London is a crate escape artist and I don't know what to do. She has absolutely no problems or anxiety with her crate. She loves walking in and sleeps in there at night she'll take it over the bed any day. She also eats her meals in there. I had a wire crate but she figured out if she kept wiggling the front and banging her head against it the little part that slides across would come lose and she could wiggle out of the bottom. Well the banging of the head led to a $200 vet bill from the abscess she gave herself right in between her eyes, and $100 to patch the hole in the carpet which she decided would be fun to eat to the concrete while she squeezed out. I tried zip tying it closed she chewed the zip tie off. I bought a plastic hard sided crate thinking since she can't wiggle the lock loose it would work. Day 3 and somehow she greeted me at the door, I don't know how in the hell she keeps getting out but the bottom part is no longer in the hole like it should be. She isn't bored she gets plenty of exercise before I got to work and she always gets her kong with peanut butter and a bully stick, it's like it's just a game to her to great me at the door. Any suggestions?

amora wrote:

She has absolutely no problems or anxiety with her crate she loves walking in and sleeping at night she'll take it over the bed any day she also eats in there.

Time to rethink this part, eh?

How old is she?

How long is she in her crate?

How much exactly is plenty of exercise?

For a quick tip instead of zip ties, since she chews them, you can use metal clasps or padlocks instead, which she can't chew.

She's 10 months old and gets put in for about 6 hours at a time when I'm at work. She just recently started doing this about a month ago. Exercise wise usually go to the dog park to play for an hour and then finish with a 2 mile walk around the lake

And that's before you leave for work and she gets crated, everyday?

Have you tried leaving music on? Also, you're in Florida, so have you tried a fan on her? Perhaps she's get hot and uncomfortable and then frustrated.

no she is only crated about 4-5 days my boyfriend is over on the weekends and he takes her out to do things and my roommate usually has her out with her, I always keep the place at about 73 and they just replaced the freon so it always runs actually at about 70 it ran out for a day and we were miserable. I'll give the fan a shot. When I come home she prances around the crate like she's proud she escaped, I put her in to see if she would escape so I could see how and she just looked at me and laid down   

She's in her adolescence now and her cognitive abilities are flourishing right now too. It may be time to up the amount of effort it takes to satiate her and keep her comfortable, in general, not necessarily before work.

6 hours is a pretty good time for her to be alone. That's my personal hard limit and our guy gets about 5.5 day at most in any week. I have seen some on here getting more than 8 on some days without problems, but I personally could not justify that.

Haha, she's showing off

Even here in Seattle my bud gets really hot, even in the winter. I am kind of that way too so we have a fan on us all the time. He spends a lot of time outside on the balcony, especially if the fireplace is going or the heater is on.

In general I think they have a tendency to be hot and you are also dealing with humidity as well down there. I feel like a fan will make some difference. The droning sound also has a sedative effect I'm sure.

Short of investing in a heavy duty crate and pad locking it (which we do because ours' latch is flimsy so we keep the key on a carabiner on the crate), a fan, and just more general physical and mental/emotional stimulation I don't know what else to suggest??!

I've thought about weighted vests and I looked into weight pulling but it looks like all the groups close are only breed specific. She's at that weird age where I don't want to ruin her hips but she has all this energy.We did find a mobile lure coursing place that does events once a month and were driving to the next town over to go check it out next week hopefully that is something she'll like.

Yeah, I so know what you mean. It's the awkward age where you need creative, ingenius ways to satiate them but come short of harming them.

It is frustrating for sure.

Take full advantage of any water near you! Swimming is tiring and totally safe. Hang out with her as much as you possibly can and incorporate her, socially, into as much of your life as you can. Try to tap into her work drive and give her tasks and little fun jobs to do. Now is the time where her mental and emotional capacities are maturing and she needs the more intangible satiation just as much as the physical. Companionship goes a long, long way with working dogs, and with adolescent dogs.

For us 10 months was just an awful age. He was kind of a jerk and getting into trouble all the time. I too noticed that he needed a huge increase in activity in order to be satisfied. Have you tired daycare? It's amazing! I would bet you could get away with 1-2 days a week and see a huge benefit.

Also, she may be having anxiety when you leave, and you just don't realize it. Have you ever put a webcam on her to see how she is reacting. I would think, if she went to the extreme of causing an abscess on her head, it's more than just boredom.

oh the terrible teens! We went through something similar, and sort of still are. I second the daycare or dogwalker option. Gus is too tired to get anxiety when he's at home after he comes home from his hike with his dogwalker.

The webcam is also a great option to check out what's going on while you're not home. We use it to give ourselves peace of mind now haha.

Nikolai was always like that around that age. No matter what we did he would make a game out of getting out of his crate, and there he was at the end of the day greeting me at the door. Then when we got into him having seizures, I had to find a crate that would keep him in because we have stairs in our house, and I couldn't have him falling down those or fall off the couch. So its more money, but I have found that he cannot get out of the crates that have the door that folds up. So we have a one door crate, that the handle latches it in place and he can't pick the door up with his mouth. He took him a couple days to stop chewing on the crate and trying to get out, but now he has just accepted he isn't going anywhere. But I would maybe suggest that if you have the money, tire him out before putting him in there, and the web cam has been awesome for us.

I have the midwest ovation crate:
http://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Homes-Pets-Ovation-36-Inch/dp/B0057H37SI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396641890&sr=8-1&keywords=midwest+ovation+dog+crate

I have the largest one that they make, but thats just so if he has a seizure he can spread out, but they are cheap if you can keep it in the normal size. I also found mine in a store, so I didn't have to pay for shipping but at least that gives you an idea of what to look for and what has worked for us. We use to have to put him crate into a wall, and then put a 15lb weight behind it and somehow he still got out!

I just ordered the 43 inch thanks so much. I also bought tickets for her to do the two runs of lure coursing on the 20th which I think she'll love and we bought more puzzle games today to try and mentally stimulate her more

http://www.petfooddirect.com/product/53137/Kyjen-Star-Spinner-Puzzle-Dog-Toy?extcid=PLA&gclid=CLSIrqHgx70CFY0-MgodJhEAeQ
I actually put her lunch in this and she did 3 rounds of figuring it out you can tighten the screw on the bottom to make it harder to separate which keeps challenging her

I would be shocked if she was able to get out of it! I can't promise she won't try for a couple of days, but she will give up. Nikolai no joke got out of everything until this crate. And nice, anything that will keep her occupied and tire her out while in there will be great!

Sheba is horrible about this as well. She's been through 1 wire and 1 plastic crate. Chewed her way out of the plastic one and destroyed it beyond use in the process. With the wire, she hasn't escaped from it for a long time, but she will push the tray out of it and just destroy whatever she can get her paws and teeth on. For us it was a little bit more difficult; she has joint issues so I can't up her exercise anymore then what she is already at, and as for her mental stimulation, most of our training was very "rudimentary" as I was more focused on observing her and my Standard Poodle together. She got chews and such, but it was a very limited amount of time she could have them; she couldn't have them in her crate because she got into a nasty habit of guarding her crate from Luna regardless if anything was in it or not. So, we would have to babygatted her off by herself or Luna off by herself which caused stress and confusion for the girls. So, it was a rough couple of months. She was also really horrible at about 10-16 months...the teen phase was HORRIBLE for us.

My best advice as a "been there done that" person; up the mental stimulation anyway you can. For us, like I said, physical exercise was out the window, so our only option was mental. I also had to make crate time an even BETTER thing then it was before. So to do this, she got treats that were extremely high value ONLY when she was in her crate and I was leaving. They were usually a mixture of cow tail, bully sticks, antler velvets, and a kong frozen with banana mushed in it. Now, I also have her a calming supplement-it's from Vermont Naturals and it's a chew. It doesn't make her loopy or anything, it just settles her down a bit. And I always leave a light and the TV on. The girls love 101 Dalmatians, so that's usually what I leave on.

Hope you find something that works for you!!! I know how stressful it can be!

Maggie used to do this. Carabeners or locks is what we used to keep her in. They worked.

Did the ovation crate work for you?

seattlesibe wrote:

For a quick tip instead of zip ties, since she chews them, you can use metal clasps or padlocks instead, which she can't chew.  

Yeah I have been using a metal carbine clip... Okami figured out how to undo the door... the carbine clip has worked well so far.