The Crate Saga Continues

No one ever said this was going to be easy.  Easy would have been fish, or a pet rock.  I didn't want easy.

Now that we got that out of the way.....

Houdinizu continued to escape from her new crate, but I finally got to witness how she did it.  It took all of about two minutes for her to repeatedly bang her nose up against the door and simply pop it open.  It was that easy!  Then she would happily prance out, and lay down on the cool tile.

Jim took a look at the crate and knew that he could put an end to that.  He would make that crate puppy proof so that no dog could ever escape.  Off to Home Depot we went!

We came home with a nice long chunk of metal that fit right through the holes in the front and definitely stopped the gate from opening.  It worked perfectly!

Then, Sunday came, and we went to church.  We were gone for just over an hour, and this is what we came home to, but with Zuzu still in it:

I took this after we let her out and cleaned her up.  Can you see the pieces of plastic along the top?  Those jagged edges used to be smooth plastic and they were now covered with puppy blood.  I now believe the story that wolves will gnaw their own legs off to get out of a trap.  Her nose looks a little better today, but I was way too upset to take another picture of her cuts.  My poor baby!

The kicker though, was that after I let her out of the crate and cleaned her up, she went right back inside to eat the chicken that she had ignored while I was gone.  If it sucks that bad to be in it, why go back?  She's having self mutilating temper tantrums, all because we're locking her up and leaving her!

I was so upset.  I sat down and e-mailed Cindy, the breeder, and forwarded my message to Ron, Kodi's dad, in a desperate plea for help.

The rest of the day was filled with informative and sometimes hilarious e-mails!  Some ideas were no crate, forced crate, crate in the area but not used, complete house freedom including the yard, and the possibility of legalizing medical marijuana for dogs!  I almost wet my pants reading that part of the conversation I was laughing so loudly.

It was such a blessing having a supportive Estrela puppy network to talk to, and to know that I'm not alone.  Not all dogs love their crates, but most dogs need them.

The solution we came up with is this (for now):

Yup, that's a crate with no doors with a cushy bed and food right by the door.  The goal is to get her to go in it again, slowly, and on her own.  I have the luxury of not working right now, so I have time to try the pleasant retraining.  For now, she will not be put in it.  

When we put the crate back up, she immediately started barking at it.  She had no problem eating dinner in front of it though, and she ate most of her breakfast (which is better than the last two days).  When she gets used to that, the food will go inside of the crate, and it will be up to her to go in on her own and eat. I don't foresee any problem with that, as long as we're home.  Eventually, the back door will go back on, then the front, and all treats will be given in the crate.

We had Snickers out of the crate by this time, only because after we moved to Omaha from NY, we forgot to put him in the crate when we left the house and he was fine.  So we figured, why bother?  He never went in the crate again other than occasional naps on his own.  Zuzu already sleeps outside of the crate, and did fine when she escaped from the new crate, so if she continues good behavior (fingers and toes crossed here), we won't use the crate unless we travel or for shows.  We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm just glad she didn't have the weekend that her brothers did.  There was no cat poop or old tin cans dragged around the house.  There were no big holes eaten out of the back yard.  There were no Wii remotes eaten.  I didn't wake up to shredded toilet paper covering my living room floor.  My shampoos, soaps, and razors all stayed on the bath tub shelves.  And, she didn't get her head stuck under my bed in the middle of the night and then thrash around like a lunatic.

So, life is good!