Crate Training Positively

Hi All,

I have a 7-month-old rescue dog. For the first 6 months of her life she was confined to a crate for 16 hours per day. The cruel owners would even force her to pee and poo inside her crate. When they let her out, they would allow her to just run out the front door, and they relied on neighbours to bring her back home.

Now I have a crate that is sitting in my living room with a cozy blanket inside, and treats, but she won't go inside. I can't blame her. I want to train her to at least go in it for a couple hours at a time so that I can go run errands. I work from home, so I would never be gone long. I want to do this lovingly in a way that won't cause separation anxiety. The first difficulty I will have to mount is her fear of the crate itself. My girl is highly food-motivated, being a foxhound, yet she will not go inside that crate to retrieve her treats! Anybody got any advice on how to gently re-introduce her to the crate? I really need to go grocery shopping in a couple of days! lol

Have you checked to see if she would be alright on her own without being crated?

I think all dogs should be crate trained as they then won't freak out if they have to stay at the vets.
So I would cover the crate so that it's dark, I would place her in the crate after she's been fed and toileted. I wouldn't actually go anywhere at this stage and if she kicks off and makes a fuss just talk to her and let her know you're still around, when she's quiet for a while you can let her out and tell her how good she is, just extend the amount of time she's stays in each time.

I tried her without the crate, and she almost chewed my brass door handle off. She is also not fully potty trained yet, so there is that to consider. I would prefer not to leave her to roam the main floor of my house while I'm not here.

I would put her food bowl near the crate. Once she's happy eating close to her crate you could put the bowl just inside the crate. When she's happy just having her head inside the crate move it further in until she is fully inside. This may take a long time, she may even never be happy being confined in the crate, but, I think it's worth trying.

Good luck.

I got her to go into the crate! I left her in there while I went upstairs to have a short nap. She whined and bayed and cried for about 30 minutes but then settled down. Unfortunately she destroyed the blanket that was over top of the crate. Will have to put a thicker blanket over it next time.

Thanks for the advice. We are one step closer to me being able to leave the house!

Hopefully it will get easier x