All good things must come to an end :-(
I'm so bummed. I had 3 great days with Kirby. He didn't break out of his pen and I came home to a happy dog and a clean house. Today I left for LITERALLY one hour and he had somehow broken out of the pen and shredded my school work. I have 3 huge finals next week and then 2 more the week after, among the destruction were a lot of my school notes. I was so upset, I thought I had finally found a way to keep him confined. Maybe the calming treats really do work, I didn't give him one before I left because I knew I'd only be gone a short time. He also got a 1 1/2 hour run this morning and was pooooooped when we got home. I guess to add insult to injury when I get home when he has destroyed stuff he always pees then runs outside, so not only am I cleaning up all the shredded paper (most of which is really important) I am also having to clean up a line of pee across my living room. A few hours later I set up my skype, left him out, and took Frank on a short 10 min walk. Kirby immediately went for a book on the coffee table and I scolded him through Skype and he was so suprised! Lol. Then he just layed calmly on the couch until we got back. Periodically I would tell him "good boy" when he was laying calming. Maybe I will just start to do this, its what I did with Truck when I left because he used to bark non-stop in his crate, it seemed to have worked to fix that issue, maybe if Kirby gets reprimanded in the act he will stop doing it and when he is praised for good behavior he will start to understand what I'm looking for. Now to figure out how to re-inforce the ex-pen for Houdini
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Ok, I'll admit at this point I'm very confused. When you got him you knew he was a puppy still, as I recall. You've had him for just over two months (just checked your blogs). I guess I'm confused as to why you didn't start working on crate-training him right away. I certainly wouldn't expect any dog under a year to behave himself loose in the house, which I think is what you started out doing.
I can understand in the beginning that you didn't want to just throw him in a crate if he was not accustomed to it. But in the 9 weeks or so you have had him, if you'd spent just 3 days a week working on crating him he'd have had over two dozen training sessions by now and should be able to be left crated while you are gone.
Frankly I fear he's going to kill himself. You mentioned fractured ribs and I know you think he was abused, and maybe he was, but honestly he could just as easily have done it to himself falling off of something he was climbing and hitting a corner.
Has he been impossible to crate train? The huge majority of dogs will eventually learn to crate quite well, especially dogs as young as Kirby. If you are worried about pottying you can simply attach the crate to an ex-pen with a roof on it to give him space to go in a corner if he has an emergency.
It's always been my belief with puppies (and most trainers would agree) that you create good puppies by not leaving them the opportunity to be bad, until they are old enough to be set in their ways and not go looking for trouble. Proper confinement is the #1 most important thing in raising a puppy, and Kirby is still a puppy. I might be misunderstanding your setup, but it does not sound very secure at all.
People successfully confine Jack Russell pups, who are like cats and can jump straight up multiple times their own height. It can be done in a physical manner so you don't need to rely on all the other stuff to try to correct him.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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All my rescues had to be crate trained (at age 4 to 7) and honestly they now their crates. Being consistent in everything will also help otherwise the dog will get confused.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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He was originally crate trained ok, he was accustomed to sleeping in the crate with the door off. Once I put the door on he flipped out. Since the last time I confined him for more than 30 minutes he will NOT go into the crate without me FORCING him in which I won't do. When I did "force" him to go in for the treats he peed all over himself and wouldn't let me near him for the rest of the day. If I leave treats or toys in there he won't go in to get them and even sending Franklin in to show him its not going to kill him isn't working. He is now terrified of the crate because I put the door on it and locked him in when I went to class (he was in there for 2 hours), before this point he had been sleeping in the crate every night and I had put the door on at my parents when he wanted to get up at 5 am and I wanted to sleep longer, it was never a problem until I locked him in and left him. Also, I've NEVER had a crate trained dog (except Franklin who was allowed freedom around 7 months old without a problem) so I really didn't focus much on it. He did well free in the house for almost a month or more (I think) with no issues so I had no reason to do the crate training because I got him as a buddy for Franklin and they were doing fine together free for so long and I had no intention of locking him up afer he repeatedly escaped the ex-pen and was free in the house with no issues. Had he started day 1 being a terror I would have worked on the crate training right off the bat, but this wasn't the case so I didn't.
My apartment now is all carpeted, if I were to put him in the ex-pen (and I have) without allowing him access to the patio he will pee/poop inside the house on my carpet, if I put down paper or potty pads or towels he shreds them. I rent, so I can't have him peeing/pooping all over the carpet. My kitchen is very narrow so the ex-pen won't fit unless I make it a long triangle in which case a cover won't fit. I am planning to move soon into a bigger place where I will have more room for confinement (including an extra bathroom that can be Kirby's place). My house is not set up for a puppy and this is why I didn't want one. The rescue basically competely lied about his temperament and said he was excellent in the ex-pen and fine being left alone, etc. They also said he was a year old, so I had no reason to believe this would be an issue until after I got him. As they say hindsight is 20/20, if I had known what kind of dog he really was, I probably would have just got a puppy because then I would have puppy issues without all the extra baggage Kirby has, nothing I can do about it now though but stick it out until I can move into a bigger place.
With my current set-up one full panel is wedged behind an entertainment center and anchored and the other is anchored to 2 chairs that are wedged against a wall and that portion is re-inforced by being anchored to the table, he can't escape when it is properly anchored but the other day I had moved it a bit to get to some blinds and didn't re-anchor. If he figures out how to climb out then I will change the configuration and maybe just put it outside and cover the top but so far he hasn't climbed over this one. Outside wont' be an option once summer his though because it gets over 100 degrees frequently. He has climbed out of it as a square, don't know in his head what is different but in the 5ish days I've had this current set-up he hasn't climbed out, just squished out when I didn't anchor right.
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Permalink Reply by Chris, Kadi & Brodie on
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For what it's worth, I think you're doing a great job with Kirby and I think you are using the right approach. Forcing him into a crate at this point would just create more issues than he already has and break what trust you have developed with him. Hang in there!
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WIthout knowing how you introduced the door I can't really say what might have happened. If it were me, I would have fed him in there every day and then one day closed the door for about 5 seconds while he was eating and immediately opened it again and moved up gradually from there, and still thrown in some short closes even when he was doing better with long ones. Some dogs do panic in a crate.
The problem with having a dog who won't stay confined, of course, is what do you do if he gets an injury or illness and needs to be kept quiet?
Rescues are usually a mixed bag, and Corgis are sensitive dogs who often get stressed by the rehoming process. I recall that the rescue wasn't very honest about his health records. On the other hand, rescues have dogs for such a short time and dogs change when they keep swapping homes. I pulled a kitten off the street who was outgoing, bold, friendly, would come running like a puppy when you called her. When I found her a good home she turned into a painfully shy recluse. I think it was just one home too many in her short life and it stressed her beyond her ability to trust again.
I hope things improve for you. You got very lucky with Franklin that he was able to be trusted loose by 7 months; this is not really typical of puppies, from my experience and all I've ever read about dogs. As far as carpeting, they sell cheap rolls of linoleum in one of the big box stores (I think Lowe's, but could be Home Depot) for about $40 a roll. I used that to protect our floors when Jack was being house-broken.
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I didn't introduce the door because the rescue said he was fine in crate. I took the door off originally because he was in an ex-pen with the crate inside and I locked him in the ex pen at night and (until he started escaping) he was locked in the ex-pen during the day as well. When I was at my parents house and locked the crate in the mornings he never had an issue, it wasn't until I left him. I didn't expect an issue since the rescue said he'd been crated when they were gone. I guess that's my bad, but you live you learn.
I've just been lucky with all the dogs I've had in the past I guess because we never used crates. We would confine in the kitchen and work up to freedom of the whole house, only one dog (my german shepherd) provided any real issue with freedom as a puppy and she stayed in the kitchen longer, all the rest of my dogs were always really good. I've also only had 2 dogs needing confinement from injury (after TPLO surgery) and we just used a chair to block the room. Both dogs were very well behaved so any barricade meant don't go through, I could have strung a string across and they would have stayed in the room so I was lucky in that since. Franklin of course was crate trained so when he broke his foot he was put in a large crate and then moved up to confinement in my bathroom.
I'll look into the linoleum at Home Depot. That would be a great thing to put down to keep him from peeing all over my carpet while in the ex-pen. In the new apartment I plan to confine him in either the bathroom or the extra bedroom. The extra bedroom will allow me to open the ex-pen up more and I have seen the octagonal covers that would work well to keep him in. He was a good boy yesterday and a good boy again today so I blame myself for his escape this last time since i didn't fully check all the possible escape routes.
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Hooray for being a good boy! I know it's frustrating when they ruin things. I recently discovered our rescue cat had been clawing the woodwork; I saw her do it maybe twice but didn't realize the extent of it til I was home one day in broad daylight (a sad rarity) and realized she'd shredded wood on easily 6 or 8 frames. Ugh, and the house is only 5 years old! My last cat would never claw anything. Now I have double-sided tape up everywhere, which looks lovely....
The linoleum/vinyl is really cheap at one of the big box stores and ridiculously expensive at the other. Not sure why, so if it's expensive where you look check the other one.
Poor Kirby just never learned how to be a good boy! Once he does I'll bet he is forever grateful to you and turns into a really super dog.
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Beth, I had a friend who had that problem with her cat and she also put aluminum foil up. The cats don't seem to like the texture or sound of it, so you might give that a try too.
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Permalink Reply by Ludi on
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Seconding Chris's mention about the aluminum foil. I had to find a way to keep my 3 cats off a sofa for a while, and I ended up putting two lengths of foil on the cushions and across the top. The cats DETEST the texture and crinkling noise, so they stayed well away from it.
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Permalink Reply by justine moeller on
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Hi Melissa,
Where did you adopt Kirby from? The rescue we foster for will do anything to make sure the dogs are happy and healthy after adoption. Often dogs react differently in different situations and with different people. We have had fosters come here who we were told were amazing in crates and quiet and when we took them in it was not the case. We have also had dogs we were told had major problems and would bite, growl, etc and they were total angels.
When people adopt from the rescue I foster for, they are provided help if they need it afterwards and the lady who runs the rescue will personally come and try and help with training and find a solution to any problems. I know not all rescues are set up this way but maybe they could provide some help? Our rescue is a small rescue and adopters are very lucky to have the resource provided for them should they need it so I understand it is not possible for all rescues to do this but maybe it is worth a try to ask.
I see he has been having a lot of good days lately so that is good and I hope he keeps it up.
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The place I adopted from was the WORST rescue experience I have EVER had. They pulled him from a shelter even though he had 6 applications in to adopt him once he was off stray hold and then proceeded to quadruple the adoption fee. When I questioned this they said it was to make sure he didn't get sick at the shelter. They then proceeded to send a VERY VERY ill dog to me who was absolutely infested with parasites and giardia and I had to rush him into the vet not even 2 weeks after I got him due to extreme lethargy and trembling. He had a 105 fever and had to be hospitalized, and was sent home on 3 different medications and sub-q fluids. When I told the rescue she just ignored it (he was also supposed to be sent with 1 month of pet insurance, which she also didn't send me until AFTER I told her he was hospitalized so all the vet care I had to pay out of pocket). AND she brought him into her house with a dog with kennel cough and he ended up with kennel cough about a week later.
She still hasn't sent me his vaccine information or rabies certificate so I will likely have to get him vaccinated again even though he doesn't need it and she made all these claims about his disposition but upon further investigation I saw she didn't even have him for a week. I have found that this "rescue" is just in it for the money and pulls purebreds and highly desirable breed mixes (almost all of which are young/puppies) and adopts them out as soon as they can without even holding for a temperament evaluation, basic vet evaluation, or quarantine to make sure they are in fact healthy enough to go into a new home.
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