We used to leave cartoons on for them, but now it's turned into ESPN..LOL!

Glad I'm not the only one that leaves the tv on for my dogs!

We used to leave the radio on when we were crate training our boy with SA. I couldn't tell you if it made a difference since we never tried without the radio on but after our boy had gotten over his SA we slowly phased out the radio background noise.

Trying to crate train Storm with hubby around is no bueno!

Last night, we put them in their crate, and gave him a bone. He settled at first, but then started circling in his crate, and when I got downstairs, I see hubby next to Storm's crate, with the door open, petting him, telling him, 'It's OK Storm.'

I tell hubby that he's telling Storm that all he has to do is circle around in his crate and you'll open the door and he gets affection. I also tell hubby that instead of training him to settle, he's doing the exact opposite!

I finally get hubby to leave him alone, move away from his crate and just sit on the sofa and ignore him.

TRAIN THE TRAINER FIRST! Oi!

After hubby moves away, Storm fidgets a little, and finally settles down and gnaws at his bone.

30 minutes has passed at this point....and I tell hubby NOW he can pet him and give him praise when he's settled.

So, yep - I am now crate training Storm AND hubby!

Claudia, if I were you, I'd check out I'll Be Home Soon by Dr. Patricia McConnell and maybe you and JD read it together. It deals with SA - lots of good insights and training techniques.

Thanks for the reference, Kate!
Storm is doing better after eliminating his bed and the sheet over his crate. I just need to JD to stop undoing the progress I'm making! Obviously, his college days of being around Huskies, Akitas and Wolf Hybrids didn't teach him much for training!

Ok - today, I did a little of crate training while hubby was out....much easier.

I put them in their crate, left the TV on, and left to get the mail. I tried to peek in but I can't see them from any of the windows except the back door, but they can see me looking in.

In any case, when I walked back in the door from getting the mail, they were both laying down, quietly. I ignored them, and did stuff around the room, and went out the back door. I peered in, but I know they could see me, and it took but a minute until Storm went and laid back down in his crate.

I finally came back inside after about 5 minutes, and still ignored them, and Storm stayed laying down, with a couple of soft wooo-wooo.

After 20 minutes, he got up and paced in a circle a couple of times in his crate and laid back down, but let out a couple of soft whines, stood up and then sat back down....I finally let them out after 30 minutes of being in their crate, praised them and gave them affection and a treat. (He was still laying down, calm).

So he did pretty well with nothing in his crate with the TV on, but while I was in the house igoring him.

My next experiment tomorrow will be to point the web cam toward them, leave the house, and take the other laptop and go work outside watching them on the web cam....

I think we're making progress!

I put G&S in their crate, gave them a treat and went about doing stuff around and outside the house. I ignored them the whole time, disappeared in the basement for 15 minutes, went to get mail, and hid in the half bathroom where I could peek through the crack in the door and spied on them for 10 more minutes.

He was calm and remained laying down quietly for 1 hour!

good stealth moves!

it could also be that storm is warming up to you all and is feeling more at home, or the training is working...
either way WOOHOOO

We left for dinner and came back 70 minutes later and they were a little excited, but he quickly settled and sat down in his crate. Ginger on the other had was still anxious to get out - maybe she was feeding off his nervous energy while we were gone - dunno....but we walked in the house, ignored them, went to the kitchen to get some treats, and made them sit before opening the door. Storm settled first, so he got his treat first, and he sat in his crate while we waited for Ginger.

After Ginger got her treat, she jumped out of her crate, but Storm was still in his crate sitting...

When we're at home watching TV or whatever else, he has no problems going in his crate to sleep. If the crate door is mostly closed, he'll even nudge it open and go in his crate to sleep...so I know he's comfortable in his crate when we're home.

We're making progress...
I hope to have completely comfy in his crate, when were gone for a few hours by the end of the summer.

Yay! Sounds like he's making very good progress!

cmanding wrote:

I think we're making progress!
and hid in the half bathroom where I could peek through the crack in the door and spied on them for 10 more minutes.

This is how you know you have lost your sanity to a siberian husky. Sounds so much like when I was going through it with Koda.

LOL. Yay progress!

Heatherlee wrote:

cmanding wrote:

I think we're making progress!
and hid in the half bathroom where I could peek through the crack in the door and spied on them for 10 more minutes.

This is how you know you have lost your sanity to a siberian husky. Sounds so much like when I was going through it with Koda.

Ah yes! I had my phone, checking work emails as I sat, hiding in the bathroom, peeking out....

I think I want to ask my neighbor to borrow her baby monitor with video, so we can spy on them while we garden outside!

Yay! sounds like your making good progress. I like the baby/video monitor idea.
Once he is good while you are out of sight, I would suggest getting in your car and driving down the street too. That was going to be my next step with Frankie before we moved. He would spend all day in his crate if I was home and in and out of the house, but once he heard the car pull off all he** broke loose, lol.

Wow. This whole thread just makes me that much more grateful for my happily crate trained baby. He can do all night, or all day in there, no problems whatsoever. He loves his crate.

Yes, you're lucky Nikolai loves his crate!
Ginger would be perfectly fine in her crate too, but she LUUUVS to be with us and we'd LUUUUUV to take both of them with us wherever we go....but that's not always the case

Storm does like his crate, and is getting used to his crate if/when we leave - so he's doing pretty good, I think.

I also took your advise, Kate, and bought the book you suggested. Haven't read it yet...but will for reference. Thanks for the suggestion!

Ahh, good! I like Dr. McConnell's books - she's very readable and it just makes good sense. :-) Enjoy!

I found a 'baby monitor' that I can view from my iPhone anywhere!
Now I can watch G&S and see what they do in their crate while we're away!

I think this tops me sitting in the bathroom spying on them...
Good thing this 'baby monitor' was inexpensive compared to the average and cheaper ones out there that only had a range between 150-300 feet.

Oooh, what a fun toy... I mean TOOL! Cool!

CoffeeK8 wrote:

Oooh, what a fun toy... I mean TOOL! Cool!

Yeah!, It's a 'TOOL' to help me with training!

I turned on my 'furbaby' internet monitor, put the kids in their crate, and headed out to get a manicure and pedicure., and checked the furkiddies from time to time.

Ginger stays laying down and calm, and Storm is doing OK - he'll get up turn around, then sit down, then lay down, then get up and turn around again, but he's not pawing or chewing or banging on the sides of his crate. I couldn't get the audio to come one, but when I drove into the garage 1 1/2 hours later, I waited aoutside the door until he laid back down before coming in. He stood up when I walked in the door and started whining. So I ignored him, grabbed a couple of treats, and then paid attention to him when he stopped whining. I then made him sit before opening the door to let him out.

So...so far, he's doing OK in his crate...and we're slowly building up the time...we're making progress.

It sounds like he's doing very well and kudos to you for how dedicated you are to this!

I can't seem to figure out when Storm will be OK in his crate for 2 hours or half hour. And when he gets anxious, Ginger starts to get anxious. And I don't want her to revert backward.

I know his previous owner put him in a kennel WAY too small for him with a bag of food. From what I was told, it was so small, he hardly had enough room for himself, and then they put a bag of food in there too. I don't believe he was paid any attention after a while either. So I don't know if this has anything to do with how he behaves in his crate when we're not home.

But when we are home, and his crate door is open, he has no problem going in there on occasion to take a nap. He'll go in when I ask, and he'll stay until I say it's OK for him to come out. But this all the while we're home and his crate door is open.

Before we adopted Storm, we started to leave Ginger un-crated when we left the house and she did absolutely great.

I'm thinking maybe I should just leave Ginger and Storm un-crated when we leave...after all, all they really do for most of the day is lay around and nap!

Any advice, suggestions, recommendations - should I try leaving them alone un-crated when we leave the house? (Of course, I would start at about 20-30 mintues at first).

Do you trust them alone together as far as them fighting? Have they ever gotten into a spat? No, huh? They seem to get along really well! If that's not a concern then I would totally try leaving them un-crated for 30min at a time to see what they do.