in my son's room, but she's never seemed interested in it.

A blanket over the crate may be just the ticket. She does tend to gravitate to den like areas around the home. It tends to get hot in the garage, so I was thinking the open crate was a better choice than an airline crate. Maybe she'll like it better enclosed? I'll try, too, the cloth with my son's scent on it.

She usually gets plenty of exercise, although we've been trying to have her take it easy for a week since she was spayed this past Monday.

Generally, when we are home the dog is loose with us inside the house. She is confined to my son's room or in the crate in his room when we are eating dinner, but that's about it. That said, this past week we have had her in the garage crate to keep her segregated from the other dog while she heals. Prior to this week, the only time we have had her in that garage crate was on a single recent occassion when we had guests over for dinner. She made a mess in the crate that time, too

As far as how we manage her, as stated above, when we are home she is loose following us around the house. If we go out she is confined to my son's room, the crate in my son's room, placed outside in the fenced yard or put in the outside kennel, depending on what we are doing with the other dogs.

She slept loose in my son's room last night and did just fine

As stated in my previous post, I very seldom plan to leave her in that wire crate in the garage, but it's not an option I want to have to rule out. Do you think these things get better with time, meaning that if she's not put in there and stressed for several months as she continues to mature and become more comfortable in general (she's already come a long way from being the mess she was when we acquired her) will she perhaps tolerate it better and be fine when re-introduced to the wire crate in the garage?

Hey! I saw this and just HAD to post!

I have a 1 year Mal, but I got him at 8 weeks. He used to soil his crate and panic every time we left, and minutes after we left, just like your dog! I kept buying smaller crates in hopes that he wouldn't have enough room to do it, and he still would!

I found out that he didn't like the cargo crates because he felt too enclosed. Once we got the wire crate, the accidents stopped. I understand that you are using a wire crate already though, so I'm not sure if that was much help.

Also with the spinning, Dewey does the same thing when we leave, even to the point of rubbing his nose so much that it bleeds everywhere. I found that using a nice (sensitive) bark collar helps with the spinning (as well as the barking, lol) because when he rubs it on the sides of the crate when he spins, it corrects him. He is also trained with an E-collar, so he understands e-corrections. Its nice that it will correct him for that behavior even when I am not home. He now only occasionally spins a few times and then lays down. Generally I don't even put the collar on him anymore because he understands the concept.

I make him "settle" and lay there for a minute before I let him out too. It sort of reinforces the fact that I want him to be calm and laying while in the crate. He understands this and will do it even when he is really excited.

I hope this helps some, or at least gives you some of your own ideas!