Butkis did this out of the blue when he was 5-6 yrs and we have a Varikennel type crate. It was secured down, he would chew and bump into it so that is moved across the room.
Careful if you try the garage becuase Butkis started chewing and clawing through the door and drywall. So we put up angle iron , door kick plate and came home to your bloody scene with chipped teeth and cut tongue and missing claws. He almost made it throughthe drywall into he house in 1-2 hrs. We thought it was a midlife crisis. We put him back in the crate and secured it to the spot, tried leaving a soft radio or tv on and made it so he could see everything around the room. (Especially the entrance and outside).

He still chewed some on the crate but not as bad. Sorry to say the ultimate saving grace was getting him a sister. I know that does not help. But plastic crate, yummy crate only toys and treats.
Have you thought of moving your crate to the bedroom or to the family room? What room does he like best when not in the crate?Can he see outside? Definately try the crate open and closed feeding to desenitize him.

Hang in there and I hope it gets worked out quickly. I nkow my heart was wacky when Butkis was doing his and I think I would fear more if he had been little.
Keep us updated!

SkylerWest wrote:

He gets walked for 20 minutes twice a day Monday - Friday, and on weekends that goes up to 3-4 times a day depending on my plans. How could he go from being totally comfortable with it to doing something like this? He went from comfortable to so uncomfortable he feels the need to escape at all costs. Its in the same room same place and he has been on the same schedule for the past month and a half. He has a rubber chicken that he adores that he only gets during crate time along with a tough edible chew toy. His crate training started before he came home along with potty training. Being in a crate isn't a new thing for him.

What kind of a walk are you giving him though? Is he doing his own thing, sniffing and scanning, or is it a motivated, good paced "you are following me now" walk? The first type does not drain energy, but the second type does.

Being crated in an excited mind set will create problems. Your problem may be more dynamic and I understand your frustration very well, but at the very least a place to pick up is making sure to drain his energy before crating and making sure his mind is relaxed and calm.

I had to coach my partner with crating Link. He is way more affectionate and emotional than I am and he was worried that Link didn't like him because he was running around in an excited, playful mindset and would let him hold him and pet him. I said "yep, and I bet he would throw a tantrum in his crate right now too, yes?" He got the point.

I wish you all the best and I hope you never have to see that sight again.

Rogue HATES a metal kennel. When I take her to work with me and put her in the expensive kennels that are metal she freaks out. I can put her in a carrier with less light and she does better. Maybe try this? Talk to the place that your buying it from, and ask them if you can bring it back if it doesnt work. I can put Rogue in Bellas metal kennel for 2 minutes and she has a freak out but her carrier seems to work better. Maybe its because she feels safer because there are less ways to see out or in for that matter.

I completely agree with the plastic crate or the sheet over the metal crate. Vegeta HATED his crate and freaked out the first few nights/days. My friend told me to put a sheet over it so he can't see anything going on around him and there was a dramatic change in his behavior. Just be prepared for the sheet to be pulled into the crate, he's gotten a corner in there a time or two and chewed on it.

I would love to get another puppy for him to be friends with, but his breeder wont be having another litter for awhile. And the GSD breeder I've been talking to wont have any puppies until next year. I've noticed a pattern today. He will try to escape any room no matter the size if he is alone and he wants out. He will do almost anything including breaking teeth and claws to get through the doors. I think I will step up my looking for him a partner. I really don't want another young puppy I'd rather a dog that's a little older at this point in time.

Find a rescue or if he does not destroy fluffies get him a big stuffied friend and I mean big his size then leave on the radio and tv for him.

I wouldn't jump into getting another dog. It can help, but if your dog already has issues, bringing another one in can escalate issues in some cases. What if you ended up with another puppy with separation anxiety?

I feel like, generally speaking, separation anxiety can be dealt with. It takes time and rather extensive training, but it can happen. This isn't the worst case of separation anxiety I've ever seen (although it's definitely not a walk in the park). We had a dog when I was younger that got so anxious she constantly had explosive diarrhea and ate through a door to the bathroom.

I would really suggest working through the anxiety through different suggestions that have been mentioned on here. Things like working up to longer times. Starting at just a minute or two and working up to longer lengths of time.

Does he immediately start doing this the moment you close the door?

[quote="katiesham"]I wouldn't jump into getting another dog. It can help, but if your dog already has issues, bringing another one in can escalate issues in some cases. What if you ended up with another puppy with separation anxiety?
quote]
Good point I only thought of the fact that that helped us with our older dog. At least you are getting lots of ideas for help.

If you decide to get him a buddy - definitely look into a reputable husky or GSD rescue near you - getting an older, calm, well behaved dog that gets along with yours can be a big help. Chili trained Frosti on good doggie and people manners in a week (she was 1 1/2 at the time and he was 5-ish).

In the meantime, I forgot to mention that we tired Frosti out A LOT before trying to crate her. We'd run her for over an hour or get hubby to take her out on his bike to wear her out. Unfortunately, you can't exercise puppies more than 15 minutes at a time, so you may want to find another ways to stimulate him to tire him out - other puppy owners may be able to help you here since we've never had tiny puppies.

Best thing for quick play sessions even if your tired...laser. Bourbon will run and jump all over the place trying to catch. The other dogs ignore so I do not know if if is a puppy thing or a specific dog like.

What training have you done with him?? Training is one of the best ways to tire out a puppy that you can't physically tire out. Try trick training if you have most of the normal stuff done. It will be fun for you and challenging for him, which equals a tired puppy!

The main reason that appealed to me is because he has a mutt friend who stays over from time to time. My friend who hangs here on the weekend sometimes brings his dog and they do well together for hours on end together in the garage in their crates. I wouldn't get another one hoping it would be the cure all without probable cause. I have worked through all of the above with treats long energy burning walks and I'll continue to try it but if he as more incidents like the last one, I will have to move into more detailed solutions. Starting at different types of crates and possible trip back to the breeder to get more experienced training. If I can't do it he might do better with them than me for awhile until its all worked out.

When we first got Montana we crated her in a metal crate. She HATED it and threw huge fits. Some very similar to what you are describing though not as bad as this last one. I finally convinced my hubby to give the airline crate/carrier a try. we put her in and ran some errands. We were gone for about 1 1/2 hours. Got back home and she was fine. No fits, no messes, no insane howling. Some huskies just prefer the closed in crates. I think she likes hers b/c it's more den like and she feels safe. might be worth a try to see how your boy does.

We have had sucess in the past with Vari-kennels.

I remember a Case Study from my time majoring in Veterinary, from Behavior class.
There was a family and their dog, a doberman mix if I remember correctly, and everything was sunshine and rainbows, great dog that had full run of the house while the family was out every mid-day.
All of a sudden, this dog started destroying the house, just trashing it every day.
A behaviorist (my professor) was called in. They tried many things, even in a crate the dog went bonkers and escaped.
Finally - the Vet-behaviorist had them set up cameras. Turns out - at the same time every day there would be a loud *thumping* noise and it would instantly drive the dog insane!
The mystery was solved as, the neighbor kids were getting off the school bus and then playing with a kick ball against the side of the dog owners house! It drove the dog crazy, and it took them so long to figure this out, that even the sound of the school bus approaching would make the dog start pacing.

So maybe... there was some incident that happened to Anakin when you weren't around and it just freaked him out so badly he can't shake it.. These kinds of things are tough to be certain about.

Mink wrote:

We have had sucess in the past with Vari-kennels.

I remember a Case Study from my time majoring in Veterinary, from Behavior class.
There was a family and their dog, a doberman mix if I remember correctly, and everything was sunshine and rainbows, great dog that had full run of the house while the family was out every mid-day.
All of a sudden, this dog started destroying the house, just trashing it every day.
A behaviorist (my professor) was called in. They tried many things, even in a crate the dog went bonkers and escaped.
Finally - the Vet-behaviorist had them set up cameras. Turns out - at the same time every day there would be a loud *thumping* noise and it would instantly drive the dog insane!
The mystery was solved as, the neighbor kids were getting off the school bus and then playing with a kick ball against the side of the dog owners house! It drove the dog crazy, and it took them so long to figure this out, that even the sound of the school bus approaching would make the dog start pacing.

So maybe... there was some incident that happened to Anakin when you weren't around and it just freaked him out so badly he can't shake it.. These kinds of things are tough to be certain about.

Oh!! That might be something to consider! There are lot of noises outside my home and a few inside that could stimulate him or could be upsetting him. Thank you for this idea!

That is such an interesting study - I would never imagine that as a trigger, but makes total sense. Not sure if this is an option, but it's something i'm totally going to do when I bring my puppy home. You can get a cheap webcam from amazon or whatever and a free ustream account and set up a webcam to stream. You can either access it by logging in from a computer or a mobile device. Then you could look in on him when you're away.

I've just joined this post, but these are all very good points here!

I've never had any issues with Juneau and her crate, but I can offer some advice.

*Try giving him a stuffed kong or some bully sticks. Juneau LOVES to chew and those keep her occupied pretty well.
*Definitely purchase a plastic crate.
*Perhaps you can go to Petsmart/Petco/online and buy him some treats that calm him down? I use Pet Ease, (Pet-Ease), except mine is in a green bag. I used it to keep Juneau calm on an 18 hr road trip! She slept most of the way. You give 1 to calm them down, 2 to make them sleepy. They're natural amino acids. I got them at Petsmart for $8. It's worth a shot.

Since he sleeps in the kennel occasionally without you putting him in the kennel, I would say that a sound or something is triggering him once you leave him in there alone. Maybe get a radio or something to keep the sound out.

I would wait on getting him a buddy unless it's absolutely the last option. If you are stressed now (and I definitely would be too!), think about bringing in a new dog that has to learn all of your ways of running as a household. It takes at least a few weeks for a new dog to get the routine down. It would stress you out to have to teach two dogs! It stressed me out when I brought in my foster dog, especially when I'm in college. Thankfully he's adopted but now I'll wait til summertime lol.

Maybe have a friend bring a dog over for a day or two to run some trial and error stuff. Does he do this escaping stuff every day? I would do some test runs like leaving him in the crate for different periods of time and whatnot.

I wish you the best of luck. Don't give up! You can do this!

Today I got him a kong and one of those raw bones and some knuckle bones with peanut butter for crate time. I'm going to give those a shot, I'm also going to try and move the crate back into my room and hope for the best. I really want him to be comfy and happy . So far he has been spending his days in the bathroom while I'm away because I've been kind of nervous about the crate. Tonight I am going to give it another go, but this time in my bedroom.

Along with all of the other suggestions, we figured out with Alice that if she spilled her water on herself in her crate, she would freak out and try to do anything to get out. We no longer put water in her crate and we haven't come home to her tray shoved out or the crate somehow halfway across the room.

Good luck! I hope you can find a good solution that keeps your guy safe and happy!