# Crates and ideas for a restless puppy



## mego (Jan 27, 2013)

Hi everyone, I've had Lara for a few days now and already she's adjusting to being crated. She listens to my "get in your crate" command but whenever I attempt to shut the door she tries to wiggle out, I've just been shoving her back in and being silent when she does it. After she's in I tell her to be quiet and go to bed.

The first few days she cried whenever I left, but after repeating this about 50 times the first day or two with me leaving for 5 seconds, coming back and heavily praising her + feeding her, over and over she now doesn't put up much of a fuss for long and usually quiets down after a minute or so.

I would really like to have her chew on things in the crate. Sometimes when i'm not able to supervise (like when I need to take a shower) I crate her when she's not tired so I can do my things, but she refuses to do anything in the crate except lay there and when I let her out she chews EVERYTHING. 

I tire her out really good before I leave for an hour or more, but for these 10 -15 minute breaks she usually is very restless and will _eventually_ try to sleep. I have put kibble in a kong, tried peanut butter in there, even cooked chicken (which she loves) but she refuses to touch it in the crate. She refuses to touch her nylabone either. Should I put regular food on the floor in the crate while she's in? I did that when she wasnt crated so that she'd investigate and find goodies on her own time, but maybe I should do it when I force her in there too.

She gets all her meals in the crate too, happily walks in to eat, but wont if the door is closed, she'll just go in and out periodically to munch and I praise her. 

Picture, sorry that was long  hope you guys have some ideas - maybe this is just too much expectation for having her for a week.

I have been trying really hard to make the crate a happy place, it's working as a go to sleep place, but hopefully it can be a chewing place too lol


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## Mary Beth (Apr 17, 2010)

There are some threads on crate games that you may want to look up. But if I were you, I would try to limit the crate time - at night yes - but during the day for a high energy pup it can get to be too confining. I would get an indoor pen if you can't put her outside in a secure fenced in area when you can't watch her. Also what I did with my Sting when he was a puppy, was to have him follow me around in the house while I did chores, I would have him on his leash. Then when I would sit to work on the computer, I would give him a chew toy to keep him occupied. Your pup really wants to be with you and that by doing that, the pup will also be tired out at night and go inside the crate to sleep.


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## mego (Jan 27, 2013)

She's pretty low energy for a puppy and the max time a day she gets crated is about 3 hours while Im in class. 
We looked for a pen at the petstore but they had none big enough for her :/.


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## Cheyanna (Aug 18, 2012)

Fiona would not chew on anything in the crate either. Then she chewed on the crate and destroyed it. But I never played the crate games with her to make it fun. I would just put her in and leave. I think the games would have been a great idea, so she did not see the crate as the place mom puts me when she doesn't want me with her.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

you said "she refuses to do anything in the crate
except lay there". what do you want her to do
in the crate? put some toys in her crate and don't
worry about her (so much). i don't remember my pup
being active in his crate.


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

Mego

My Emma (11 weeks old) is only in her crate at night for sleep. I keep the crate by my bed so she knows where I am. I feed in the kitchen on the vinyl. I have plenty of chew toys around the house as well as balls. She loves to chase the ball around the vinyl and bounce it off the walls. I keep a chew bone in her crate at night - one you put treats inside. To me the create is for potty training and sleaping at night only. I have the partition set to only allow enough room for her to sleep The low energy could be from too much crate time. I could be wrong on this so other please speak up

If I need to go out for an hour or so and cant take her, I put her in one of the bathrooms with news paper on the floors and her toys. Otherwise I try to take her everywhere I go.

So far her favorite toys are two slinky imitation animals (Fox and ****) that have squeaky's in each end. She will chew and thrash them for hours.

Hope this helps, but please check with other that know more


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## YukonGal (Aug 25, 2011)

Mego, I have a pretty active 10 week old puppy and he spent the first 2 weeks mostly in the crate during the day (my daughter looked after him as I was away)while she worked and again at night for sleeping. He loves his crate and jumps into it - she always made sure it was a positive experience (except of course the first few days while he was getting used to it it wasn't all so happy . I have continued with Crate Games and think it's a great way to to only teach them to love the crate (and you don't ever need to push them in to shut the door ) but it teaches them self control and a whole host of other benefits - can't say enough about it! I wouldn't worry about your puppy not eating or chewing on treats - eventually he will.


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## gsdlover91 (Jul 21, 2012)

Berlin has toys that are strictly "crate' toys. They ONLY stay in there and he ONLY gets to play with them in there. He has two kongs (a red and now a black one...) a nylabone, antler, and another nylabone thingy that you can put treats in it. He loves those toys, and they never come out of there. I have been doing this since I got him, but only started out with a nylabone and a kong, and well, the other stuff has been added in. Find some exciting (but almost undestroyable) toys, and put them in there and do not let them come out. She only plays with them when in there, and eventually, hopefully she'll look forward to going in there more! Also, she is still fairly young, Berlin didnt really LOVE his crate until he was like 4 months old. Now i cant even keep him out of there.


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## mego (Jan 27, 2013)

gsdlover91 said:


> Berlin has toys that are strictly "crate' toys. They ONLY stay in there and he ONLY gets to play with them in there. He has two kongs (a red and now a black one...) a nylabone, antler, and another nylabone thingy that you can put treats in it. He loves those toys, and they never come out of there. I have been doing this since I got him, but only started out with a nylabone and a kong, and well, the other stuff has been added in. Find some exciting (but almost undestroyable) toys, and put them in there and do not let them come out. She only plays with them when in there, and eventually, hopefully she'll look forward to going in there more! Also, she is still fairly young, Berlin didnt really LOVE his crate until he was like 4 months old. Now i cant even keep him out of there.


Okay well we have 'crate only toys' too, a nylabone and a kong. She finally realized that when it's boring in there its fun to chew after all. I was pretending to be asleep and I heard her munching down on her toys. 
 I did play a lot of crate games with her this weekend though! She really like s it already. She's actually in the other room sleeping in her crate with the door open even though I got up and left


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