Crate Training an old gent.

ShaShaBear

As advised by another boardie, Id love some advice on crate training an older dog (8 years old) who has always had the full run of the house and HATES being locked into a room. He has severe separation anxiety which has gotten worse when we moved recently amd we take him literally everywhere. Weve even resorted to taking him in the car to the shops. Everyone seems to think crate training is the way to go for his condition so I was wondering how best to approach it for a dog that hates confinement.

DBB

I wouldn't be rushing to do anything with a crate, to be honest. Were it me, I'd start off with a playpen. Indeed, dare I say it, I generally prefer playpens to crates because they do the same job, but are more adaptable to different situations and different dogs.
If a dog has a long-established fear of confiement, it's a lot to ask to expect such a dog to ever be happy in a crate. Not only are you trying to deal with separation anxiety, which for me is the most difficult of all behavioural problems to deal with, you've also got to try to desensitise him to a fear of enclosed spaces.. that's a LOT of work to deal with both problems!
Before I go on a ranty-rant about how to go about acclimatising him to a playpen, do you think he'd cope with being confined to one half of a room you're in, but you're just not in the same half? I need to get a sense of what level of separation he can/can't endure... so I'm wondering if he can be physically apart from you, if not visually?

Shazanne

I have an upcoming problem of a similar nature with my little guy. He hates being confined too and has a long flight coming up early next year. I have his vari-kennel got to try and get him prepared and feeling less stressed about being inside it but, before I even introduce it, are there any tips on lessening the ordeal for him? He is such a happy go lucky little man that I hate the thoughts of stressing him in any way.

ShaShaBear

DBB wrote: »

I wouldn't be rushing to do anything with a crate, to be honest. Were it me, I'd start off with a playpen. Indeed, dare I say it, I generally prefer playpens to crates because they do the same job, but are more adaptable to different situations and different dogs.
If a dog has a long-established fear of confiement, it's a lot to ask to expect such a dog to ever be happy in a crate. Not only are you trying to deal with separation anxiety, which for me is the most difficult of all behavioural problems to deal with, you've also got to try to desensitise him to a fear of enclosed spaces.. that's a LOT of work to deal with both problems!
Before I go on a ranty-rant about how to go about acclimatising him to a playpen, do you think he'd cope with being confined to one half of a room you're in, but you're just not in the same half? I need to get a sense of what level of separation he can/can't endure... so I'm wondering if he can be physically apart from you, if not visually?

He can quite happily sleep or chill out in another room but once we close a door he wants to be with us. Once he can see us hes fine, but the visual separation seems to be the key. If he can see us outside when we lock him in, ie were putting oil in the tank or chopping wood. We have a cable buried in the ground he can go on but he doesnt like the way it makes his harness sit (amd he pulls his collar off of we use that). He has a spot under the stairs he really likes but yhe stairs are wooden and i fear hed chew it. I didnt know about the playpen though, that sounds much more feasable than a crate