The Big Bad Crate Monster
Ugh! Crate training can be the best thing or it can be the worst thing. It's the best thing if the dog being trained isn't a total and complete spaz. It's the absolute worst thing for a dog with separation anxiety and a pure panic that causes the crate to somehow move 10 feet across the dining room floor.
I introduce to you the Big Bad Crate Monster that seems to scare the crap out of every dog I've brought into a home. I honestly feel like a failure. The first dog I tried to crate train was our dear Mr. Moe.
We got Moe in 2001, when I was in 8th grade. We were introduced to crate training and all of its potential glories so my mom bought a big crate and that first night I put poor Moe in, what he must have thought was, a dungeon. Well like most puppies, he started whimpering and then crying and then that noise right before they get to barking. I was in 8th grade! I was weak! I needed to sleep! I was a 14 year old who needed some snuggle time with a cute puppy because her parents were divorced! Oh booooo-fricken-hooooo! Excuses, Excuses. So it lasted a couple hours and I sprung him out and put him on my bed. He slept on my bed for a few years until his hip dysplasia nipped that in the bud.
Then when BossMan and I first got Bruce we borrowed a crate to start the training process. You see, our beloved Bruce falls in the above, spaz category. We crated him the first couple nights and I'm pretty sure he thought he was going to die. In the morning I would let him out to find a new scratch on his nose and the crate had moved a significant amount across the floor. He was panicking and I just couldn't do that to him anymore. At one point he actually bent open the door, that was zip-tied and proceeded to destroy BossMan's Grandma's blinds, trying to find us. So once BossMan and I built the doghouse and we knew Bruce wasn't going to escape out of the yard we left him outside for the day. For the night time arrangement Bruce was more than willing to sleep on his mat all night under the covers so we didn't have to worry about him getting up and wandering. So again, I failed at crate training.
Now it's time to talk about little Miss Mindy May. Or maybe I'll just tell you that I failed at this also and she is sleeping on a mat next to Bruce at night and sunning herself with Bruce during the day. Always with Bruce. Yeah we'll just leave it like that. I am however feeding her in the crate so she gets more and more comfortable in it.
I introduce to you the Big Bad Crate Monster that seems to scare the crap out of every dog I've brought into a home. I honestly feel like a failure. The first dog I tried to crate train was our dear Mr. Moe.
We got Moe in 2001, when I was in 8th grade. We were introduced to crate training and all of its potential glories so my mom bought a big crate and that first night I put poor Moe in, what he must have thought was, a dungeon. Well like most puppies, he started whimpering and then crying and then that noise right before they get to barking. I was in 8th grade! I was weak! I needed to sleep! I was a 14 year old who needed some snuggle time with a cute puppy because her parents were divorced! Oh booooo-fricken-hooooo! Excuses, Excuses. So it lasted a couple hours and I sprung him out and put him on my bed. He slept on my bed for a few years until his hip dysplasia nipped that in the bud.
Then when BossMan and I first got Bruce we borrowed a crate to start the training process. You see, our beloved Bruce falls in the above, spaz category. We crated him the first couple nights and I'm pretty sure he thought he was going to die. In the morning I would let him out to find a new scratch on his nose and the crate had moved a significant amount across the floor. He was panicking and I just couldn't do that to him anymore. At one point he actually bent open the door, that was zip-tied and proceeded to destroy BossMan's Grandma's blinds, trying to find us. So once BossMan and I built the doghouse and we knew Bruce wasn't going to escape out of the yard we left him outside for the day. For the night time arrangement Bruce was more than willing to sleep on his mat all night under the covers so we didn't have to worry about him getting up and wandering. So again, I failed at crate training.
Now it's time to talk about little Miss Mindy May. Or maybe I'll just tell you that I failed at this also and she is sleeping on a mat next to Bruce at night and sunning herself with Bruce during the day. Always with Bruce. Yeah we'll just leave it like that. I am however feeding her in the crate so she gets more and more comfortable in it.
Mr. Moe is just too old for this shit. Bruce is a lost cause. Mindy, well there might be hope for Mindy May. Either way, the Big Bad Crate Monster is out there it might get you! Gaaaaa!
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