Escape Artist at 6 mos old! Separation Anxiety?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Escape Artist at 6 mos old! Separation Anxiety?

    Last night, for the first time, when we put Winston in his crate to go to sleep, he started barking and crying non stop.  We went upstairs to bed and after my husband went downstairs to tell him to be quiet, he was quiet.  About 20 min later, just as we were falling asleep, we heard a very faint whining coming from what seemed like just outside our bedroom door.  My husband and I were laughing when we opened the door and he came prancing in.  Winston had figured out how to let him self out of a double lock crate.  I noticed that this morning he barked alot when I left for work, even with a frozen Kong treat by his side.  I'm worried that there may be some separation anxiety.  We have a smaller crate we will keep in our bedroom tonite to let him sleep up with us, but I don't know what else to look for as far as separation anxiety.  Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Winston is a 6 month old Havanese, we brought him home 2 months ago and he is enrolled in puppy classes with me.  He's about 7.5 lbs, just got neutered 2 weeks ago, pretty good with housetraining and is generally very healthy, active and friendly.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Winstonsmom - How did he get out of the crate? Did he open it or squeeze out? I have a golden mix who doesn't like crates and would squeeze out. If he is left alone and you know he is squeezing out e careful. I heard a dog got stuck once and they didn't know how long he was stuck.  
    • Gold Top Dog
    Watch out for the wire crates if he is squeezing out. Sadly, I have heard that sometimes dogs end up "hanging" themselves because they get their head thru the slot, but get their body stuck and they don't survive.
    • Gold Top Dog
    He didn't sqeeze out - he opened the door!!!  We have a wire crate that has 2 latches that slide into a "locked" position.  I've watched him hit the latches with his paws, and I guess he figured out that if he hit them often enough, he could get them to slide over and unlock.  What amazed us was that there were two latches and he did this very quickly.  No chance that he could manage to sqeeze out of this crate.   However, to give an update, we have a smaller crate, same style but only one latch and we have decided to put it in our bedroom and let him sleep in there.  I still lock the crate, but since he knows that we're right next to him, he doesn't try to get out anymore.  In the mornings, sometimes I'll hear him hitting the latch with his paw and I'll know that he needs to go potty.