Will my dog ALWAYS have to be crated?

[thatgirl]

We have 2 dogs a 1 1/2 y.o and a 7 month old.
Both dogs are crate trained, and we never use the crate as a form of punishment.
The puppy is a holy terror at 17 pounds although VERY cute she destroys things quickly.
I have nver owned dogs prior to these 2 and the first one was no where near destructive so I am at a loss.
At this point the new rule is the puppy can not be out of the crate unless supervised and I HATE this idea. BUT....
If I go out to get the mail a 5 min. venture she is pulling the drapery down.
Go up stairs to gather laundry come down and she has dug a hole in the couch.
We have Kongs, Kibble Nibblers, interactive toys and so forth, we rotate the toys to prevent boredom.
They are walked at LEAST 4 times a day for 30 minutes.
They have full run of our back yard.
We take them to dog parks, doggie pools, etc all in the name of keeping them exercised and TIRED.
The idea of her being in the crate unless she has our undivided attention.
Please say she will out-grow this new phase!

[dexteroni]

She's 7 months old, so of course she'll outgrow some of it, but some of it also requires training, both formal training and just your own reinforcement. Has she been to puppy class yet? If not, sigh her up ASAP. If she has already done puppy class, work with her on sit, down, and stay while you leave the room. It will take a lot of repetetive training for her to get it, but she will eventually. Plus, practicing training at home is very mentally tiring and will tucker her out in a way that physical exercise won't.

Until she's able to be unsupervised, take her with you to get the mail and the laundry. You can use those times to work on leash skills.

[audienceofone]

She is just a baby so she is still curious and testing boundaries. Training her at home will drain her. I do it with mine and they usually sleep when we are done. Training seems to tire them out a lot more than a walk does. Before the weather got too hot, I would work with them outside. More distractions and it helped me to get them to focus on me and not the dog in the yard behind us or the bird. Again, they are much more tired after that.
DO you have baby gates or an area that you can block her off in while you are home but not constantly watching her? Let her gain more and more room if she behaves in the one area.
I used to be slick about watching my boxer. I'd go in a room and do something, usually laundry and just peek out to watch him. When he started to do something wrong I would interrupt him with a "hey" and redirect him. He learned after a few times that just because I wasn't standing over him or in the same room didn't mean I couldn't see him.
Hopefully she outgrows all of it

[mmp]

I've had some pretty destructive dogs and they have all been given free run of the house at some point. Usually between fifteen months to two years they were out of the crate or a baby gated room.
I didn't think we'd ever get there, but we did.

[thatgirl]

Thanks Ladies. Yes she has been through training and has on going classes.
Our house is an open floor plan so no place for baby gates.
She is a curious dog. We can say she is NOT suffering sep. anxiety, she is very easy going.
She will do these same behaviors right in front of us. She will take a book out of my hands and start to rip the pages out! However, it is much easier to correct when she does it in front of us. We do not correct after the fact.

[Deleted]

Daisy will never be free from the crate. When we leave the house she has to get crated because she is destructive.

[thatgirl]

Jun 22, 2012 7:40:22 GMT -5 daisy0721 said:

Daisy will never be free from the crate. When we leave the house she has to get crated because she is destructive.

When we leave the house both dogs are crated for safety. I do not like having to have her (the puppy) in the crate when we are home.

[justthetip]

I was able to stop formal crate training when my dog was about a year old, but she was still crated any time we left the house and at night. We started experimenting with leaving her out on short trips to the store when she was about 3, and finally stopped crating her at night around 4 years old. Some dogs never earn that priviledge, though. It gets better!

[nital]

It really depends on the dog. One of my dogs is a lifer, one is not. Personally, I crate whenim not home until I trust a dog 100%. And I don't trust any dog 100% until they prove they're well behaved when I'm home and not really paying attention to them, and after they're through that blasted adolescent stage (which can start as early as 6 months, and last until 18 months).

I also find mental stimulation to be much more tiring than physical. And a solid down/stay makes my life easier. Working through lots of distractions really makes them work on self control. I do mean things like put dogs in stays then start playing with their toys, and even tossing treats at them.

[M]

Sounds like she's testing her boundaries. You need to let her know it's not acceptable. How you teach this is different with each dog. Some dogs learn from positive reinforcement...my dog learns from punishment. If he ever did anything wrong, he was scolded and punished for it, if he did nothing wrong, he was praised and awarded.

Once you've set boundaries, let them learn to gain your trust. My dobie was fully out of the crate when he was 6 months and had full range of the house by 9 months. We started off by leaving him for 5 min to get the mail...then it turned into 30 min to the store...and now I can leave him overnight if I had to. Right now he's learning to be off leash outside. He's really liking this kind of freedom and will not do what he knows is wrong in order to stay off leash.

[independencegirl74]

A solid sit/down/stay is a wonderful thing. Our 14-month Boxer has a great handle on "stay" in our house. We can even put her in front of her food bowl and tell her to stay or wait while we go do something else (like feed the cats), and she'll stay there waiting until we come back and give her the "okay" to release. Working on that will be a lifesaver for when you need to leave the room with your puppy for 5 minutes to get the mail or laundry. Until she's got the command down, leash her to you and make her come with.

You obviously need to work on her attention-seeking when in your presence (that's what she's doing when she starts destroying things. Start giving her praise and attention for just being there quietly and not getting into things. She'll learn that being quiet and just hanging out with you guys leads to good things without her needing to rip things out of your hands (because that gets her attention, doesn't it?). Redirecting her from ripping/chewing cushions to an appropriate chew toy also helps her learn what she should be chewing on. You might need to try different chew options until you find one she likes (Nylabones, Antlers, Bully Sticks, etc).

[DaisyCakes]

I still crate my two year old springer. I trust her, sometimes I gate her in the bedroom when I'm not home. I usually find her in the crate when I get home anyway. She likes it there and I'm not usually gone for more than 6 hours at a time so I don't feel bad about the peace of mind crating her gives me.