Should I crate my dog even if she's scared of it?

[dunbreedin]

I've had my rescue dog for 3 months and she's just over 1 year old. I got a crate for her after reading good things about them, but she is really scared of it and has never gone inside. If I put treats inside, she will stretch her neck out as far as she can to reach them, but she will not put a foot inside, even if the best treats are near the back.

My dog trainer advised me to take the top off the crate (it is an airline carrier type one, not a more open wire one) and let her explore just the bottom half first, but she is still the same and won't go inside.

Is it worth carrying on with desensitising her to it, or should I just accept that some dogs just don't like being enclosed? She is well behaved mostly, but does chew things that she finds, especially soft furnishings, cushions etc, and I thought it would be helpful to have a place to put her when I can't watch her, to stop the destruction!

I have four dogs and only use a crate at night for the puppy who is now just over six months old. We bought a crate as an aid to housetraining him as apparently dogs won't soil their own bed and so far it has worked.

We're lucky that none of our dogs are chewers or at least they don't chew anything they're not supposed to. They always have toys and bones available should they fancy chomping on something.

I'm just trying to understand why you want to use a crate for you dog. Is it so that you can put the dog in it while you are out and aren't able to stop her chewing or is it to punish her when she's caught chewing?

Whenever we caught one of our dogs chewing we'd shout "no" and take away/take them away from whatever is was that they were tenderising and give them a toy or bone to chew. We've done the same with the puppy who took a bit of a liking to the corner of a table. He quite happily chews bones now or chases the Kong toy around trying to get the treats out.

What do you do when you catch her in the act?

I don't want to use it as a punishment, but as you say more of a place to put her when I'm out, and for her to have somewhere to retreat to. As well as stopping her chewing things she's not meant to, I was hoping it would help her be more relaxed, as she's quite nervous and easily stressed (hence the problem getting her in the thing!)

When I catch her chewing things she's not meant to, I do the same as you; take it away and give her one of her chew toys, which she usually accepts happily, but it doesn't stop her doing it again later. I'm trying to do what the positive training books say and ignore bad behaviour, but that means having to find ways to restrict the behaviour before it can start, which I thought the crate would be good for. However I don't want to cause problems by making her do something she's scared of.

I can see that it would be handy to crate her while you're out. Have you tried putting her in the crate? If so what happens? Does she just whine a bit or get very agitated?

Also, are most of the things she chews, like cushions, removable? If so then could you remove them for a couple of weeks so she can get out of the habit of chewing them and develop a new habit of just chewing her own toys and bones that are on the floor. You could also try rewarding her with a doggy treat when she goes over to one of her own chew toys and starts chewing it.

I only tried to put hr in once, and she resisted and struggled so much I gave up. We hadn't had her very long then and I didn't want to terrify her. I was thinking of trying to put her in again now she's more secure and sure of us, but our trainer told me not to, so I'm not sure whether to go against what she said.

Yes, cushions are one of her favourites and I removed them all weeks ago, and only bring them out if we're actually going to sit there, but then if I forget and leave them there she will grab them and try to shred them. She's also had a go at the rug, and this evening I caught her chomping the corner of the sofa, which is what prompted me to rethink the crate idea.

I hadn't actually thought of rewarding her for chewing her own toys - am new to this dog training thing! Will give that a go and see if it makes a difference. So do you think I should just give up on the crate - if so, why? Do most dogs not need them when they're older than a year or so?

I had never heard of these dog crates until quite recently and that anyone would ever use them. Cant think of anything more cruel. If the dog is scared of it then I think YABU. But maybe thats just me!

Whats more cruel giving your dog access to chew things that may kill it or teaching it to like its own space?

You may find that she will prefer the open mesh ones - if you could borrow one to see.

Then put the dog food in the crate and let her eat it. Don't m ake a big deal if she doesn't and leave it in there for a while so she can do it in her own time. Do not push her in at all. Drop treats in the crate really yummy ones and smelly ones (liver cake is great.) Over time the dog will associate the crate with pleasurable things. It will take time with an older dog and also a rescue that may have had a difficult past.

Chewing is a sign of anxiety in a adult dog and I applaud you for trying to find ways to decrease this and a crate often does just that.

Do you clicker train? That would desensitive the most anxious dogs to crates. There is a you tube clip lurking about on here about a horse that was terrified of its stable and with clicker training soon loved the stable.

If you do clicker train - put her near the crate and click and treat - then if she looks at the crate click and treat and eventually up the anti until she is in the crate. If I were nearby I would come and do it for you.

I don't think the crates are cruel if they're used sparingly and the crate gives the dog room to stretch out comfortably.

As I said earlier, we just use ours at night and Alex, the puppy, walks in to it happily and goes to sleep. It's been great as we haven't woken up to puddles of wee in the morning.

I woudn't use it at any other time than at night though. I put all the dogs in the kitchen when we're out but they're never left alone for more than a few hours at time.

I want to get rid of the crate asap to be honest as our puppy is a Dogue De Bordeaux so he's not a small cuddly puppy and his crate is the size of a box room.

I am like you Amandoh I use them for puppies then when the dog is 2 ish remove them for comfy/more attractive beds. But only today I have been setting up the dog room for a new puppy coming next week and 5 dogs tried to climb into the crate set up for him!

I do feel that it is vital that dog owners teach their dogs to be bored. Ironic really as I run dog training classes and activity classes but a dog that can settle on its own comfortably for a short length of time is a happy dog. He can be left but equally he can be taken more places as he will be calm and not need constant attention. This training can be done so easily with the correct use of crates.

i don't think crates are cruel either. when our dog was a puppy she loved her's - it was where she went if she was tierd or stressed (ie having been told off for being naughty)

We had no choice but to crate our 8 month old lab after an operation - can't say I felt particularly cruel in helping her being able to walk again.... but then again this is not AIBU either, so not really sure what shouting YABU at the OP is about!

She hated it at first, but she soon got used to it. She'll be 1 year old this week, and she's perfectly happy to go in the crate willingly (sometimes if the door's shut she'll bark until we open it). She's fully healed now but is going through another phase of chewing everything, so we're still crate her every morning. It also means she's guaranteed to sleep after her breakfast, instead of running around the garden with her big sister! We come home at lunchtime and let her out, then when we go back to work after lunch both dogs go out into the garden and we push the crate up to the back door, so when they come in through the doggy flap they can only go in the crate, rather than having run of the kitchen. The crate is huge though - plenty big enough for both dogs to lie down and stretch out in, and more than tall enough for them to stand up in (in fact DH can lie in there!). We thought they'd never use it, as they love being outside and even sit out in the rain. But most afternoons we'll come home and they'll both be fast asleep in there! At first the older dog (3) was terrified of it, and even treats wouldn't tempt her inside. But since we've been using it against the dog flap she's learnt it's not something to be scared of, and now she'll go in happily. I'm not sure either of them would like an enclosed one though - there's is the open wire type, so they can see what's going on around them. I also worry that the enclosed ones could cause them to overheat, but I guess it depends where it is.

I have to admin I'm looking forward to the day the youngest stops chewing so I can put the crate away, because it's huge! But considering our very sensible 3 year old destroyed the oven glove yesterday completely out of the blue (and when I was in the next room!), I'm not sure they ever grow out of it

MrsL - that's a very good point about the over heating; we live in Singapore where it's always hot and humid, so it would probably be very bad for her to be put in the enclosed one for any length of time. She actually seems to prefer sleeping stretched out on the floor, as it's marble so is nice and cool on her skin!

Right, so I think I'll get rid of the enclosed one, and see if I can find anyone to borrow a wire one from. I know my mil had one for her Staffy, but he died last year so I'm not sure if she kept it, and it would be very tricky to get it over here, but worth asking.

my puppy is almost 5m old and we have crated her from almost day one

she goes in it when we are out, and to sleep in overnight

the first couple of nights she howled and howled , when she was in the kitchen, so we moved her in the crate to our bedroom, and she stopped yelling

after a couple more nights we moved her to another room, and she has been fine ever since

now she doesnt make any noise

it isnt cruel, its her space to sleep and rest, and it also helped her get housetrained, as she wont soil her own bed

i have often found her in there with the door open

i meant to add , she uses a wire crate not an enclosed one

Yes, I think the wire ones must be better - I obviously made a rookie mistake when I asked for it at the pet shop without actually knowing what I really needed and didn't question if there were other kinds of crates. Ah well, you live and learn!