So while me and the bf are at school I try to crate Sky up. I say try because she ALWAYS GETS OUT! I mean we put speakers, big bags of dog food on top of the cage and the refrigerator behind it with the door up against the kitchen wall. And she got out today, and had diahrrea in the kitchen. When ever we take her with us in the car she uses the bathroom ALL in it. Its a plastic cage and she knows where the door on it is and picks at it until the cage is out of alignment and gets out. I don't think a metal one would be better because it is easier for her to see the doors and break the bars!! HELP!!!!

i use a wire crate, and a whole lot of zip ties for reinforcement. Haven't had a problem since!

Sean: Keeonah doesn't try to break the bars?

MyKeeonah wrote:

i use a wire crate, and a whole lot of zip ties for reinforcement. Haven't had a problem since!

Same here and carabiner's on the latches.

I don't crate maggie anymore because of this issue. I agree with everyone else about carabiners and zip ties, maggie doesn't stay in though. I have tried. lol

Maybe try getting a different crate.

Thanks guys,

LOL
We've exhausted ourselves trying to think of solutions. I will buy a wire crate and carabiners and zip ties and see how that works.
What do you guys think it is, separation anxiety?

@ Kelly I was about to buy a wire one but thought about if she could bend the bars or not. What kind of crate do you use for your furbabies?

Maybe try not crating if you can?

I found that not crating Kya was what I needed to do. Every time she was in her wire crate, she managed to get out no matter what I did, zip ties, carabiners on the latches. She ended up breaking the welds, bending the metal, and crawling out of the bottom, through what was no more than a 5 inch gap cutting the side of her face on the way out.. Finally I gave up, and let her loose in the house, and she was fine more or less. She has some separation anxiety, that we are working on with a vet and a behaviorist, so there have been a few minor problems in the house, but nothing major. Leaving your pup out may be a decent option to try, before she hurts herself trying to escape.

rnick02 wrote:

I found that not crating Kya was what I needed to do. Every time she was in her wire crate, she managed to get out no matter what I did, zip ties, carabiners on the latches. She ended up breaking the welds, bending the metal, and crawling out of the bottom, through what was no more than a 5 inch gap cutting the side of her face on the way out.. Finally I gave up, and let her loose in the house, and she was fine more or less. She has some separation anxiety, that we are working on with a vet and a behaviorist, so there have been a few minor problems in the house, but nothing major. Leaving your pup out may be a decent option to try, before she hurts herself trying to escape.

I agree! Maggie has gotten cuts on her nose from escaping. I leave her out and she is fine!

Danzig's Mommy wrote:

MyKeeonah wrote:

i use a wire crate, and a whole lot of zip ties for reinforcement. Haven't had a problem since!

Same here and carabiner's on the latches.

Yep! forgot that. I use construction grade caribiners on the latches. She doesn't really freak out in her crate anymore to be honest. but if she just get a little anxious, you can hardly tell. you can see tiny little bends, but she wasn't exactly on a get out or bust mission.

most members, especially the ones most experienced with the breed, will always preach these as the single 2 most important rules of thumb for husky ownership.

1. ALWAYS have your dog on a leash outside the house.
2. Crate train, and NEVER leave your dog alone in the house.

I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to the rules. There are always anomalies. If you have a room you can completely dog proof, it might be a good avenue for you, but I would never recommend leaving a husky free, alone in the house. The potential risk for damage/destruction of your things (they have a knack for appeasing themselves with expensive things), and damage to the dog is way to high for me.

norbreedslove wrote:

rnick02 wrote:

I found that not crating Kya was what I needed to do. Every time she was in her wire crate, she managed to get out no matter what I did, zip ties, carabiners on the latches. She ended up breaking the welds, bending the metal, and crawling out of the bottom, through what was no more than a 5 inch gap cutting the side of her face on the way out.. Finally I gave up, and let her loose in the house, and she was fine more or less. She has some separation anxiety, that we are working on with a vet and a behaviorist, so there have been a few minor problems in the house, but nothing major. Leaving your pup out may be a decent option to try, before she hurts herself trying to escape.

I agree! Maggie has gotten cuts on her nose from escaping. I leave her out and she is fine!

But you have a malamute, that doesn't count!

When we started crating Anna, she was in a metal crate but she pulled the metal pieces off to escape so we switched to a plastic crate. We also had to wire tie the sides before she pulled it apart. But I say get a new crate. Anna loves this new crate, I have no clue what it is.

You could try leaving her out. We did that once and our girl ate the couch and the blinds. So we had to keep trying with the crateing. Once they know they can get out they will keep getting out. We had to borrow a training crate from our cousin for a few weeks to teach our girl she couldn't get out. Then she graduated down to the wire type crate with some modifications. We put bolts on all the weak places in the crate and locks on the doors. We tried wire ties bit she ate them off. Now she has a long walk on the morning just before we leave and gets a Kong with treats and a marrow bone in with her. She also wears a phereamone collar to help calm her. She does not escape any longer and goes in without me even asking her to. Being consistent is the key and lots of exercise before crateing. The first three weeks were very difficult. It does get better! Good luck!

Look into the kong dog crate. I have not used one personally but i looked one over at Petsmart and was impressed with how thick the metal bars were. I would still reinforce the door with carabiners though.

I forgot to add try looking on Craigslist, that is where we found our new crate and it has held up better than the crate I bought from an actual store! Yes it was gently used but you can't tell.

I'm going to be the oddball here... we are focusing on the physical crate... but what have you done to make the crate a positive place? Just because she knows she CAN get out, doesn't mean she will if she doesn't see the need to. Have you worked on crate training her or have you just put her in there and hoped for the best?

Ours are left loose in the house now-- with a securely puppy proofed home. However, we still have our crates because sometimes, I can't puppy proof or sometimes we have other dogs or people and they need to be in their crates.

So while it might be easier to leave her loose, it doesn't solve your problem. The best option is to keep ALL your options open.

Can you put the crate in your room? Or can you take her for a run before leaving for school?

I had issues with the plastic crate when I brought Kodi home. He was too young to break out, but he would scream bloody murder for as long as he was in it. I replaced it with a wire crate from amazon and he loves it. I think the feeling of being more open helps -- not so confined & claustrophobic.

I also started training the "I'll be back" when I left the room. I increased the duration that I was gone each time until he got more comfortable with me being away for a few hours. I work at home, so I really don't leave him too often -- so YMMV.

I also added a webcam so I can monitor when I'm away, set off voice alerts ("be quiet, lay down"), etc. -- but I'm a nerd that's a whole other story.

ksutton wrote:

I also added a webcam so I can monitor when I'm away, set off voice alerts ("be quiet, lay down"), etc. -- but I'm a nerd that's a whole other story.

Haha I thought about doing the exact same thing.

Dakota and Waya hang out in the laundry room when we have to leave and at night. The available floor space is a little smaller than 3 extra large crates. there is a toddler mattress on the floor (Dakota is too good to sleep on the floor or "gasp" a dog bed) and a fleece dog bed i stuffed with old blankets and sheets for Waya ( she kept sleeping in my clean laundry so it's apparently her prefered bedding) the rest of the floor is linolium so if they have an accident it's easy to clean up. In a kennel they howl and fuss in the laundry room they lay down and chill out.

also because it's a small space it was easy to husky proof and they can't do much damage to the washer and dryer.

if you're worried about scratching at the door you can get thin mettal sheets and attach them to the back of the door so they end up scratching that and not the wood

Thanks for all the input you guys We've been letting her stay out of her crate for the last two days and she is being great. No accidents, etc. When we left last night to school we took her with us to wait in the car( it was night time) and she was calm and didnt mess the car like she usually did. I went to Wal-mart to see how much their wire crate was and it was 92 dollars, so i compared it to amazon for 72 dollars. I havent ordered one yet though. At walmart I bought zip ties and carabeners however, was thinking about putting it on the crate she has and try positive reinforcement and get her to love her crate. I used to have a GSD and crate trained her from when she was 3 months old. I guess it is more difficult the older they are and more determined they are to not be in it. I know she has more motivation to try to escape since she has done it before. I dont know what to do though because im going out of town next week. My sister has a fully fenced yard and I have a plastic/metal inside line that sky's old owners gave me they used to tie her up with. Idk what is best for that situation if i bring both the plastic crate she hates and the tie out line.

I like the idea of having her in a separate room while we are gone but currently we are in *GASP* a studio apartment right now.

I would never leave my dog outside on a tie-out unattended. If no one is home, and she can't be supervised, the crate is honestly the best option unless she is trustworthy loose in the house.