[hgar78]

Many of you might have seen my post on Madeline's broken tooth.  Well, the vet thought she might have been chewing on her crate and I confirmed it when we got home.  this may have been the cause of the broken tooth and it might not have, regardless, it was definitely wearing her teeth down.  well, she's still doing and I have to figure out how to break the habit.   I'm going to try and leave a shirt of mine and the hubby's with her but i don't have high hopes on that one.  we already leave her with a kong full of peanut butter and she seems content enough when we leave.  we have never observed any misbehaving while she's in her crate and getting her in the crate has never been an issue.  

does anyone have experience with this or can anyone recommend something that would deter her from chewing on the bars?

here's her crate--it's plenty big.  

 

[Bumpy]

Thats a tough one. How bout some bitter apple spray?

 

[southerngirls]

Do you put anything in there to keep her occupied? maybe try a kong with pb in it, or some toys that she could play with, or possibly whatever type of chew toy/bone you give.

 

[sully]

Does she show any signs of separation anxiety?  If she does, you could work on correcting that and the chewing might stop.  Might not be it though.

 

[hgar78]

[quote="sully\";p=\"52391":i3irkj9q]Does she show any signs of separation anxiety?

 

[BurningRiver]

Try her in a Vari Kennel (plastic crate). Some dogs just do better in wire crates, while others do better in plastic crates. I have two who prefer wire crates, while my third loves her Vari Kennel. The plastic will also be easier on her teeth.

 

[hgar78]

Do you put anything in there to keep her occupied? maybe try a kong with pb in it, or some toys that she could play with, or possibly whatever type of chew toy/bone you give.

i do give her a PB filled kong and a toy or two...i try to not put anything small or with lots of stuffing for fear she'll chock on something while we're away.  i did want to try and leave a tshirt of ours today but forgot to...

 

[48Dodge]

Cooper didn't like the wire crate we had.  So, I spread a towel on top and he settled right down.  My greyhound chewed on his crate when I first got him and he chipped his two bottom front teeth which eventually died and I had to pull.  Luckily I was able to ween him off the crate before he hurt himself anymore.  He did suffer from SA for a while.  It just took a while for him to realize that I was going to come back when I left.  Some dogs just never realize this...

 

[BurningRiver]

Be careful of putting a towel or any covering on her crate, as I have two who would pull it in, shred it and eat little bits of shred (which always brings with it concern for bowel impaction).

 

[sully]

she does, before we crated here she absolutely destroyed our kitchen.  and if we take her in the car and have to run a quick errand, she goes bonkers when we get back...like she's so excited we came back.  how do you treat SA?  or deter it?

I had the same problem.  My puppy wouldn't chew his crate but he would eliminate in it and basically misbehave anytime he was left alone.  It's not an easy fix but you can make a lot of progress if you keep at it.  I would start by searching the archives on the board, I found lots of good info from there and a few weeks of work and he was fine.  Basically you just have to get her comfortable with being alone.   I started with gating off part of the house even when I was home, so my dog would get used to being in a room alone.  Slowly I started leaving the house, even just for 30 seconds first.  Then up to a minute a day.  So on and so on....once they are comfortable home alone for 30 mins, they can usually go for much longer.  But it may take a while to work up to that.  The idea is to return before that anxiety kicks in so they don't have a negative association with being alone.  If you just leave cold turkey for like 5 hours, forget about it!  So leaving for work in the meantime can be tough, daycare could help during the process.

I'll tell ya though, when they have it bad, no amount of kongs or toys or treats will distract them.  They get so anxious, it's like a panic attack.  I actually had to stop the crate and just keep my boy in a gated off area of the house.  Once I got him comfortable being home alone, he's actually well behaved without the crate.  He's never crated anymore.  But all dogs are different, just find whatever works.

 

[Skyboxers]

Not much help here.

 

[southerngirls]

Be careful of putting a towel or any covering on her crate, as I have two who would pull it in, shred it and eat little bits of shred (which always brings with it concern for bowel impaction).

Good point! we had some clothes hanging up by the kennel one time and the girls managed to get one of the sleeves and yank it through the kennel...luckily the shirt survived, but we had to be extra careful about what was around the kennel

 

[hgar78]

yeah, we tried the blanket on top and maddy just pulled half of it inside the crate.  these are good tips, thanks so much for the advice sully.  i'll look into the archives and see what i can find.  that may be where we erred...when we got her i asked off for the week to stay home with her but my boss wouldn't let me.  so basically, we got her on a friday, had two days with her and then left her alone while we went to work.  i was so angry with my boss!  but regardless, it sounds like we'll just need to work on it.  anyone have any other advice?

 

[15842]

[quote="BurningRiver\";p=\"52566":2qrbwxdq]Be careful of putting a towel or any covering on her crate, as I have two who would pull it in, shred it and eat little bits of shred (which always brings with it concern for bowel impaction).

Good point! we had some clothes hanging up by the kennel one time and the girls managed to get one of the sleeves and yank it through the kennel...luckily the shirt survived, but we had to be extra careful about what was around the kennel[/quote:2qrbwxdq]

Ringer got a hold of a curtain and it hasn't been the same since.  And yeah, there are a couple threads on the subject of how to make the crate more den like and make them happier.  On a related note, Ringer is doing great in his crate now and had some serious separation issues (for those of you who didn't know) so I decided to get him a new bed.  Even though he isn't freaking when I leave and he isn't making his current shredded bed any worse, he still decided to open up the new one and find out what was inside.  You can't fix everything in three months.

 

[hgar78]

[quote="dan.daugherty";p="52687":s4r3dtn6][quote="southerngirls";p="52674":s4r3dtn6][quote="BurningRiver\";p=\"52566":s4r3dtn6]
Ringer got a hold of a curtain and it hasn't been the same since.

 

[48Dodge]

Hadn't had any issues with him pulling stuff into the crate.  The towel doesn't hang over the edges at all so it'd be tough for him to get ahold of even if that was something he wanted to do.  Cooper's actually been really good in his crate since day one.  Hasn't always wanted to go in, but settled down well and hasn't been destructive at all.  He actually goes in there at night to sleep.