We've had Bentley for a few weeks now and she's been doing really well. We've been crate training her when we leave for the day, but latly she's been struggleing with it. She keeps having accedents even if she's not in there for very long. We always let her go potty before we put her in there, but it doesn't seam to matter. Also, she seems to have speration anxity. I don't know how else to ask for advise.
Veteran Advisor Helen Fines says:
February 13th, 2008 at 10:22 PM
It sounds like the accidents in the crate are part of the anxiety rather than a house training issue. The problem with crates and anxious dogs is that they can still be anxious and show it in ways other than destructiveness- e.g. vocalising or defecating. The treatment for separation anxiety (or another kind of anxiety) is a programme of systematic desensitisation, Most people need the help of a beahviourist for this because it's quite in depth and takes a while. In the short term she won't be able to be crated even for a short while as it will make her worse, so you'll need to find a way of not leaving her alone if possible, or at least not in the crate. 4 hours is the maximum i advise people to crate dogs for in any case. Hope this helps.
User suggests:
September 08th, 2009 at 05:08 PM
We have a new adopted shelter dog that is not taking to night time crate training. We posted a question and waiting for response. But Helen Fines answer to prior question helped us understand what is going one perhaps.
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