Puppy In Crate???
August 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Hi! My puppy is 10 mo old and she is in her crate from 7:30am, dog walker comes at 12:00pm for a 1/2 hour,and I get home around 5pm. When I come home, I take her for another walk bwn 15-30min (its winter and its cold). She has just recently started excessively barking at everything and anything and is having a hard time keeping herself occupied. I play with her a lot but it doesn’t seem to help much. Can it be that she is in the crate too long and its having an effect on her? I was thinking about leaving her out in the kitchen with her crate in there too for the day?? What do you think? She is potty trained and rarely has accidents but I’m not sure how she will do if out of the crate for a long period of time (and I really don’t want to use weewee pads). Could it be that she needs more exercise throughout the day? Oh- she is a Havanese (11lb small dog) and I keep Animal Planet on the TV for her all day. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Yes, try the kitchen idea and get her out of that crate. That is a long day cooped up for any being. She probably is bored and frustrated, and barking is a way to blow off steam.
Crating is just an excuse for confinement, no matter that its proponents think a dog feels “secure” in it. If you lock anything up long enough, it will give in and accept it as normal. Good thing you know better and recognize what’s going on!
Make sure you take her out, and she gets out everything before you try the kitchen area. Be sure it’s secure and dog proof. Make sure she has good toys and safe (non-swallow-able) chewies to play with, and see if you can think of a way for her to get a little more human interaction with someone you trust. Alert your dog walker so the accidents don’t sit too long and the walker knows the dog will be free. Be patient, but probably your girl will do fine, and if not, an accident once in a while on an easy to clean floor is a small price to pay helping your dog through her long day.
I have an 8 month old puppy and I have the same problem! Vet said he is probably in the crate too long, so I started trying to leave him in the kitchen. It worked fine as far as potty accidents, but last week he chewed up a leg on my new chair. My fault for leaving him in there and not thinking about it, but other than that it worked well. He was able to move around more and it seemed to calm him down…except for the chair leg incident.
So watch your stuff, but give it a try!
Hi there she is definately in her crate way too long, if a dog gets bored which they will do being locked up that long, then she will bark.
You need someone to either watch her while you are away, or get someone to take her out and play with her a lot more often, once maybe twice a week my pup in in his crate for no more than 3 hours, and he has kongs etc to play with, and he is happy like that, because he knows that someone is going to be letting him out. 5 hours is way way too long for a dog to be in a crate especially when the are showing obvious signs that they are not liking it.
I gate up my dog when I leave into the kitchen/dining room and she does great. I don’t like the idea of a dog being in a crate for 8 hours in a day…seems cruel. I know I wouldn’t want to be in a cage for that long.
sounds like she needs more exercise and more human interaction
yes dogs that have to stay locked up will bark alot ,she needs more room,its like dogs from kennels or puppy mills have to stay in cages all the time they bark so much
well my dog is a jack russell chiuaua and shes in a crate for about an hour and when we get home we can hear her from the side walk howling like a wolf but shes very hyper when she gets out of the cage so mabey give him or her a treat and toy for the crate and take her on a longggggggggggggg walk when shes out of the cage
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was she always like this??
cause maybe shes lazy
or shes gettin old