Crate problems

[GoDiego]

Hello everyone.

I have just recently adopted a new greyhound named Diego. I adopted him three weeks ago and have been having some issues involving the crate.

Diego is a sweet dog, and has done very well so far with adjusting to life at home. His only issue is that he has (recently) developed a disliking of his crate. To the advice of my adoption agency I have fed just about every meal in his crate, as well as leaving treats in there for him if I ever have to leave. For the first two weeks he loved it and only within the passed three days has really turned his nose to it. He has both pooped and peed in the crate every single time that I have left him alone. The longest stretch of being gone was a little over an hour and a half. I typically have the television on with the audio on so he can hear voices. I pick sports radio as it is typically just people talking and not any strange noises.

The first time this happened, I let him outside before I left just to make sure it wasn't out of necessity (I already somewhat knew it wasn't because I have him outside a lot during the day). Unfortunately it is still happening.

I was wondering if there is anything I can do to make the kennel not such a bad experience for my buddy? Should I be concerned for his health? From what I can tell his stool is fairly normal even when he is going in the crate.

 

[HeyRunDog]

Most adoption agencies recommend using a crate but I think  a lot of greyhound owners stop using it after a short time. Have you tried letting have the run of the room or rooms when you leave him and leave the crate's door open so he can use it if he wants?

[cleptogrey]

90+% of the readers here will say get rid of the crate. i'm in the 10% that says stick with it. when i travel/visit people the hosts are always pleased that my dogs come with crates. we can all go out and the house and dogs are safe. if there is an injury- crate time(annie did 6 weeks of crate time w/ a shoulder injury). if you have a visitor who is fearful of dogs or a house full of people and it's too much chaos- crate time.

all meals, treats, kongs, raw marrow bones are given in the crate

better padding- even a bed can be placed in the crate

some dogs like to look out and see what's going on- some like a den- blanket on crate will do that

relocate it so it's near the center of activity

buy a hanging water bucket for the crate

good luck deciding- but unless your dog is freaking out and ripping the crate apart i would persevere

[GoDiego]

9 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:

Most adoption agencies recommend using a crate but I think  a lot of greyhound owners stop using it after a short time. Have you tried letting have the run of the room or rooms when you leave him and leave the crate's door open so he can use it if he wants?

Thank you for the response. I haven't let him much, and I think that may end up being the solution if "powering through it" doesn't eventually bring him to be comfortable in the crate.

I leave the crate open for him so that he can drink water (I leave his elevated water bowl in there for him) but other than that he doesn't voluntarily go in on his own other than to quickly inspect it.

 

I'm leaving the house again today, and I'm going to leave my phone so I can really see what goes on in the crate while i'm away.

[GoDiego]

1 hour ago, cleptogrey said:

90+% of the readers here will say get rid of the crate. i'm in the 10% that says stick with it. when i travel/visit people the hosts are always pleased that my dogs come with crates. we can all go out and the house and dogs are safe. if there is an injury- crate time(annie did 6 weeks of crate time w/ a shoulder injury). if you have a visitor who is fearful of dogs or a house full of people and it's too much chaos- crate time.

all meals, treats, kongs, raw marrow bones are given in the crate

better padding- even a bed can be placed in the crate

some dogs like to look out and see what's going on- some like a den- blanket on crate will do that

relocate it so it's near the center of activity

buy a hanging water bucket for the crate

good luck deciding- but unless your dog is freaking out and ripping the crate apart i would persevere

Thank you for responding. As someone that did end up deciding to stick with the crate, what was your experience like?

Did the crate become natural over time? Did Annie experience any accidents while you were away?

[cleptogrey]

all of my dogs have loved their crates. i made them very comfortable. annie who was a drama queen survived her 6 weeks of crate time with out any scaring.

it was very sad, when old felix was at the end he just would not leave his crate his most comfortable sacred place. by then we had a soft crate which was easy to hose down when there were accidents. we literally had to unzipped the top  (the front was always left open) and 3 of us maneuvered him out for his final trip to the vet. talk about a dog who loved his crate.

our new dog who can be a very bad puppy(now 9 months old) quite often has access to her crate at all times. we have taught her to stay in the crate with the door open when we eat(teaching impulse control). she willingly goes there and waits out the meal. we know she is good when she is in her crate- door open! yes, it's natural for her to hang in the crate- the same w/ my 3.5 yr old

the best crate pads are by Grey Care on Etsy, they have an etsy store. Double berber fleece with memory foam filler. It washes beautifully. We use that and a double heavy  furry polar fleece lap blanket. Both are easy to wash. I have thrown old sleeping bags in(puppy eats the zipper so that's a no no right now), dog beds, quilts.

Edited January 3, 2021 by cleptogrey

[GoDiego]

On 1/3/2021 at 2:06 PM, cleptogrey said:

all of my dogs have loved their crates. i made them very comfortable. annie who was a drama queen survived her 6 weeks of crate time with out any scaring.

it was very sad, when old felix was at the end he just would not leave his crate his most comfortable sacred place. by then we had a soft crate which was easy to hose down when there were accidents. we literally had to unzipped the top  (the front was always left open) and 3 of us maneuvered him out for his final trip to the vet. talk about a dog who loved his crate.

our new dog who can be a very bad puppy(now 9 months old) quite often has access to her crate at all times. we have taught her to stay in the crate with the door open when we eat(teaching impulse control). she willingly goes there and waits out the meal. we know she is good when she is in her crate- door open! yes, it's natural for her to hang in the crate- the same w/ my 3.5 yr old

the best crate pads are by Grey Care on Etsy, they have an etsy store. Double berber fleece with memory foam filler. It washes beautifully. We use that and a double heavy  furry polar fleece lap blanket. Both are easy to wash. I have thrown old sleeping bags in(puppy eats the zipper so that's a no no right now), dog beds, quilts.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I'll definitely look into making it more comfortable.

I'll also look into Grey Care, sounds like that would be a great place to start!

[2greyhoundMINI]

We are on our second set of greys... our rescue told us at some point they would let us know when they were done with the crates.

The first 2 didn’t mind the crates for a good 6 months. But they were older and used to them from being at the rescue for a while before being adopted. 

Our second pair (current) are young. We adopted them when they had barely turned 2 and they weren’t at the rescue for more than a day or 2. They INSTANTLY hated the crates so they were only in them for a week. 

See how it goes, but I’m not a fan of forcing the crate. Good luck!

Edited January 6, 2021 by 2greyhoundMINI

[GoDiego]

On 1/6/2021 at 4:40 PM, 2greyhoundMINI said:

We are on our second set of greys... our rescue told us at some point they would let us know when they were done with the crates.

The first 2 didn’t mind the crates for a good 6 months. But they were older and used to them from being at the rescue for a while before being adopted. 

Our second pair (current) are young. We adopted them when they had barely turned 2 and they weren’t at the rescue for more than a day or 2. They INSTANTLY hated the crates so they were only in them for a week. 

See how it goes, but I’m not a fan of forcing the crate. Good luck!

Thank you for the response!

Yes, after some more research on here I've found that a lot of people feel like their greyhound "tells" them when they're about done with it.

[2greyhoundMINI]

4 minutes ago, GoDiego said:

Thank you for the response!

Yes, after some more research on here I've found that a lot of people feel like their greyhound "tells" them when they're about done with it.

Yup, that’s what we were told.

The more freedom in the house we gave the young new girls the better they behaved.

Strange but it was our story.

Edited January 7, 2021 by 2greyhoundMINI

[GreyhndHomecare]

I agree, stick with it.  I had one grey who had become really crate-phobic.  As he got older, though, he was slipping on the floor and hurting himself sometimes when we were out, so we needed to contain him (sometimes he was getting into things and chewing things up, too).  We replaced his plastic crate with a larger, wire one.  When we needed it, we would put his bed into it and set it up exactly where the bed had been.  He went right in, and loved it.

 

Gail