Cratetraining an adult dog

No its not Luna....

Well as most of you - or atleast some of you - know, I have a friend with a gsd bitch, Bella. Luna and Bella have practically grown up together.

Luna is turning 2 years april 5. and Bella will turn 2 on may 24.

Due to serious illness in her daughters (5 years and 7 months), my friend haven't been able to give Bella all the mental stimulation she needs. I try my best, but Bella is a handfull - to put it mildly...

Well Bella countersurfs in a big way. She actually jumps up and sits or lays n the tables. How she does it is beyond me, there are cupboards over the table.....

She destroys things, if not tipped on the floor by her jumping on the tables, then chewed on. Oh and she have turned on the stove too a couple of times (very scary to come home to a hot cooking plate!). She has scratched the paint of the doors as she dont like closed doors... All doors to the rooms are now locked, as she can open them..

I've suggested crating her, and my friend seems to be warming up to the idea. My friend is on maternity leave for a couple months more...

So how do we go about it? Seeing as she's almost 2 years old... She's very hyper, actually when off lead, u dont have to move, she exercise herself from the second you let her off and till the second she's back on lead she runs........... she'll stop in the middle of a step to either pee or poo... and then runs off again. I simply cant get her attention. Tried to lay a track the other day, and she simply didnt catch on (Luna on the other hand, had her nose down from he word "go")

The next 5 weeks I will probablely be dogsitting a bit, as the youngest daughter is having radiation for a tumour in her eye.. This will take place in the other end of Denmark ( car-ride for 3½ hours each way.) I would really like for Bella and Luna to be alone home together, while I'm at work, but I dont dare to, as I dont want Bella to teach Luna any bad tricks...

If we could crate train Bella, could we then move the crate from her home to my home, when I dogsit without probs?

Tips and ideas are VERY WELCOME!!!

This is Bella:

(she's wearing a halti btw, cos if not, I cant hold her)

As u can see, they get along great (indoor):






(Hope this works, its my first picture posting in this new thingy)

Hi! An adult dog being crate trained isn't any different than a puppy being crate trained. Start off with short bits while you're home (20 minutes or so)...put her in the crate (or your friend puts her in the crate, sorry) with a nice bone or goody.

As she gets used to the crate you can up the amount of time.

You should have no problems moving her crate to your home. May get a little bit of resistance if only because she wants to stay out and play, but all-in-all you should be fine.

Tell your friend to either remove the knobs from the stove or put baby guards over them. Shelby likes to turn on the gas stove...3x I've come home to a gas filled house. I had the baby guards but she knocked them off and I finally just removed the knobs and put them in the cupboard.

Also...for the counter-surfing...your friend may not want to do it at her home because it's noisy but you can do it at yours. Take empty soda cans, stick 5 or so pennies in the cans and tape the hole over. Line them up on the edge of the counter. When she jumps up, she'll knock down the cans causing all sorts of racket. The noise doesn't come from you...comes from the counter. As long as she doesn't like the noise she should jump on the counter less. Just have to be consistent with it.

Ahhhhhhhh thanks Nicole

Will it be a problem cratetraining Bella while Luna is around? I mean if I crate train Bella up here with me, Luna will be here.... (Luna isnt crate trained)

I can actually use the can trick on Luna.... She's started doing a bit of countersurfing herself..

We dont really use crates in Denmark, so I'm a total novice in this crating business... Only know wot I read on this forum and a lab forum...

Hi Bellaluna

You actually don't have to crate train her to stop counter surfing or picking things up that she shouldn't pick up.

However I will add another thread to explain how to introduce a crate to a dog if you want me too. Countersurfing is extremely dangerous in fact picking up and eating anything in certain situations including the street can be extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal.

I had a Lab I treated recently that had to have three major operations to remove discarded tennis balls from her stomach, she found them everywhere, rotten ones whole or part in the park or down an alley made no difference at all to her. She almost died from the last operation, the Vet then recommended they see me. I used the technique I am about to tell you as part of aversion therapy treatment and bingo never touched one since.

The easiest and quickest method of stopping counter surfing is with a spring loaded cap banger, this is a banger you get from a joke shop that you can put under a toilet seat or a cushion or anything else for that matter, when that item is moved or lifted then the banger goes bang.

It takes about 3 or 4 items that are rigged with the banger to cure the behaviour. It does not cause the dog to become noise aversive not does it cause the dog to be afraid of fireworks. It is a totally different sound and works every time. The beauty of it is you do not have to be in the room or even the house for it to work.

Stan

Depends on how she takes to the crate. I have 6 and the last 2 have been crate-trained while the other 4 run about...no problems. I had a foster, however, that absolutely hated the crate, hated anyone coming near it, hated the dogs going near it, etc. You'll be able to tell.

I don't know what a snap banger is but I've used the soda can method and can vouche for it.

Oh Damn

Just realised that was top tip 29.

Can still use it I suppose as it is worded differently

Stan

Hey guys

I tlod my friend and she still agrees with me, so we'll have to get that crate bought.

That banger thing could perhaps work, but Bella is already scared of fireworks and large bangs...

Bella...

If she's already nervous around bangs...try the soda cans but leave them empty. They'll clatter on the floor...you know the noise. You could also try a squirt gun but I'm not that coordinated. The trick is for them not to see you doing it and for you to actually hit them with the water. No way I could do that. LOL!

he he me neither...

Will tell my friend to try the sodacans.

That soda can idea is a really good one, I am going to remember that