Last night, before R and I went out for our "Valentine" dinner, the puppy was getting a bit unruly so we sent him to his crate for a time out. I didn't realize it but Fender had poked a hole in the zipper thingie that closes the crate. I thought it was something we could fix as it didn't really seem to do much to the workings of the zipper. However, when I put the little critter to bed for the night, I found that the zipper is hopelessly broken.
I put the baby gate at the end of the hallway to keep him from lounging on the sofa for the night, then all night I kept hearing him playing instead of sleeping. He didn't chew anything up, though. So now I'm torn... should we try leaving him out of his crate or should we go get a new crate? Crates are about a hundred bucks. I'm reluctant to leave him to his own devices. He gets on the furniture when I'm just standing outside the front door on the porch. (Thanks to my stepmom for that trick!)
I'm sure we'll work something out but it's quite frustrating to think that he could do it again and then we've got two useless crates.
1 comment:
Hey girl,
It's Brandis. I am well versed in the psychology of a dog, as you know I work at an animal hospital and hear many of these stories. Fortunately I never had to crate- train my puppy, but I find that if you create a comfortable place(dog bed) for your puppy somewhere in the house where you want him to be, and convince him that he loves it, he will be less likely to lounge on your favorite couch or on your bed. Discipline him by telling him no when he tries, and lead him to his bed with a treat(food is the leading factor in a well behaved pup:). If he is stubborn lock him in his crate or a small room(bathroom) for a while. As for the chewing up things issue, make sure he has plenty of toys and chew bones to occupy his time. Let me know if this helps, if not I will try to conjure up another strategy.
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