I saw two different faces of dog ownership today, and it made me wonder how we can sometimes get it so wrong.
Advice on how to tackle barking when your dog is in his crate.
Most dogs take to crate training without any problems, even though they would rather stay out of their crate, where they have fun with you. There are some dogs that just don’t want to go in their crate at all and they will bark and whine to try to get you to let them out. Fortunately, this is something that you can fix, although you’re going to need put some time and effort into it. Keeping your dog's crate in the family room may ease some of the barking.
I was talking today to the owner of a Jack Russell Terrier puppy. She was bemoaning the fact that her young dog had done heavy damage to one of her doors and doorframes while trying to get to her. She was upstairs at the time, he was shut in downstairs, and he was desperate to join her. I asked what I thought was a reasonable question.
"Do you have a crate?" I inquired.
We were in the middle of a training class, so she misheard me, "A gate?" she questioned.
"No a crate," I replied, but she still looked puzzled. "You know - a cage."
Her face immediately creased into a look of acute disgust, "Oh, I don't want a cage!" she exclaimed, as if she was proclaiming something as self evident as the statement, "Oh I don't want to have my dog thrown into the lion enclosure at the zoo."
