AboutDelores Beck Expertise Health, nutrition, and training issues.
NOTICE: I NO LONGER RECOMMEND CANIDAE DOG FOOD. DUE TO A CHANGE IN FORMULA AND MANUFACTURING FACILITIES, DOGS ARE GETTING SICK ON THIS BRAND.
Question Hello! My husband and I rescued a 4-5 yr old female cocker spaniel a few weeks ago, and her name is Gracie. She's very sweet, affectionate, house trained, a really great dog! We began crate training her the first week, and we did it gradually. I have another dog (yellow lab/red heeler mix) that I rescued two years ago, and I successfully crate trained her. Gracie did pretty well with the training: she would go in her crate and sleep on her own, and didn't seem to mind the door being shut. Even if my husband went into the other room, most of the time she was quiet, but sometimes she'd whine for a few minutes at first. When we'd leave the house, we'd hear her begin to whine right away, and paw at the door. We gradually increased our time away, the longest being almost 2 hours. When we would come back in the house, we wouldn't hear anything from her, unless we took too long getting back there to let her out. We always wait until she's silent for at least 30 seconds before letting her out. We thought she would get over the whole whining thing and get used to us leaving and coming back.
Well, we found out she was heartworm positive right after we got her (the foster's vet, it turned out, never tested). She just got her treatment this past Monday (09-20), and we picked her up Tuesday morning. We haven't done anymore crate training this week because we wanted to let her rest comfortably and not put any stress on her heart. She's been feeling really good the past few days, so we decided to start back up on the crate training again today.
My husband informed me that Gracie was in her crate for about 15 minutes while he was in the living room, and she whined the entire time. Our other dog was in the same room with her in a separate crate. My husband said he waited until she was silent for at least 30 seconds. He let her out into the room, and then put a gate up in the doorway and went back into the living room. There was no more whining after that.
Could being at the vet for a little over 24 hrs have traumatized her? Did she forget all the crate training we did just last week? I'm wondering if she just hates the crate and would do better being gated in a room. I don't want to put stress on her heart because she still needs to be calm and quiet for at least a month because of the heartworm treatment. I'm just not sure if she's whining because she's not getting her way and she doesn't want to be in the crate, or if she truly hates the crate and it's stressing her out and scaring her.
I know her foster family had her a few months after rescuing her from a city shelter. They had a house full of dogs and kids, and I know she had to be left alone time to time, but they would put her in a bedroom by herself. They said she was always a good girl, and they said nothing about whining. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I feel like we've gone "by the book" on everything as far as crate training, so I don't know what else to do, besides trying to gate her in a room. I want to do whatever will be best for this sweet girl! Thank you so much in advance for your help!
-Robin
Answer Gracie lucked out finding you :)
Now first I'd ask why crate or confine her at all? You're right in fearing stress at this point and she needs calm and quiet.
I'd only crate or confine if there was a problem as in being destructive when alone. My own dogs have the run of the house whether we're home or not. So to advise you I'd have to know the reasons for crating/confining. And why she'd be crated when someone was home????
So give me the whole picture and the reasons for this and hopefully I can help.
Delores
