Dog hates her crate now

[MiniCooperLover]

Our GBGV is 10 months old: almost from the beginning she's slept brilliantly in her crate which was downstairs in the kitchen. In the last month she's had a lot of upheaval where she's had a 2 week holiday with the dog walker (who she adores) and when she came home we were in the middle of a renovation and her crate 'place' is gone so we've now spent a lot of time upstairs.

She sleeps on the floor upstairs while we are watching TV and at nighttime we then pop her back down in her crate. My thinking was it was time to get her a big comfy bed and she could sleep in the sitting room when it's finished. But she's gone back to breaking out of her crate. This morning about 6 I heard her break out and she came running upstairs to me. I took her out and she did a poo, then shot upstairs under my bed where she is now panting sounding distressed.

I know we've caused this but how do I fix it for her?! 😢

Could she stay out of here crate in a basket or is it important she still uses it? Some dogs just grow out of their crate. Our last dog just didn't want to be in it when he got to around a year. Current dog still happy to use his but we've decided to move him to just a basket now he is older.

I’ve never used a crate. But most people don’t agree with letting a large breed, or any breed for that matter share a pillow - i do. I think if you ask yourself the question of where would you rather be, your answer would be the same as the dogs. I personally have no love for a cage, but accept others do. So for me, I would advise, she’s not here long let her sleep where she likes!

If you have been given a better living option, you’ll try and fight for that no? Yes. But on that note if she MUST go back into her crate, then start from scratch. Small intervals. Back to puppy crate training.

Just leave her out of it and put her a bed where you want her to sleep , she may damage herself trying to break out of it .

Does she need to be in a crate?

We've never crated ours and we've never had any destruction in the house.

She has been quite destructive when younger (just very chewy on anything she can find, but no awful behaviour) but the main reason was she seemed to really like the security of the crate and slept so well in it. It was also helpful if I had to go out and she was being chewy. She's 10 months now and calmer generally and my plan was to give her a lovely comfy bed in the Sitting room as soon as our building work is finished and then if she woke up and wanted to get up she still had the sofas to sit on but this mornings behaviour has made me wonder.

I think she broke out because she needed a poo - I took her outside and I'm very cross DH didn't at 5am as he used to: he hadn't told me he'd stopped doing it, often she didn't bother getting out of the crate so he took it as a sign he could stop. But though she wouldn't go back into the crate she clearly craved something 'covered' hence the desperation to sleep under our bed? 😳

I want her comfortable and happy but realistically I don't want her upstairs or she'll wake up everyday really early when DH goes to work. Hmm ...

And yes I really don't want her to hurt herself. She's 15KG now her crate is all bent where she used to break out regularly.

And then one day she stopped breaking out and went to bed voluntarily and used it for quiet time again.

Is the building work done?
I don't think you should tackle this until it has all finished and you have a good stretch at a routine.

No it's not. My aim was once it's finished (and because she's been so calm) to progress her to a soft bed in the sitting room but that's at least 2 more weeks away and I feel I should address her behaviour now 😳

I don't think your DH is in the wrong for stopping taking her out at 5am though. At ten months old she should be sleeping through the night without any need for the toilet.

You clearly can't leave her in the crate as she could really hurt herself trying to get out - unless you try crating her in your room while
the building work is going on, and then set up a fresh routine once it's all sorted?