Crating

[Gcjager]

Hello,

My wife and I recently bought our first husky from a home that was looking to rehome him. Neither of us had owned a dog before, however, I did a ton of research prior to us buying him, and feel like I'm prepared for what is to come.

So far, he has been incredibly well-behaved. My wife and I take him out for several walks a day, that include some decent distance and some jogging and sprinting (used mostly as a reward for going to the loo outside). To the point where when we are at home, Ruxin is usually found sleeping on the throw rug by the coffee table. While walking, he is curious, but easily convinced to leave garbage or to continue walking when people or dogs walk by. He is an absolute joy to have in our lives, gets along excellently with the two cats and I coudnt ask for a better behaved dog.... When we're around.

Which brings me to the title of this post. We've slowly but surely been introducing him to his crate. Trying to make it a safe place for him. When we got him three weeks ago, we got him with a wire crate. We didn't use it the first few days, but we found that he likes to poop and pee on the basement carpet. Presumably because he smells the cats litter box in the furnace room. The basement has no door. So we started to crate him.

Ruxin's previous owners had built a little wooden frame for the bottom of his wire crate, but to further protect my brand new hardwood floors, I put a blanket underneath the wood. I put a blanket over part of the crate to make it like a den, added a doggie bed inside and put a bunch of toys in the crate. When I came home, he had shredded the bits of blanket underneath he could reach, shredded the doggie bed and broke every single toy in the crate with him. He had also pick up the crate from the wooden frame and started moving it off. I removed everything from the crate. The second time, I guess I didn't do the latch up properly because I came home and he had escaped. A couple of days later, I saw that he had pulled the wires off the welds and they were protruding into the cage. Afraid that he might puncture himself, trying to stick his head through the hole, my wife suggested we put him in an empty spare bedroom for a few hours while we were out, hoping a little more space and a window might help calm him. He shredded the carpet in the room and the foam underlay. Sad face. I fixed his wire crate, so that he couldn't hurt himself. I went to church, placed him in the crate, and when I got home, I discovered he had managed to pull the whole front section from its clipping, and jumped over top. Time for a new crate.

A friend of ours who owned two dogs recommended a plastic one, so a plastic one it was. It was fine, we had Ruxin going into his crate easily (still assisted though) and while he didn't like it, he wasn't screaming while we were there. Today my wife sent me a text when she got home to tell me that Ruxin had escaped again, and I was to return the crate tomorrow to petsmart and get a new one.

I guess I'm just curious what to do. He was never left in his crate for more then 5 hours on his own, we tried to introduce it slowly, and we tried to make it a comfortable place for him to go. He eats his meals in there, and his bones and treats are served in the cage. We ignore him when he first comes out, and lavish the praise and pets when he is in there. We even tried to leave a shirt in there that smelt like my wife. He made quick work of that.

How do I make Ruxin love his cage?! Is it just finding one that he can't escape and using tough love?

Thanks

Heh, sorry for the novel. And the spelling mistakes. Was typed on my phone

[Jay]

Wow sounds like a handful lol. What I did was to treat then when he goes in the crate along with a bone that he only gets while in the crate. Don't make a fuss when you leave or come home. And don't let him out unless he's calm. Good idea with the plastic crate. I had to use reusable zip ties to keep mine from escaping.

Hope that helps a little lol

[Removed #5]

If you just typed all that on your phone, you deserve a good answer - the problem is, *I* don't have one.  I wish I did

 

Husky's, as you know since you've done your homework (oh, please don't hit me!) often suffer from SA and regrettably (from what I've read) that's not going to be something you overcome easily or quickly.

 

Jason's ideas are good *if* he doesn't just chew up the plastic ...

 

Welcome to the forum and may I wish you the best of luck!

[Elyse]

Ouch. I honestly don't have any suggestions, it sounds like he has severe separation anxiety. Kinda like mine - a very good boy except when he's left alone. 

[Jay]

Yeah I should add that unfortunately it's not an easy fix. I was spoiled with my first two that they only howled but never destroyed or escaped. Now they go right in their crate in the morning by themselves. Then I got Kodiak and he ate the plastic pan in Nikko's wire crate one day and then busted out his plastic airline style crate. That's when I got the zip ties. I got mine from petsmart as well

[Bob & Juno]

_{just wondering, do you take him for a walk to take some of that energy out of him before going in the crate?   also what about a kong filled with treats that he really has to work at ,   My girl Juno I give her at times a kong filled with some peanut butter and I toss some of the dog food bits and shake it so it stays in with the peanut butter, it takes her about 2 hours of work for her and then she is pretty tired. also I leave a tv on for Juno, the sound may help}

[Gcjager]

B&J,

 

I take Ruxin out for an hour first thing in the morning at 6am. It's usually a combination run/walk for about 10km. When we get back, we usually play a little and relax, and then I take him out again at 10:30am, for about half an hour before I leave for work at 11:15am. My wife gets back around 3pm and takes him out for a walk/run for 45 minutes, and then again for a walk after he eats at 6pm. I then take him out again for half n hour around 10pm before we go to bed. 

 

He spends all our home time sleeping, so it's not like he's got an abundance of energy and he's not getting enough exercise. 

 

I tried a Kong in the crate. What goes in the crate, doesn't come back out.

 

I just returned the one I had to petsmart. He had ripped the plastic at the bottom and forced the gate open from beneath it.

 

I feel like I should change his name to Li'l Houdini

 

Jason - What are the zipties for? 

[Jay]

The zip ties are for the door. Mine would pull the gate back and get out that way. I bought the Petmate Vari-kennel. They sell it at petsmart and petco

[Jay]

Here is the crate

[RJS]

I can't really say much to this... We never crated Kodiak when we got him, and still don't... Mainly because of his size and the fact that we would need a fairly big space for a crate for him!!!

I think that we have been extremely lucky with our two, as I know many other owners who have tried not crating, and have ended up with no house left!!!!

When we got Kala, we decided to give a crate a try... However, it didn't work out. So we now let them both have full access to the ground floor only, and make sure that all toys are available for them, and anything that we know they would like to destroy is out away.. In our case, all the cushions!!!

We can leave our two in their own up to 11 hours a day, as they play with each other all the time and knacker each other out, we could NEVER do this if they were crated... BUT... We trained them over a long period to get to leave them alone this long. Malamutes are pretty lazy most of the time, so this is one of the reasons that it's worked out good for us!!! If we had huskies, I dare say that we would be one of the people who had no house left!!!!

Kala did have separation issues at first, but, touch wood, she's over them now. Kodiak acts as big brother and always makes sure she's ok... We didn't believe people when they said that "2 is always better than 1" but can honestly say that it is!!!

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

try putting something in his crate that smells of you to help comfort him

[Sarah]

I feel your pain lol

When we rescued koda he was 18 months old and wasn't crate trained, as our other 2 were and we had a cat we had no option, he literally broke 3 metal crates and screamed the place down it was awful!

My husband took a day off work and painstakingly worked with him all day literally, he locked him in them let him out straight away and gave him a treat, 5 mins later did it again for 30 seconds and repeated, gradually leaving him longer and long so koda knew he wasn't being left in there for good, it was mentally exhausting for both koda and my husband but it worked lol now he goes and curls up quite happy

Their crates are never used as punishment and I think that is key

Really hope you can get him to settle x

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Emma]

Hi there.  

 

As you can probably tell from the replies so far, it really does depend on the dog in question. Something with your scent can help as mentioned as can a DAP diffuser, or a radio or something similar to provide a little white noise.  Usually the biggest thing to help especially with SA is time.  Time, consistency, and patience.  

 

 I have one husky and one husky mix.  The husky (Ice) was relatively quick to train.  He shreds any toy he can get his hands on but has never touched any of his beds (he ate my staffy's bed though as it wasn't his so he didn't care!  lol).  

 

Bear my husky mix had severe Separation anxiety and an ott fear of confinement.  I went through the process of enticing her inside the crate (took a couple of weeks to get her to go in voluntarily, if I threw in toys or treats she'd walk around the edge, realise she had to go inside if she wanted them, so decided to walk away!)  Once in the crate I'd sit with her quietly and stroke her through the bars, she paced, drooled and panted so I let her out as she was obviously very distressed and retried again and again, repeating the pattern.  She didn't get any better so I thought rather stupidly "ooh, maybe she won't  settle because I'm here and she can't get to me so is getting upset."   So I went outside for a few minutes to the shops around the corner and came back.  All was quiet so I thought so far so good and went inside.  Bear was laying on the floor outside the crate and the door was busted open.  Ok!  I'll cable tie the door and try again.  So I tied the crate and went out again, this time when I came back the house was still silent however Bear was leaning against the side of the crate (still stubbornly refusing to sit down) with part of the top layer of skin from her muzzle sliced off.  She'd obviously tried to get out like before but didn't realise she couldn't.  I let her out and ditched the crate after that day. If she's willing to mutilate herself in preference to being in a crate then clearly in her case crating isn't the way.  After a year of having her and repeatedly having to sew up and relay the carpets in my house (she kept pulling them up and ripping them) I eventually realised that her being confined to the hallway, stairs, kitchen and landing was still in her eyes a form of confinement and distressing to her.  Once I opened up the bedroom doors to her ,she immediately walked into my room with her toy in her mouth, wiggled down under my bed (her usual sleeping spot) and settled down.  No more distress and no more destruction.  It will be a year in January since she last destroyed my carpets, so alls well that ends well.

 

So as you can see I have one who I successfully managed to train and one I didn't!  

[Removed #5]

Hi there.  

<< snipped >>

 

So as you can see I have one who I successfully managed to train and one I didn't!  

 

And we can easily see who trained whom here, right???

[Hannibal]

My boy is almost three months and i crate trained him since the first day i had him. I put him into his crate for the nights and when i'm away. For the night, i have no problem with him. He goes into it by himself and he's waiting for me to come close his door and go to sleep.

 

When i have to go away, it's a little more difficult, but it's getting better. He howls when i put him in his crate 'cause he knows this time he will be alone. But, like i said it's getting better. He never escaped or injured himself. He just howls big time....

 

So, my advice would be to try and try again. He will eventually catch it.... Well, we hope so. ;p

[Emma]

And we can easily see who trained whom here, right???

 

 

Oh yes! Bear could charm the birds from the trees, trust me!!!

Picture the lid of a sardine can being pulled back and you'll get an idea of what happened to her muzzle, I honestly felt so guilty and disgusted with myself that I just couldn't dare to put her back into a crate ever again.  Going off topic here but do you remember Bear's story?  I've told it here a few times but basically our affiliation with huskies started when hubby was coming home from work and a pup was thrown from a moving vehicle into his path.  We brought her home and the rest is history!    I think this is where her confinement issues stem from, the only plus side is that when she was spayed they phoned us up immediately when she came round as even in her dopey state she was going nuts, howling the place down to get out of her crate and they were not amused!  But I was extremely happy to have her home again!  (wasnt quite so happy at having to sit inside her crate with her before the surgery though.  The vets told me if they sedated her she'd be fine.  Wrong!  She was just as upset but with the added complication of being clumsy too! I ended up having to sit in the kennel with her for an hour, I consider myself lucky the vets didn't spay me by accident! lol) : 

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

I have three perfectly crate trained

the hardest was my rescue.

Cable ties, padlocks, all reinforce the cages.

It takes time and patience.

[malagirl]

Malamutes are pretty lazy most of the time, so this is one of the reasons that it's worked out good for us!!! If we had huskies, I dare say that we would be one of the people who had no house left!!!!

 

 

 

maggie is very lazy malamute, yet she has separation anxiety so I have to crate her. She has escaped her crate so many times though and I find the house fine and she is sleeping on the couches or beds. Other times garbage everywhere and gone through blinds too. Other than that she doesn't chew anything else up. 

 

First of all it takes a lot of time and patience to get them to love their crate, Second don't crate when something bad is done. You want to make it a positive place!

 

good luck!