newly adopted dog SCARED of crate

[caitlin926]

Hello,

This is my first time on this website, so forgive me if I'm missing somewhere else that this question is already posted. I can't seem to find anything.

(Preemptive apology: Sorry, this got really long as I typed it. Hoping the details will help someone help us, though!)

Here's the situation: We just adopted a 2-year old Akita on Sunday. She was supposedly surrendered because she didn't get along with her previous owner's other dogs...a great dane and a lab, I think...and the shelter people said she'd growled at them when she was first there. We accordingly got all sorts of warnings about how Akitas are very dominant and territorial. But we met with her a bunch of times at the shelter and never saw any of this behavior, and quite to the contrary she seemed to slowly be warming to us. So we decided to give it a chance.

Luckily, she seems to have transformed into a very sweet and well-behaved dog in the couple of days we'd had her home. It's like her Akita-aloofness melted away as soon as she got home. She is very attentive, loves to be petted, will constantly roll over and let you rub her belly, even likes to be brushed! She acts in what I have read are submissive ways...approaches us with her head down, ears to the side and all that. She shows no food aggression, easily relinquishes toys, behaved very well at the vet, and is accepting of house guests...all things we were warned might go wrong. And, extra bonus, seems completely and fully house trained.

The only thing is, she's terrified of her crate. Maybe it was a mistake, but we didn't assemble the crate until after we had brought her home. Watching us put it together seemed to frightened her...not in a "we made lots of scary noise doign it" way, but in a "she knew what it was and didn't like what she saw" way. Initially she wouldn't go anywhere near the thing. We've worn her down a little to the point where she will go in to retrieve treats and then quickly get back out with them or will eat her meal with the bowl in the back of the crate...usually with her hind paws still awkwardly outside the door...but she will only do those things with us securely on the other side of the room. If we even walk any where near by, she bolts out of the thing.

Not wanting to force her into the crate, we've left her out with free reign of the living room at night and while we're at work, which we didn't plan to do until after she had earned our trust. However, she's done fine with the freedom...no accidents or destruction whatsoever.

So what should we do? We don't need the crate for our benefit, I guess, since she's doing fine. But aren't dogs supposed to like their crates and get a sense of security from them? Should we keep trying to show her that it's ok? How? Or should we just return the crate? We want her to have a special place, but it just seems to upset her.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!
Caitlin

[Luciann]

Caitlan,

It is great that you took the responsibility of a dog with possible issues.

first off no dogs are not necessarily suppose to like their crates, esepcially if she has had bad experiences with them in the past. If you are worried about accidents find a room without carpet and put her in it at night and when you are at work and us a baby gate

you might find that placing her a bed in the crate and in a different room and allow her to understand that the crate is for her comfort not a punishment.

you are seeing submissive behavior but once she is comfortable she might start with the "bad" behavior that you were warned about, but then again you may not. if she has been punished for behaviors before she will work on testing you to see your reactions to these behaviors once she gets a little more comfortable with you.

i would first start her on NILIF

http://www.doggiebagonline. com/forum/showthread.php?t=304 5

you definitely want to go look in the article section to find articles about other things that relate to your new fur kid as well...

on this site we don't advicate punishment but more rewards for appropriate behavior...your dog may not have been trained to understand what the human wants which is when you get bad behavior...

share with us anything new that she does that you are not sure about.

i am sure you will get more great advice here as well...i have never put my kids in a crate but they do have their areas of security. Tika my female chi has made her a nest in the closet and has certain places in the house that she will go to be by herself and get away from her daddy ( my male chi)

so if you are okay with her being a free roamer then allow her to find her security spot, some people get a dog bed and that is the pet's security spot and when the pet is there then it is to be left alone...

hope that this helps

[Alberta Hanko]

Hi Caitlin, Welcome to Doggie Bag. Actually it's great that you wrote so much about your new girl. What is her name?

Like Luciann, I don't believe she needs to be in a crate. Just being in a shelter may have made her really leery about crates. Feeding her in her crate is a wonderful idea, and now and then toss treats in it, just to show her that it's a great place to be. You can also incorporate some training using her crate, "get it" and toss a toy in there if she likes toys, teach her "crate" means good things happen. You can toss a treat (use something really super like tiny cubes of cooked chicken breast) and as she goes in say the word "crate". When she's not looking, leave a small treat in the crate to encourage her to go in and find what good things might be in there. It's not necessary to close the door, especially since she is so well behaved, but by helping her get used to her crate it will give her a place to go if she chooses. I put a crate pad in mine, and never shut the door when Linus could not adjust to it. We played games with it, and I finally did get him to a point where one of the games was I closed the door, but stayed nearby, and treated him heavily. While it was out he did start sleeping in it when he was tired, but I left the door open. I finally put the crate away, mostly to have more room, and he, like Luciann's Tika and Frodo, has a spot he likes to sleep in.

Right now she is unsure, an no doubt wary--you have only had her for a few days. Luciann's advice on NILIF is perfect, it will help her adjust to you as her new owners and understand what you expect of her. Give yourself and her five minutes a couple of times a day and work with her on recalls, loose leash walking, teach her to "stay", a really good behavior when you are walking out a door and don't want her bolting. Make it fun, use treats that she likes, and you will be surprised at how well she responds. If you are interested in any information about training aside from the library, I do have a fair amount stored on my computer, and will send it to you. If you are interested in clicker training, (which I love since it is a great way to mark appropriate behavior and most dogs respond so well to it) let us know and we will will give whatever help we can.

Famliarize yourself with her body language--and you will know what she is telling you by signals she gives. A wonderful site for this is:

http://www.canis.no/rugaas/gallery.php

Her book on calming signals is one of the first books I read when I adopted my Linus 6 years ago. I can know look at him and know by the way he is holding his tail, or if he is licking his lips, looking away, giving a hard stare, how he is reacting to a situation before he is overly uncomfortable.

We would love to see pictures of her when you have some time.

And :yourock:kudos to you for adopting this girl!

[caitlin926]

Hi and thanks for the advice!

I can't believe I forgot to include her name! It's Lilly. Supposedly that was her original name from her first family, but it doesn't seem to mean a whole lot to her right now. However, we think it kind of fits her, so we decided to keep it. Now just trying to get her to recognize it

Lilly does seem to be getting more comfortable with the crate's presence and we can get a little closer while she's eating in it now before she jumps out of it. We'll keep working with it because, since we already spent the money on it, I guess I would kind of like for it to be her "special place".

I hadn't heard of NILIF referred to as that, but it was the basic philosophy we were going with already...using anything she wants as a training opportunity. I'll have to read more of the posts about it. Sounds like a good fit.

That site about dog body language was also interesting. Thanks, Alberta. And if you have anything that's detailed but basic training information that I could print out, I'd love to see it. My husband has never had dogs, so the only information he has is what I've told him. He's completely on board with anything I suggest, but he doesn't seem to have time to research it, so I'd love to give him something to read.

Also, I've never heard of click training. Just googled it and it sounds intriguing. It works for you? Do you have a particular website or resource that you would recommend?

Thanks again so much!
Caitlin

[Alberta Hanko]

Hi Caitlin:

Here's a good site for clicker training:

http://www.clickertraining. com/

Look all around it, I believe they have some free videos there also which you can watch.

Also, I've never heard of click training. Just googled it and it sounds intriguing. It works for you?

I started using the clicker with Linus early on and was amazed how well it worked. It was a perfect way to mark good behavior (the bad stuff we ignore :wink2:) and follow up with a treat. I was all thumbs at first. it has really helpd with Linus, who is reactive to both dogs and people. He also didn't respond to his name, came with it and it seemed to fit, so I sat with him, would say his name and "click/treat". You can do this without a clicker. Have some really yummy treats (bits of steak, hot dogs, chicken in pea size pieces) set out. Have Lilly sit near you, say her name, very upbeat, and as soon as she looks at you, say "yes" and give her the treat. Do this a few times a day, maybe 10 times in a sitting , sometimes giving her one treat, sometimes giving her 10 treats varying it to keep her interested. Save these special treats for training.

You can PM me, click on "private messages" with your e-mail addy or put your e-mail addy here and I will send you an e-mail with attachments of some training articles I have saved, it will be coming from mombert510@aol.com.