Crating while gone [Archive] - Dog Forums

TxDog

10-29-2005, 11:06 PM

For those indoor dog owners do you give your dog full roam of the house while you are gone or do you crate them?

We have been giving him full roam and have had no problems but the last week or so I noticed he has been chewing on one piece of furniture. He has chew toys and uses them plus we give him chew bones but he seems to like this one piece quite a bit. He never chews on it while we are home though.

Sue

10-30-2005, 01:24 AM

I have a multi dog household and I only crate my pit bull, for the obvious reasons... Have you tried something like Bitter Apple on the piece to deter him? Or you can gate him off in another room so he can't get to it.

Marinepits

10-30-2005, 01:06 AM

I have four pits and all are crated when we're not home. We sometimes leave the oldest female out if her arthritis seems to be worse than usual, just so she can stretch her legs by walking around the house, but we do gate off the kitchen and master bedroom. She likes to paw open the fridge and sleep on our pillows. :)

TxDog

11-03-2005, 10:02 PM

What is bitter apple? Something I can get at the pet store?

Marinepits

11-03-2005, 10:48 PM

Petco carries it, and I've seen it at some Agway/feed supply stores.

http://www.bitterapple.com/

Ingredients: Water, Isopropanol 20%, Bitter Principles and Extractives

StarWhisper

11-05-2005, 03:35 PM

For those indoor dog owners do you give your dog full roam of the house while you are gone or do you crate them?

It depends on the dog. If a crate is necessary I use one if not I don't. Currently non of my dogs are being crated...

We have been giving him full roam and have had no problems but the last week or so I noticed he has been chewing on one piece of furniture. He has chew toys and uses them plus we give him chew bones but he seems to like this one piece quite a bit. He never chews on it while we are home though.

The first thing to do is definately deter him from chewing the furniture, for saftey reasons. Other posters have mentioned a product called "bitter apple" which you can buy at any local petstore.

Bitter Apple is used to prevent animals from chewing objects but some don't mind the taste...

What kind of dog do you have and how much exercise is he getting?

Sue

11-06-2005, 12:54 AM

Also, if it's only been recently that's he's been acting like this, has anything changed in the household that might be causing stress?

suki

11-06-2005, 02:46 AM

Thankfully, don't have to crate, AFTER fixing the problem of her busting thru the windows!!!!!!:o
She's great in the house.... My rotties, on the other hand......

redridinghood1313

11-07-2005, 12:17 PM

We crated our dog while we were gone but that's only because of the facts below:
1) she was an unhousbroken puppy
1a) we had no fence or dog door
2) she was teething
2a) all our furniture and house interior was brand new

Now she's housebroken, has a fence and a dog door, and has finished teething. So she has free run. Sometimes it turns out to be a bad idea (we woke up saturday to see that mud-dog had wiped herself off on the couches and persian carpet AND was flinging around half a mouse in the kitchen), but she isn't naughty--just dirty. We'll live.

Deb

01-11-2006, 02:44 PM

Hi there. I have had dogs for over 30 years. Always inside dogs, my babies! The only time I crate while I'm gone is when I first get a new one. I adopted a puppy mill survivor puppy that was rescued at 4 months of age. He is now 8 months of age and is doing very well inside. He barks at the door when he has to go out, something we did not teach him. I don't fully trust him yet in the house while we are gone, as he gets into things as puppies do. I have two other dogs, both 8 years old, and they have had free range of the house for years. Once the pup shows us he will be a "good boy", he too will get the run of the house.

catcher T

01-12-2006, 10:50 AM

I have one dog that I still crate,,only cause he will eat my cat and my parrot,,plus I want to keep the things I still have to pay for,,;)

Polly Fila

01-25-2006, 05:31 PM

Hello. I'm a new owner of a staffordhire bull terrier, 9 weeks old. I'm fortunate enough to be home everyday, so she's only left alone for a few hours at a time. We have a crate, but also a couch in our large hallway, so all connecting doors can be closed when we're out. She just sleeps on the couch, by the look of things when we return...so far, v. well behaved. We only use the crate for when there's no adults to keep an eye on her, for even 'though our son's 10 years old, she's too young and boisterous for him to take full responsibility for her just now.

The thing we're wondering is, is it wrong to use the crate as correction? She's such a beggar, and when we have people over, she jumps up, and is quite bitey...no manners, yet! We give her a warning, and when the second no and redirection is ignored, we lift her up, and place her in the crate, in the dark hallway for a 5 or 10 minutes. When we open the door again, she sometimes stays there, and goes to sleep, with the crate open...girl got attitude!

DiggityDogs

01-25-2006, 08:28 PM

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Polly Fila

01-25-2006, 09:33 PM

DiggityDogs

01-26-2006, 02:27 AM

oooooo...........

Polly Fila

01-26-2006, 08:54 AM

That's a great help, thanks. Already, our son is turning from her, and walking away calmly when she bites him...at first he was leaping away, and getting her more excited!

Joy in repetition...?

Patch O' Pits

01-26-2006, 11:46 AM

Thanks for answering, Diggity. Can it be used as a sort of 'time out', then?

She doesn't bark when the door goes, she's just over-happy to see people...and she doesn't leave them alone, even after redirecting her with a toy, which works when we're alone.

...and what do we do when she continues biting, (which is more like knawing and play-nipping) if not calming her down by putting her in the crate? Will ignoring her, and folding our arms away eventually work? She totally harrasses guests, and ends up nipping them.

I'm getting into the habit of treating her with a tid-bit when I open the door...am I being precious with her, or is it a good reward for remaining calm in the crate, which she is.

I agree the crate should definately not be used as a punishment.

Also with the biting if you have a drivey dog the turning and walking away often doesn't do it . You may want to teach you son to redirect the biting behavior to a toy. Also get the pup more exercise which will help too. A tired pup is a better ehaved one LOL

Good luck with your puppy

Evanescence

01-26-2006, 10:58 PM

I crated my adult dog until he was about 2.5, but once he proved to me that he would be good, he's allowed the run of the house. My younger dog however, is still crated when i leave, actually, she's crated every second of the day that I can't keep an eye on her....she gets into everything! People tried to tell me that heelers don't make the greatest indoor pets, but I didn't listen! and anyhow...I disagree. With the right combination of training and exercise, any dog can be a good house dog, even if it means running around and throwing a frisbee for 2 hours a day for a crazy heeler! It just may take some time before they can be completely trusted.

MereFM99

01-27-2006, 01:30 AM

Please don't use the crate for punishment or time-out, that's the worst thing that you can do if you really want to crate-train the dog! As someone else said, you can use it to keep the dog calm & keep her from jumping on people by putting the dog into the crate & giving her a treat or toy before your guests come over. But the crate shouldn't ever have a negative association or she will never want to go in. When my dog was a puppy, she used to jump like crazy when I had guests. Our trainer suggested that when she jumped up, to step quickly toward her & lift up 1 knee, which would force her off, give a verbal reprimand at the same time, and walk the other way. As a last resort, we put some pennies in strategically placed empty soda cans and any time that she jumped up we'd pick one up & she would back off b/c they don't like the noise of metal on aluminum. She doesn't jump anymore, that worked pretty quickly. It also works for keeping her off of furniture, I just put an empty can on the sofa before I leave. For the biting... this doesn't work so well with guests, but if she's biting/mouthing you and your family, the bitter apple can help. If you spray it on your hands & let it dry before you play with her, then when she goes to play bite your hand, she'll get a bad taste & it will deter her. Just a few suggestions!

justk

01-30-2006, 12:32 PM

I started crating my puppy when we first brought him home. It was done to not only prevent a houseful of accidents, but for his safety as well. We are now letting him out of his crate for two or three hours while we are gone, and he has done fine so far. We also used the crate to introduce my cat to the new puppy without the cat being chased or intimidated. He is NEVER placed in the crate for punishment, instead we have tried to convey to him it is his den, his very own place. We leave his toys in there and he is also fed in there, so he realizes that yes, he has to stay there while we're gone, but that good things happen in there as well, like playing and eating. The crate is located in our main living room, as opposed to being in a location away from the family and to be seen when he is to be put in there. He is six months old now, and hopefully he'll be able to have full reign of our home when we're gone. At that time the crate will be moved to his bedroom, but its door will always remain open for those times when he wants to be alone.

portraitz

01-30-2006, 10:34 PM

I've never owned a crate. When they were pups, we used a baby gate across the kitchen.

Otto, our pit, only chewed destructively one time in his whole life. However, he did it in style...he chewed/clawed/dug/tunnelled, through the seat cushion of a brand new couch. It was while he was still a pup, my son ran down to the store at the corner, he was unsupervised for about 20 minutes, lol!!

My kids met me at the door, afraid to tell me...lol, he never did anything bad again!!