Dog Community

I thought I was safe with the crate...

Posted : 1/1/2007 4:40:02 PM

We are crate-training our little schnauzer pup, Lilly. We had a good sized travel crate for her (the kind used to travel on a plane), which she seemed pretty happy with. Well, we noticed that with us having the heat on, she was coming out of her crate sweating; I stuck my head in there and it was pretty hot, felt like very little air circulation was getting in there.

So DH and I talked about it and decided to get her a wire crate that would allow more ventilation. She has had this crate for about a week and seemed to be doing really well in it. We are making the crate a nice place to be (kong or rawhide, plus a pillow and blanket), and she'll go in there to curl up on her own. The crate is located at the end of the bed, next to the wall.

Well, today I had to clean the bathroom and I didn't want her to get into any of the chemicals, so I put her in her crate with a rawhide stuffed with peanut butter. The bathroom is just next to the bedroom and when I left to clean, she was happily chewing away on her bone.

I came back to the bedroom about 20 minutes later and heard this grinding sound as I walked by the cage. Strange, I thought, I didn't know her teeth made that kind of noise on the bone. I peaked in the cage and it wasn't her teeth on the bone. It was her teeth on my DRYWALL! [sm=banghead002.gif]

Dear little Lilly has been steadily working on 2 patches of drywall by sticking her little nose through the bars of the crate and just gnawing away with those puppy teeth. There are two holes in the wall now, about 2.5-3 inches deep, and you can see the teeth marks where she has dug ruts in the wall as well. And we just painted this wall all of 3 months ago. DH was NOT pleased with darling Lilly...I nearly saw the smoke come out of his ears. I sent him out of the room to cool off and later we had a good laugh about it.

Here we were, thinking we were being responsible puppy parents by crate-training and that surely we were safe from destructo-puppy behavior when she was crated. Boy, were we wrong! [sm=lol.gif]

calliecritturs

Posted : 1/1/2007 4:50:33 PM

Yeah, stuff can 'bite you' sometimes.

Years ago we had a foster we were WARNED was destructo dog out of a crate. IN rescue sometimes you 'make do' with what you get given and the crate that came with her was a wire crate but had no 'pan' altho she was completely housetrained the decision was made to give us that one because it was a nice-big heavy wire crate and gave her more room (lab).

Came home after the first day at work to a bedroom that looked like the snowstorm in 8 Below!! Little Ms. Destructo had turned sideways in the crate so she could exert 'pressure' against the sides of the crate, then stretched up on her tippy toes and 'walked' the crate across the room!!

She went as far as our bed, snagged David's feather duvet off the bed and pulled it into the crate and had a chew/shake-that-thing fest. We came home to feathers ALL OVER THE ROOM and her as pleased as punch with this shreded duvet she'd worked SO hard to shred.

Her fault? Not really -- she was just a 'pro'. She got a crate with a pan in it in a heartbeat. I shoved feathers back in and 'mended' that duvet -- sorta. And finally last year David got a new one.

you "live and learn". *sigh* I feel your pain.

spiritdogs

Posted : 1/1/2007 5:48:48 PM

If it makes you feel any better, over the years, I've had two pups that were inclined to chew drywall or wallpaper. It's a taste they usually give up if they don't get to practice developing it. [sm=uhoh.gif]

MissMandy

Posted : 1/1/2007 5:57:26 PM

ORIGINAL: calliecritturs

Years ago we had a foster we were WARNED was destructo dog out of a crate. IN rescue sometimes you 'make do' with what you get given and the crate that came with her was a wire crate but had no 'pan' altho she was completely housetrained the decision was made to give us that one because it was a nice-big heavy wire crate and gave her more room (lab).

Came home after the first day at work to a bedroom that looked like the snowstorm in 8 Below!! Little Ms. Destructo had turned sideways in the crate so she could exert 'pressure' against the sides of the crate, then stretched up on her tippy toes and 'walked' the crate across the room!!

Although not funny at the time, I'm sure, I could not help but laugh when I pictured her "walking" the crate across the room. What a sight that must have been! [

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On another note, sorry to hear about your drywall-munching incident. I hope it's easily repaired!!

calliecritturs

Posted : 1/1/2007 6:03:41 PM

Nope, not funny at the time and what's more -- when we placed her I went on ad nauseum to the woman about how NECESSARY it was for this dog to be crated. She promised she would but didn't.

The first day she went to work the dog went thru the rental house she was living in and DESTROYED every single set of window coverings in the entire 2 story house!! every single set -- expensive windowcoverings.

Yep -- she went and bought a crate. Late!

I read this to my husband and yep, TODAY we laughed about "Girl". But we weren't laughing then.

Dry wall -- just keep thinking while you're working with that little spatula and filler how much easier it was than me trying to collect all that down and get it all stuffed back into that darned duvet!! (and we were way too broke then for a new one).

sallya

Posted : 1/1/2007 6:16:43 PM

Does your pup have frozen wash clothes and lots of toys for the teething?

Shohin

Posted : 1/1/2007 9:37:43 PM

I'm sorry to hear about your dry wall! Maybe you can just move the crate a few inches over . . . .

On another note, you might want to think about putting another chew toy in the crate with the dog when unsupervised. You don't want them getting pieces off and choking.

ColleenC

Posted : 1/1/2007 9:49:53 PM

ORIGINAL: stormyknight she was coming out of her crate sweating;

What do you mean by sweating? I have the same problem with one of my dogs. He will pull stuff in his crate and destroy it if he is in the wire crate. Then, one time, I had both of them in it and they pushed the tray out and moved the entire crate three feet.

gayle

Posted : 1/2/2007 3:25:46 AM

Does your pup have frozen wash clothes

i agree the dog needs something to chew on, but wanted to advise against the use of a washcloth. dh told me once about a friend whose dog ate a towel (yes a towel) and died. even if it only ate a small peice it could cause a life-threatening blockage. i would only recommend this to toy breeds under extremely close supervision.

sorry about your wall! if i had a replacement for every item my dog chewed as a pup my living room would be too full to walk in [

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janetmichel3009

Posted : 1/2/2007 8:12:32 AM

been there... and i rent my apartment. worst thing is my landlord doesn't know i have dogs (i was desperate at the time).. gotta fix that one before i move out... until then: not putting the crate right next to the wall anymore!! lol

stormyknight

Posted : 1/2/2007 9:18:33 AM

Glad I'm not the only one with a dog who has managed to outsmart the crating idea! [

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She does have things to chew on in her crate, but she must have been bored with them and decided to chew something else. The crate has now been moved away from the wall!

minimom

Posted : 1/2/2007 10:13:40 AM

I'd also be interested in what you meant by sweating Kris. That piqued my interest because one of my Schnauzers "sweats", even though dogs don't sweat. No one I've spoken to about it has ever experienced it before. Like Anne, I've had a couple of pups who went after the drywall and they quickly grew out of that habit once I removed their access to it when they were confined.

huskymom

Posted : 1/2/2007 12:48:38 PM

Onyx is a drywall chewer too. I put her crate in the corner with a piece of 2x4 between each side facing the wall. Problem solved. She can walk her crate too even with the pan in. She has also been known to remove the pan on occasion when she's been crated longer than she feels necessary. When she was in a bigger crate, she would simple take down the back wall of it and let herself out. That was because she couldnt just move the whole thing to wherever she wanted. I would check her crate everynight, to make sure it was put together properly. I even tied the back wall up with wire. To no avail. I'm pretty sure she is hiding opposable thumbs. She can undo zippers too. I know this because she has unstuffed a couch cushion with absolutely no damage to the cover.