Hello,
I am currently living in Bangladesh with my rescued street dog. My contract is ending in June, and Sadie will be coming with me to my next destination. She will need to fly in a crate. Up until now, I have not had a crate for her because they are not sold anywhere in Bangladesh. I got one over my Christmas vacation when I was home in the US, and now am wondering how best to go about crate training a year and three month old dog who has never seen a crate before in her life? She has never been contained in a space that was smaller than the bathroom. I have put treats and bones in there, she goes in, gets them, and comes right back out. I put her bed in there, she pulled it out and dragged it right back where it had been before! Does anyone have advice on how to make her more comfortable with the crate and want to stay in there for more than a few seconds? I don't want to just get her in there and close the door. She really hates being put away. She stays in the guest room when I am not home, and getting her in the guest room is often a challenge as well. The last thing I want is to have her not feel comfortable with the crate and then have to put her in there for a long flight. I have until June to get her to at least tolerate it, does anyone have any advice? I've looked online and most sites say that dogs just love crates. That does not seem to be the case here!
Crate training older dog
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Re: Crate training older dog
Could you do something like making a 'den'? When my kids have made a den, at it's most basic it's a few dining room chairs, back to back with a space between them, and a bed sheet draped over the top, kind of like a tent. Maybe if you start of with a big enough space, and a small enough 'roof', you can build up her tolerance to being in an enclosed space, and hopefully she'll be happier in her crate.
Re: Crate training older dog
There's a really excellent blog post from Pawsitive Dawgs Blog - here's the link for you: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/201 ... teforcalm/
I went through the list of steps on this blog for my adopted adult dog as she really wasn't happy being left in the crate (she'd put the brakes on whenever we had to leave her in there and she'd cry once she was in!). It worked great and I was able to get her to go in by herself, without being asked, and she would happily stay in there whilst I opened the door and walked off and she would wait for me to give her the signal that it was ok to come out! It was a massive difference. It only took a short time to get her as comfortable as that. As you've got until June, that's hopefully loads of time to get her happy with being in the crate!
By the way, though they recommend using a clicker on this blog post, I didn't actually use one when training my girl to be happy in the crate - I just used the word 'yes' + a treat to mark the right behaviours. (She gets a bit excited when training with the clicker and I wanted her to stay calm!!)
Hope you find it some help!
I went through the list of steps on this blog for my adopted adult dog as she really wasn't happy being left in the crate (she'd put the brakes on whenever we had to leave her in there and she'd cry once she was in!). It worked great and I was able to get her to go in by herself, without being asked, and she would happily stay in there whilst I opened the door and walked off and she would wait for me to give her the signal that it was ok to come out! It was a massive difference. It only took a short time to get her as comfortable as that. As you've got until June, that's hopefully loads of time to get her happy with being in the crate!
By the way, though they recommend using a clicker on this blog post, I didn't actually use one when training my girl to be happy in the crate - I just used the word 'yes' + a treat to mark the right behaviours. (She gets a bit excited when training with the clicker and I wanted her to stay calm!!)
Hope you find it some help!
Re: Crate training older dog
It might be worth having a word with your vet about giving Sadie a sedative for the trip. This isn't something I know enough about though - different dogs are likely to react differently (the one time my dog had a sedative he was awake & crying all night long..... 
) - so do your research!
) - so do your research!Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Re: Crate training older dog
the key is going to be going slow, but doing something on a regular basis. if you do something small, several times a day, building it up...the time between now and June is a LOT of time. IF you RUSH things, push to hard to fast, you will wast time and between now and June is not going to be enough. BUT, no matter what you do, how slow, how fast you push the training you will NEVER be able to move faster than the dog is able to.
To start, just getting her to look at the crate might be a success for today. Tomorrow, sniffing it. Day after that, poking it with nose. day after maybe poking head into the create.
Now, I don't know if you have to start at those specific steps, they are more to illustrate starting slow and building up each day.
In reality, you could toss a treat in to the crate, then walk away, wait see what happens. if your dog goes into the crate and comes right back out...that is OK. few minutes later, toss another in. repeat several times a day. and just build SLOWLY but steadily from there.
I would NOT be looking to close the door right now, which doesn't sound like you are. just let your dog get used to the idea. street dogs bring some challenges to training because of how they grew up. lots of freedom, lots of open space, lots of get up and move when you want to, lots of independence of thought and NO confinement in any way or form.
A trainer I hangout with regularly has a dog that spent the better part of her first year as a semi feral dog on a Native American Indian Reservation. This dog has to be taught to be comfortable with people, how to go into a house, move through doors, feel safe and comfortable in a crate. I can't be done, but you got to go slow and steady and not rush the dog.
To start, just getting her to look at the crate might be a success for today. Tomorrow, sniffing it. Day after that, poking it with nose. day after maybe poking head into the create.
Now, I don't know if you have to start at those specific steps, they are more to illustrate starting slow and building up each day.
In reality, you could toss a treat in to the crate, then walk away, wait see what happens. if your dog goes into the crate and comes right back out...that is OK. few minutes later, toss another in. repeat several times a day. and just build SLOWLY but steadily from there.
I would NOT be looking to close the door right now, which doesn't sound like you are. just let your dog get used to the idea. street dogs bring some challenges to training because of how they grew up. lots of freedom, lots of open space, lots of get up and move when you want to, lots of independence of thought and NO confinement in any way or form.
A trainer I hangout with regularly has a dog that spent the better part of her first year as a semi feral dog on a Native American Indian Reservation. This dog has to be taught to be comfortable with people, how to go into a house, move through doors, feel safe and comfortable in a crate. I can't be done, but you got to go slow and steady and not rush the dog.