# Anxiety over being left in crate with cats in the house?



## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Dharma is 15 weeks old. She is pretty good about almost every thing else. Good in the car, good on walks, good at the vets and otherwise house broken. She sleeps at night soundly in our bed. She has the dog walker come over when she can. She is rarely alone. However there are times when we have to put her in her crate and it is not often more than a few hours. We have had to try moving the crate from a quiet secluded room away from the cats. We gave the cats their own room for food and litter with a cat door that she can't get through. Everyone eats the others food if given a chance. I have tried free feeding the puppy but have resorted back to feeding in the crate with the door open. At this point this is not so good either. I gave her bedding and her toys and some dried chicken pieces previously but she just pooped and mashed it into her bedding. I tried no bedding and her toys and treats. It does not seem to matter where the crate goes as we have tried the living room, the office, our bedroom, the dining room, and the spare room. Is she so stressed from being crated and having the cats around her running loose? I am ready to go and get a thunder shirt and see if that works in addition to closing the door in a room by herself away from the cats while in her crate. I have been told by the breeder that she should not be doing this. I feel that I have tried most things to no avail............ It's not me it's her and the 2 cats that need to stop and get along! I am just trying to fix the situation.


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## solefald (May 16, 2013)

Cats have nothing to do with it. Location of the crate should not matter much either at this point, but you probably need to go back to square one with the crate training. Start with few minutes and slowly increase the amount of time she is in the crate. Do it while you are at home, so she knows that her going into the crate does not mean that she will be left alone. Walk by the crate, but do not acknowledge her. If you need to step out of the house leave the TV on.


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## Melissa_DT (Jan 9, 2013)

Bentley had some anxiety issues with his crate for a little while (he didn't soil his crate, but whines and barked and chewed the bars or anything else within his reach). I tried to drape the crate with a blanket so it would be like a "den" and that made it worse and he ripped the blanket to pieces by the time I got home. Also tried to put his dog bed in the crate and he ripped that up too.(I have attached exhibit A below). 

I agree with solefald, back to basics. I had my trainer come to my place to help me out with this issue and here's what we did- first we would throw pieces of his favourite treats into the crate so he would go in and search for them, and keep throwing them in there every few seconds, then call him out of the crate and praise. After doing that a few times, I'd put Bentley in the crate with the door closed and feed him pieces of a high value treat through the bars of the crate so long as he was quiet. Then progressively I increased the time he was in there. I'd feed him a few treats in there and then go and do the dishes or cook dinner while he waited (I was always in sight of him) and then let him out and treat and praise afterwards. For me, the issue was that Bentley had negative associations with his crate because to him crate=me leaving and he had some separation anxiety issues. So the trick was to reinforce that the crate isn't bad and that I'm always going to come back for him. I also always had the crate in the main living room since he seemed to be less stressed if he could see everything in the open. 

That's the method my trainer recommended and it worked out well. Now as soon as he sees me grabbing the peanut butter for his kong he is right in the crate, sitting and waiting for his delicious treat


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## Melissa_DT (Jan 9, 2013)

Oh I should also note that I have a free-wandering cat at home too and I wondered at one point if that was a contributor to the problem but he doesn't seem to care about the cats wandering so I think it's just crate anxiety.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

Also, being alone is a difficult skill to master. If she is rarely alone, she isn't getting any practice at it.


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Rarely leaving her alone is a reaction on my part to the crate training behaviour I think. I am sooo frustrated! Now that things in our lives are a little bit quieter and we need to go back to square one religiously. I might just also try the Thundershirt and see if that helps too.


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## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

MCD: Do you crate Dharma when you are home?


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

We have tried at night and not so much when we are at home. It often ends up being very loud and destructive. I can follow through with it but my husband and my daughter........... are unfortunately another story and I don't know why they can't. I just feel that I haven't tried hard enough and have failed seeing as I am the one who primarily does all the training and care and probably has more patience than they do or the need for this to be done. Not an easy task when not everyone is on the same page I guess.


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## Nelly (Feb 7, 2013)

Hi MCD, you have not failed. Have you seen the recent thread called 'Vizsla do-over'? We have all made mistakes!

Start from scratch. I was also the primary care-giver initially but this is unfortunately no good for the long run when there are others in the family. Everyone needs to help and understand.

I don't know if this will help you, but reading my partner posts from the forum from more seasoned Vizsla owners caught his attention. Even more so the consequences of everyone not being consistent, at the end of the day, that is not fair on the pup, they don't come pre-trained, that is our responsibility.

Get them into HVF and don't admit defeat!


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## CatK (May 29, 2013)

Not failed MCD, we're all fighting our own little battles. I'm still battling with wee in the crate. My other half isn't massively involved although there's a lot of love there, he's more a 'fair-weather owner'!

We've had lots more dry days in the last few months, and Morris was being a pain the other night so had a chill out in the crate with us in the other room. This is the first time he hasn't barked the house down when crated while we're in, and we're a few weeks ahead of you and Dharma so I'm sure it'll all come.

Sponge them down, enjoy a great big V cuddle, and as long as they're cuddling back you must be doing ok


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## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

MCD said:


> We have tried at night and not so much when we are at home. It often ends up being very loud and destructive. I can follow through with it but my husband and my daughter........... are unfortunately another story and I don't know why they can't. I just feel that I haven't tried hard enough and have failed seeing as I am the one who primarily does all the training and care and probably has more patience than they do or the need for this to be done. Not an easy task when not everyone is on the same page I guess.


If you're the only one training her, then you're the one that makes the rules. 
Watson spent A LOT of time in his crate for the first month he was with us. Only out for a few hours a day, whether we were home or not. It's so hard because all you want to do is cuddle them when they're that small. My husband could not stand the fits he would throw at times and it was very disruptive to our marriage because we were on different pages. You have to stick it out, and know that Dharma can love her crate if you keep at it.


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Thanks guys. Always there to help. Sometimes I don't want to say anything because "is it just me that is battling problems?" But I see that it is not just me and Dharma. I have to be more diligent on putting up with what I want to accomplish. It would make both of us happier.


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## Tika V (Jan 30, 2013)

solefald said:


> Cats have nothing to do with it. Location of the crate should not matter much either at this point, but you probably need to go back to square one with the crate training. Start with few minutes and slowly increase the amount of time she is in the crate. Do it while you are at home, so she knows that her going into the crate does not mean that she will be left alone. Walk by the crate, but do not acknowledge her. If you need to step out of the house leave the TV on.





jld640 said:


> Also, being alone is a difficult skill to master. If she is rarely alone, she isn't getting any practice at it.


+1 The pup needs to learn the create is a good place to go. If she only has to go in there when you have to leave her, in her mind the crate is a negative place to go and can only mean you are about to leave her alone. Which in turn actually can cause the seperation anxiety with regard to the create. Practice the crate when you are home use treats to make it mean good things happen when im in my crate. not oh no moms about to leave me again.


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Yes but she goes in and out of her crate on her own. She thinks that when I tell her she is going for a walk and I get all excited she needs to go in her crate or when we are going in the car she will go in there too. She never actually just goes in on her own and lies down- you wouldn't either if you had the choice of the sofa with your people or a dog bed on the floor? One of my work colleagues told me that her dog used to do this too. She fixed the soiling the crate problem with wiping the bottom of the crate with vinegar and sprinkling baking soda over top of it then putting down their bedding. I am willing to try anything at this point. does anyone know if this works?


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## VizslaCity (Sep 5, 2013)

I don't have any advice, but just wanted you to know i'm right there with you! I have a similar post in the puppy section except we are having crate training and house training woes. Olive will be 15 weeks on Sat, so she is close in age to Dharma. I think our big problem is that me and the younger boys are always home with her, so we didn't work on crate training when we first brought her home and pretty much just let her roam free in the house. Now when we do leave the house for short periods of time and try to put her in her crate, she goes completely crazy! She poops and pees in her crates and gets so hysterical that she's foaming at the mouth and trembling when I get home. The mess and smell is not fun to clean up either. 

We're starting over with crate training tomorrow morning. My husband and I have sat down and come up with a plan so we're on the same page and we are going to stick with it until she's comfortable being in her crate. I expect some accidents and crying, but I know I have to stay strong if I want this to work. 

Anyways, I feel your pain


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

That is sooo funny! I just left a message on your post at the same time.


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## charliecoyot (Nov 26, 2012)

MCD - just a couple thoughts from a novice.

Feeding in the kennel worked great for us - still do it every day, every meal. 

Maybe have your family read this and other similar threads to help understand to get you all on the same page?? You're not alone, and with consistent, persistent effort - things get much much better.

Last - talking about do-overs! Roothee (1 yr old) has recently started (after 5 months of great kennel behavior) to 'flop' on the floor in front of the kennel, when she hears 'kennel'.
She'll lay on her back, all 4s straight up, and get his horribly sad look on her face. So, like an idiot, because she's so stinkin' cute, I rub her belly, tug on her ears, pet her, then say kennel and nothing happens. So, back to square one on getting her in the kennel.
Cheese, sit/stay, 'kennel'.

Good part is she no longer sounds like an air raid siren when she does get in the kennel!!


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## Tika V (Jan 30, 2013)

organicthoughts said:


> Hi MCD,
> 
> I wouldn't put baking soda and vinegar in the crate. It will just irritate Dharma's skin if she gets into it.
> 
> ...


Excellent advise as with the rest of the replies...

MCD- I'm just down HWY 401 from you. If you want a V play time to wear out your girl just say the word! Tika is always up for playtime..


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