doggy question

[NbyNW]

There's a lot of resources out there about crate training but I haven't had a ton of luck with it . . . or maybe I'm just a softy!

I don't know how critical it is that Mandy be crate-trained, if she's fine and you're fine with her being able to roam. Being crate-trained or not may be a factor as to whether or not she's a good fit for potential adopters.

I can share a bit of personal experience to illustrate, which may or may not be helpful:

Our dog Gordy is okay but not great in his crate, and that may have something to do with the fact that he had been tied up and abandoned for a time before he was rescued. My guess is that he feels that being in his crate is another kind of restraint that he is not comfortable with.

Gordy was crate trained by his foster family, but he doesn't LOVE being in his crate. His foster mom said that he stayed in his crate while she was at work, but it wasn't his favorite thing.

When we first brought Gordy home, DH was adamant that we not use a crate with Gordy. His experience with his dogs growing up was that you did not put your dog in a crate. But we started to notice that Gordy seemed to be most comfortable in some of the more enclosed spaces in our home -- under tables, at the end of a hallway, in a corner, etc. Plus since we travel a fair amount and some dog-friendly hotels like for you to have a crate, we decided to give a crate a try.

It took almost a week for Gordy to get comfortable with his crate -- I would put his bed and some of his toys in it during the day in the same room as my home office. He would check it out, walk through it, but not stay in it. When he lay down in it on his own I gave him a treat. A few nights later he just went to sleep in his crate before I had a chance to move his bed back to its usual spot, and so that's how he has slept ever since. He sleeps in his crate with the door open, but he wants to be able to come and go as he pleases.

Sometimes I need him to be in his crate with the door closed, like when someone comes to fix/install things at the house (he doesn't like it when strangers are at the house, but that's another issue), or I need to work for a period of time without distraction. I can get him to stay happily in his crate with a Kong that's stuffed with peanut butter and cookies and frozen. I'll close the door to his crate with the Kong in it so that he begs to be let in! Then he'll be busy with the Kong for the better part of an hour. When he's done he'll start to scratch at the crate and beg to be let out.

He may never be totally at ease in his crate with the door closed, and we've decided we're okay with that. The only down side is that he sometimes tracks dirt up onto the couch. I'm looking at some furniture covers to try to keep the furniture from getting too dirty.

One of our local doggy daycares offers a "crate games" class that I think we might sign up for, after we're a bit more settled. It may make a difference, it may not.

I guess to sum up -- every dog is different, and every dog-owner relationship is different and evolving. Maybe since you are fostering Mandy and you may not know how long she'll be with you, you just work on what you can with her. (Sorry this was so long!)

[badger]

thanks for the input, NbyNW. I do wish that she would be more curious and comfortable with her crate. I do feed her in it, hoping she would associate it with good things, but as soon as she's done, she jumps out and never looks back.

Actually, my cat sleeps in the crate!

My feeling is that from what I gather, she was abandoned as a 2day old puppy outside a private shelter in Taiwan. They bottle fed her, but with 600 dogs, she was probably in a kennel all the time, not being socialized well. Adding insult to injury, she had to be in the crate for almost 24 hours during travel from Taiwan to Vancouver, so I'm sure she doesn't have good feelings associated with the inside of a crate.

I do think that being crate trained they're more appealing for adoption, but she really is very quiet and calm inside the house. Whenever I come home, She comes out from the bedroom where she's sleeping on her bed. She's obviously most comfortable in my bedroom.

If she was food motivated, things would be a lot easier, but she isn't. I know she'll be okay in the crate while I'm at work, but I'm sure it will stress her out. The time I would like for her to be crated is at night so I can sleep, but as it is, she'll scratch at the metal door creating quite a bit of ruckus, and she's starting to whine as well, so it makes for fitful sleeping.

To make matters worse, her presence is a bit of a threat to my cat, so he insists on sleeping ON TOP of me to claim me as his territory - all 19lbs of purring blubber!!