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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Dawn has a background in competition in breed and the obedience ring, the whelping box, trained her own ‘registered therapy dog’, herding, tracking, lure coursing, water work training, field training, agility, and sailing with her boat trained dog. Dawn was one of the few trainers utilizing ‘positive reinforcement’ based methods before it’s popularity. Dawn has been interviewed by authors for a variety of articles such as Dog Fancy and The Washington Post. The Washingtonian Magazine chose Dawn as one of “Washington’s Best Dog Trainers”. As the owner, and founder of Merit Puppy Training, LLC, she continues to teach group classes and also works as a private consultant.
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[Edit]
6/27/2005
Hello my name is Leeann. I have a male ESS/beagle/possible lab whose about 1 1/2 yrs. Old. We have a crate for him and we've been trying to crate train him but we're having problems getting him to like it. We've tried replacing the lock that came with door and getting 2 locks on it (he breaks out), we've tried putting padding in for him to lay on, we've tried having the radio low on the shelf next his crate and we always leave toys in there and a Kong and his food/water dish. He does have separation anxiety and he was dropped off a few times at the shelter before we got him. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. (CincoAndDahlila, Wisconsin )
Trying to crate train an older say teen dog such as you have with no prior history it appears of learning to accept confinement, unfortunately some folks use the crate for reasons such as punishment, only use it when they leave the house, only use it at night for sleeping, and never or rarely use it when the owner is home which it should be used at those times as well.....think of it as a crib or playpen for a baby. When used under those conditions (other than while you are home using it as a playpen or crib) the dog may make the association of being crated means you are leaving....not so good.
I have seen a few dogs break out of crates not many, in all my years of experience I have had 2 boarding guest dogs that pulled the door of the vari kennel IN thus he was able to get out, and one dog that pawed at the springs on the wire crate until he was able to use his nose to push up the lever and open the door....which one are you using? If you need to crat
e your dog for obvious reasons such as destruction, and as you mentioned anxiety related to possible stress and/or separation anxiety, you might want to back up and re-condition the dog to look at the crate in a different way.
I feed my dogs in the crate, give chewies, stuffed Kongs, etc....Have you tried an x-pen? Some dogs do better in that as there is more room and they don't fell so closed in, but if desired they can squeeze under the x-pen and get out as well as jump or scale over the top as I have witnessed.
I think the first thing you need to do is try to contact a local trainer for an in-home consultation who uses positive reinforcement based methods, and is familiar with your type of issue, and they have experience working behavioral problems, or you can try to find an animal behaviorist, either road you take you need to have them come to your home for the consultation.
I am assuming also that your dog has been medically checked out for any health issues that may have been missed that could possibly be a contributing factor, I am reaching here because I don't know your dog, environment, and that makes a big difference. Treating separation anxiety if that is the case can be a long and lengthy process in which the pet owner must be 100% committed to work on with a trainer/behaviorist otherwise your time, and money invested is in vain as well as the person you hire to work with you. Unless you are committed for what could be a long process you will find it difficult to get anyone to work with you....in my opinion. Hope I helped, and perhaps gave you much to ponder. Thank you for contacting me. Always,
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