Shortly after I adopted Prancer I had a feeling that she is an SA dog. Although she slept in a crate her first week home with us as soon as the door was closed she was FRANTIC. It seemed to go beyond a simple "I don't want to be locked in here". Once I removed the door from the crate she happily slept in it at night, until she figured out that the big dog bed on the other size of the room was even more cozy LOL
I've been working on crate training her (using Pat McConnells "I'll Be Home Soon" - thanks to those who recommended it to me) and have been going very slow with Prancer, although I have had to crate Prancer for up to 3 hrs at a time in the meantime, probably setting the training back. Yesterday we were going to be away all day - I knew that Prancer wouldn't be able to handle it. I had crated her for just 90 minutes one day last week when I had a doctors appt and came back to a crate moved to the other side of the room (from her efforts to escape) and excessive drool
I took Prancer with me yesterday, understanding that she would need to be crated almost the whole day (at the homeowners request), but at least I'd be nearby. Before the crate training started she would start to enter a frantic state almost immediately after the door closed. Yesterday she did GREAT ! I'm so proud of her and so thankful to all of you for the excellent advice. In prep for her "big day in the crate" I started feeding all her meals stuffed into a Kong in her crate for the past 3 or 4 days after reading someones recommendation to someone else. Although I had been "doing the stuffed Kong thing" whenever I had to crate her I was still feeding her the majority of her meals in her bowl in the kitchen. I think the "all meals in the crate" really went a long way towards making her feel more comfortable in it. Her crate was 12 ft away from me and after she finished her Kongs yesterday she sat or laid down quietly - I know 12 ft doesn't seem like alot but for Prancer its miles.
During dinner Prancer couldn't see me - she had been in the crate for 4 hrs before dinner (with 3 or 4 potty breaks). She whined for only 5 minutes and then rested quietly in the crate.
I'm amazed, I'm proud, of Prancer and I'm so thankful to everyones help but directly in response to my posts and indirectly through responses to others.