questions about my puppy in crate / pen

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charlie_boo
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:06 am

questions about my puppy in crate / pen

Post by charlie_boo »

Hello everyone
this is my first post and i hope someone can point me in the right direction.
We got Winter our cocker spaniel puppy 3 days ago so far she has done fantastically and house training is coming on well and she will go to the door to be let out for the toilet however now shes kind of mastered going outside im now wondering if this had caused an issue with her crate and being confined in there even for short amounts of times.
The first 2 nights she was relatively calm and only cried a few minutes after returning her to crate and the house slept well i got up during the night and she toileted well outside but unfortunately we found she had soiled both mornings once we we went down to her; i did wash the bedding and clean her crate throughly with organic enzyme solution that breaks down any smells of urine and poo.
Now last night was a very different story we put her to bed in the crate and she really went to town with the barking and crying for roughly an hour knowing I had toileted her exercised her loads prior to bed time I ignored her as much as it killed me doing this but I continued as normal and went downstairs to let her go out she did her business and I returned her to her bed again to really fuss and cry again for a long period of time the same pattern continued.
I got up at 5.40am to find again she had soiled her crate this time all her bedding was pretty covered unlike the previous 2 nights where she had toileted at the opposite side to her bed.
So this morning was the first morning I have had to leave her just to go out for the school run and tbh I do worry about seperation anxiety so I recorded her on a dictophone its only a half hour round trip but i left her crate all cosy with clean bedding open but surrounded by a larger pen and i stuffed a chew with paste and treats and I set off she didnt really notice me leaving positive so far, i returned home and she had managed to escape luckily no accidents or damage caused and winter just looked at me and went back to sleep another positive.
So i listened to the recoding and she was crying and barking shortly after i left however i heard her escape after 7 or 8 mins and she was quiet for the remaining 20 mins.

Up to now i have left the crate open and really encouraged her to sleep in there and she was going in there on her own we would shut the door for short periods of time without a single whimper so as she has been asleep this morning i have tried to move her to the crate using treats, stuffed kong and shut the door and stayed close but she is really threating and the moment she goes quiet for a minute i return and let her out and i have re tried that process 3 times over the last hour and each time she has gone crazy but she is happily settled now in the hall curled up so the fact thats she not even close to me sorta makes me think that its not cause no one is with her if she is in the crate.

I am sorry Its a long post but more info i can give you then maybe i can get some direction but what I am wondering is the crate worth still pursuing based on this or have I made the error of not catching her quite quick enough and she has soiled in her crate so now she will not want to go in the crate full stop or should I consider allowing her to have an open bed but my main worry is her being left alone during the day I am at home most of the day but i do need to nip out for short amounts of time for school etc I like the security of knowing she was safe in the crate at these times

Hope this makes sense and thanks you for reading

Donna x
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