Beginning Crate Training, and My Dalmatian

Our dalmatian has lived with 5 owners in 4 homes. All by the age
of 4. Her first owners left the country at a young age and left
her with an elderly woman who passed away shortly after. From
there she became an outdoor dog for a few weeks until a new home
could be found. In the new home she took second priority to the
more expensive feline of the house, and soon was up for adoption
again. By the time we adopted Lilly at the age of 4, she clearly
had reason to develop a ‘little’ anxiety problem.

For over two years we ‘coped’. We tried an outdoor kennel, only
to find her digging out. We then moved the kennel into a garage,
to find her climbing out and getting into the garbage in the
garage. Finally we went back to having her in the house while we
were away.

I did try a ‘closed’ kennel, or ‘transport’ kennel at first. A
type of kennel that is basically closed all the way around with
the only opening being the front door. This, I believe is a bad
idea for a dog with an anxiety issue. Claustrophobia definitely
kicked in and that kennel looked like it had exploded.

In the house, she had accidents, on the carpet. Chewed, although
not as bad as some dogs. And lastly, tore into the garbage on a
daily basis. She would get into a garbage can in any room she
could find. The kitchen garbage often discovered spread out on
the living room carpet, coffee grinds and all. Any dishes left
out were of course broke as she could pull them off the counter
top but wasn’t able to gently bring them down to the floor…
Since we would keep our garbage under the sink, the cabinets
took abuse from her clawing her way in. Child locks worked, but
it was really a toss-up. Sure, she couldn’t get into the
garbage, but now the cabinets are taking even more damage as she
keeps trying.

And her most recent feat? Our little Lilly learned how to open
the fridge. Thats right, the fridge. Imagine coming home and
walking into the kitchen to find the fridge door open and all
your new groceries half devoured or ruined from the heat.

What made it worse, is that she is very intelligent. I’ve heard
people call dalmatians ‘dumb’ and ‘hyper.’ I disagree. I think
they are far too intelligent, and perhaps cope with anxiety
disorders that are translated as ‘hyper’. Bottom line… She
knew she was wrong, and almost always when she got into trash or
food, her day was finished with what I called a ‘nervous
accident.’

So for a long time we built up ‘band aid’ solutions. Things that
help, but they don’t solve the problem. We installed a Pergo
laminate floor in our living room and kitchen to help combat
stains. Tried children’s safety locks to keep her out of the
cabinets. And probably our most extreme ‘band aid’ solution,
duct taped the fridge door shut. At some point you’ve had enough.

We decided to try kennels again. This time an ‘open-air’ kennel.
I found a few on the Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) for around
$20-40, but we ended up buying Wal-Mart’s XL for around $70.
Best investment we ever made. You’ll find other articles
teaching you how to correctly introduce the kennel (or Den as we
call it in our house, the “K” word is banned) on our site here.
However, here is a quick run down on our steps. We got VERY
lucky in my opinion.

First off, there was a lot of excitement. From the second my
wife walked through the door with the box, while we unpacked it
and set it up, until I finally climbed in. (we did get the XL).
Like I mentioned, Lilly is a very intelligent dog and we felt if
we got excited about how cool this new thing was, then she would
too. I was first to climb in and she instantly followed.

Second, lots of love. Only good things were associated with her
going in the new crate. Pets and praise, treats, her bed, me.
She seems rather attached to me, so it worked well.

We started feeding her inside the crate fairly quickly… Same
day we brought it home. We expected it to take weeks, but she
took to it so fast, we took advantage.

That night, we had our first trial run. To test, we all left the
house. Or at least she thought we did. I stayed in the other
room quite as a mouse. My thinking was if she thought I was gone
we could get a better idea of how she felt about crate. After 20
minutes or so she still had not even pawed at the crate door
once. I let her know I was still there (I did not call her name,
just walked through her room) then promptly left. This first
outing was only 30 minutes. Later that same evening I tried
again, for an hour.

The next day, a Sunday, we left her for about 2 hours while we
went to Church. No issue. I was worried about Monday as we both
had to work, but everything worked well. Lilly loves her crate,
she goes into it openly while we are home to relax. At night we
still let her sleep in our room, but to keep the comfort items
familiar we pull her bed out of her crate and set it up in the
bedroom on the floor for her.

No accidents, no broken plates, no ruined food, no coffee grinds
all over the floor to clean up. While not everyone will get as
lucky as we did on the crate training, I would still highly
suggest giving it a try! Read the other articles now for more
information on how to get started!

Remember, I went into fast forward with our crate training
because Lilly took to it very quickly. I expected it to take
weeks, if it were to happen at all. Take it slowly and never
force Spot! Don’t give up if weeks pass and he still isn’t crate
trained. Some dogs take longer than others.

Dustin Twiggs Jake Your
Lilly