Pet advice

[decemberrain]

We got our puppy (yay!). BUT she is not house trained like the people who turned her in said she was and she seems to have a chewing issue. I kinda want to crate her while we are at work but I don't want to crate her over night. I love having my dog sleep on my feet . I don't want to close the door to our room though because the cat comes in and out at night. I've never crated a dog before so it makes me feel kinda guilty..

[suertesiete]

Tether the dog to you or the leg of the bed? The dog could still chew the bed while you're sleeping, but would limit access to anything else he could eat or pee on.

[decemberrain]

She stays on the bed all night for now but when she gets bigger and figures out she can get down on her own we'll have problems. I think we'll just have to crate her over night which is alright I guess, better than having her chew all the cords to every electronic we own

[beachy]

What about a baby gate on the bedroom door so that the cat could still jump over it but the dog can't get out?

The crate shouldn't be something that makes you feel guilty, but I understand feeling that way. Both our dogs are used to being in their crates when we leave, and we always just leave their doors open when we're home and many times they go in to sleep on their own, so we know they like them. They used to sleep with me, but when H came home we decided to crate them at night. At first they didn't like it, and the older one who has always slept with us would give us the stink eye at first, but they are fine now. As long as the crate isn't used as a punishment they think of it as their safe place and are fine to be in it whenever.

[decemberrain]

We are going to get a baby gate to put in the kitchen for when we aren't home and just move it to our room at night. For now.

I should have said her last owners kept her caged up all day. They let her out to go outside to potty and then she went back into the cage. They fed her in there (when they fed her), she went potty in there sometimes. They didn't give her any toys or anything to lay on. It really made me upset that they even got her to begin with BUT it led us to her so I'm thankful for that.

So that's why I feel bad. She has had a hard time with it and I don't want her to think she's being punished or that she's going to be in there forever. How would I begin to help her see the crate isn't a bad thing? I mean I only work 5 hours at a time and H gets home a couple hours after I leave so she would be in there a max of 4 hours a day IF that. I guess I'm just afraid if we put her in there she is going to freak out because of what those awful people did to her.

[beachy]

If the kitchen thing works for her then I would probably just stick with that for now when you're gone. I would leave the crate open at all times for now with a bed in it and see if she finds her way into it, and then go from there. I'm pretty sure our rescue dog was from a puppy mill and kept in the crate a lot, but she still chooses to go in there all the time on her own, so she doesn't see it as a bad thing. Make it so that she is only being locked in the crate when you are gone and don't make it for anything else (like eating). Also, this is just us, but when we leave and put the dogs in there I always give them a treat so it's not a negative thing, but I know it's not necessary.

[prettyinpink]

Baby gates are a God send with little dogs who can't jump over them and cats who can!

S and D were crated until I could trust them. Now the have roam of downstairs and the landing upstairs when we are gone. Anywhere I don't want them has a baby gate or the door closed.

[G22]

We crated our puppy at night until we felt he was over his chewing. After about 4 months we tried leaving him out of the crate at night, and just shut him in our room so we'd hear if he got into something. He has been fine ever since and we even now, after a year of crating him when we are gone, are finally letting him stay out while we are gone. And he's been doing great. But before creating, a few of the corners of our walls succumbed to his jaws.

Crating even for a short while can be a good idea. And whenever we started our dogs in a crate, we covered it with a sheet or blanket. It kind of made it more like a den for them. Our GSD hated his cage when we first got him. But we couldn't leave him out because he destroyed stuff. We tried the blanket trick, and to this day his cage is now his safe haven. He hides in it during storms and when I pull out the vacuum cleaner.

We also use baby gate and our dogs are all over 65+ lbs. The gates work well for them and the cats when we want to keep them out of a certain room.