We’ve had our rescue mutt (Lab/hound/Boxer/Pit bull/who knows?) for about 2.5 months now. She is 8.5 months old. She is absolutely wonderful, we are head over heels in love.
But. (Of course there’s a but.) Crate-training has proven an ongoing disaster. As of today, she has officially totally destroyed two metal crates. She bites the bars of the door until they pull away from the cross bars. She then worries at the latches to spring them. The newer crate had a latch at the top and bottom; today, she sprung the bottom latch and slithered out through the gap.
She has not been overly destructive in the house, thank god - mostly just tearing up paper trash and re-arranging the laundry.
I do think she has her fair share of separation anxiety, but I honestly would not have thought it was severe enough for her to be chewing her way through a metal crate! She is barely 40 lbs, so not huge.
She gets plenty of exercise (3-4 hours of vigorous walks a day, 1 hour of that at lunchtime, much of it in hiking terrain and/or with playtime with other dogs interspersed), is only crated 3 days a week for 2-3 hours at a time. She is generally a very laid back, even lazy puppy.
We’ve tried everything in the book for crate training and honestly? She’s great when we’re there! She gets a stuffed Kong or breakfast in a puzzle ball in the crate, she has super high value marrow bones in the crate itself. When we’re home with her she will happily go into the crate voluntarily and chew a bone for an hour or more, with the door wide open. We can latch the door without the slightest hint of a whine or attempt at escape. She lies down or sits quietly.
The problem lies when we leave her alone. Today, I cleaned up after her morning adventure, and then spent an extra hour at lunch really neurotically puppy-proofing two rooms and then restricting her access to those two rooms. She’s now loose in the house and alone for the first time ever. She started whining as soon as I closed the door.
I guess I will start working through separation anxiety issues with her, but she does not display any of the more classic signals! She’s not overly bonded to one of us, she is not overwhelmingly destructive (so far anyway), and she loves going to day care 1-2 days a week where she is perfectly behaved.
Has anyone dealt with a crate-buster? Did anything work? Did you just have to give up? I’d really like her to learn to tolerate it, even if ultimately she is loose at home, in case we travel.