feeling bad about "crating" your dog? Here's how to make this a better situation for both of you
They say that "you can't teach and old dog new tricks" and this is very true. Well not entirely, you can, it is just going to be significantly more difficult. Dogs carry the "scars" or "joys" of certain things for the rest of their life and this is why it can be so difficult to change the attitude of a dog that has been traumatized by a past abusive or neglect-oriented situation.
We have dogs that have never known hunger as long as they have been with us but are still scared to eat around other dogs because of the fact that when they were part of a homeless pack of dogs, they would get attacked by the stronger dogs for ever eating. We have one here now that you basically have to beg her to eat even though there is zero competition for food in her current environment. She associates food with pain and this is very difficult to correct in a dog.
Crating is something that a great many pet owners refuse to do because they think it will make the dog feel bad or nervous and then in the rare situation where the dog must go in a crate such as being at the groomers or going on a trip somewhere, the dog freaks out as soon as it gets put in a kennel.
I've been working with stray and rescued dogs for over a decade and I have seen thousands of dogs. The dogs that are homeless and have never experienced kennels or crating, don't freak out when they are inside of one after just a short while. Why is that? Well, because we ignore their pleas to be let out until the time has come. We also reward them for being in the crate with little treats.
After a very short amount of time they associate the crate with safety and food, and this is exactly what you want to enforce in your own pet dog.
Don't get the wrong idea here. I hate it when people use the crate as a place where the dog spends most of its life. A dog is not a goldfish, if you cannot provide an area where the dog spends almost all of its life outside of a crate you shouldn't have a dog. In fact, I know a lot of people (I am one of them) that if you do treat your dog this way we will work to make sure you don't have a dog for much longer.
What I am trying to say is that this crate doesn't have to be a place of fear, but if you "rescue" your dog from this "terrible environment" the moment that it starts to cry a little bit, it now starts to associate the crate with being a bad place and also that all it has to do is whine a little bit and you will let it out. The little whines turn into howling and this can be really bad because while there doesn't need to be a lot of these situations, there are times when you absolutely MUST crate a dog.
Another method of conditioning your dog to accept crating is that once the door is opened, this needs to happen ONLY when the dog is actually allowed to come out. Resist the urge to open the door and give your pup some belly scratches and hugs for just a moment and then close the door again. This will make them again associate the crate with punishment and a bad place, whereas if you just talk to them through the door and give them a treat of some sort, they will associate the crate with a place that is safe, warm, and a spot where they get snacks.
We have a number of dogs in our semi-permanent care that run to their crates when they see them because they are excited to get in there. Most of the people that I know that have dogs at home the dogs are terrified of the crate.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Also, NEVER use the crate as a form of punishment unless you absolutely must. We HAVE TO use crates for transport for our own safety as well as the safety of the dog, but you would be amazed how street dogs or homeless / stray dogs have almost zero issue with being crated. They learn so quickly that this is not a dangerous place.
If your dog is already older it might be too late to alter this behavior. But much like most things in a dog's life, their attitude towards all of their surroundings are determined in the first few years of their lives. So please, for your sake as well as the dog's, use these years wisely!
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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