doggy question

[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!!