18 month old now in crate! Advice please....

rich_h · #1 06-08-2007, 07:07 AM

Following my previous thread: Naughty Milly - again!!

We bought a crate for Milly as it was/is the only way to keep her safe. We introduced her slowly to it over the weekend. Started off with the door open with treats and built it up from there. Come Monday morning she gets in it fine, was left for 2.5 hours, walked for 1.5hours then back in for another 2.5hours. This has been repeated most of the week. Just to mention, the door is kept open at night as there have never been problems through the night.

Anyway, she seemed just fine. Given the choice of a couple of beds(while we were downstairs) she went for a sleep in her crate - can't be all bad. When I moved her bed though, the floor is really badly scratched!! Looks like she has been trying to get out and been in distress

I can only surmise that she must be getting SA or she really doesn't like being locked up.

Any pointer or advice would be great

Sorry if this should have been posted in the behavioral forum.

Richard

Biff · #2 06-08-2007, 08:24 AM

Biff has a plastic tray in the bottom of his cage - is this what Milly has scratched, or does her cage not have a bottom in it

How is she when you come home? Does she look as if she's been stressing?
(Biff is usually still giving it

when we come in

)

If she's going in on her own for a nap, I think she likes it, so it's probably not the crate that's the issue, but the fact that she's been left alone.When she was uncrated, she tried to destroy the house, so now she's shifted her energies and trying to destroy the crate

Is she off leash on her walks? Boxers really need to have a great big run around off leash, or another dog to play with, to tire them out - a tired boxer is a happy boxer!

rich_h · #3 06-08-2007, 08:29 AM

It's a plastic tray in the bottom of the crate.

All walks are off-lead, we're 1 minutes walk away from thousands of acres of woods, fields and tracks. She's walked 30 min in the morning, 1-1.5 hours at lunch and then 1-1.5 hours in the evening.

Except for the four occasions she has never destroyed anything in a ll the time we've had her, she doesn't pace about when we leave, she eats her treats when we're gone (tripe sticks

), no real signs of SA.

Biff · #4 06-08-2007, 08:52 AM

I wouldn't be too concerned about the scratch marks then - she probably dropped a bit of her tripe stick, and was either trying to find it, or playing a game of cat and mouse with it!

rich_h · #5 06-08-2007, 08:55 AM

Also, forgot to mention - she's been asleep eveytime I've come home.

I suppose the only way to really know is to film her! Not sure if I can do that though

nswain · #6 06-08-2007, 11:14 AM

My girl will bang around in her crate quite a bit if she's bored or just not sleepy. She doesn't have any separation anxiety issues, but sometimes she does like to tell us that she's not in the mood for her crate

She has a plastic crate and has scratched it up pretty badly.
So it might just be a boredom issue for your girl. Does she have toys etc in her crate? I guess my advice would be to put her in while you're home, try to spy on her

... maybe you can see if she looks distressed when she scratches or is just playing.

BXRBESTFRIND · #7 06-08-2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biff

I wouldn't be too concerned about the scratch marks then - she probably dropped a bit of her tripe stick, and was either trying to find it, or playing a game of cat and mouse with it!

Finlay gets his breakfast in his crate and when he drops the tiniest piece on his tray he scatches like crazy- seemingly out of excitement because its right there waiting to be slurpped up.

if you have a computer nearby you can cheaply set up a webcam and there are websites that will post the feed on the internet so you can watch from work.

Good Luck

Bodiesmom · #8 06-09-2007, 09:02 PM

Bodie's crate probably has scratches on the plastic too and he loves it! He has a bed and blanket in the crate and when he is really tired (this is when he acts like a crazy boy) or just plain bored he'll go nuts and start "digging" through his bed and blanket to the pan. He'll just scratch and be generally crazy until he gets tired and falls asleep. It isn't that he is trying to get out or is upset, he is just playing and being a general pest!

Unless she seems upset, I'd guess your girl is doing something similar.