biting on wire crate!!

[laylabalayla]

Hi, I have a bit of a problem with my crate for my boxer. This may be a little long as I would like to explain the situation to you. My boxer girl is 1 now. When I first got her at 8 wks we began to crate train her and it went well, until one day she tryed biting the wire and got her mouth stuck. She yelpped so loud that my children and myself came running. She did not hurt her mouth at alll as she did let go of the wire but I think it totally freaked her out. We continued to crate her with extreme supervision, but if we went out I always made sure someone was there with her so she would not get hurt. So, this went well for a while then about a month ago this happened again and she yelped like crazy. Sorry to go on and on. I am so afraid of the metal crate that I took it down and she has a bed in the kitchen with all her toys etc. Now here is the problem I used the crate for potty training and she did great. Now, she is having accidents without crating her. Any suggestions on what I could do to train her without the use of a metal crate?? I have tryed to research any simular incidents about this but could not find anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[gmacleod]

I guess you could consider a plastic crate (though they still have wire mesh doors). Another alternative is keeping her in a restricted area with a hard floor, and coming home to give her a potty stop or two during the day. How long are you currently leaving her?

 

[trailman]

Another Alternative

In addition to a wire crate, I also have a soft sided crate. It has no metal wire at all, and consists of a foldable metal tube frame (approximately 3/4" round) with a (nylon?) covering with plenty of screen space. It also has a plastic pan at the bottom for catching any liquid that you might not want to escape. In addition, I went the extra and bought a bed that fits it which has a washable nylon type cover that is stuffed with some washable foam as well as a bagged, replacable 3" layer of cedar chips, great for those who are accident prone.

The downside is that if she is biting she may be able to bite her way out.

As nice as this piece of equipment may be, I will admit that I don't use it. I made a major mistake the first time I left Hudson in it (leaving it in a different room), and she tore through the screen with her paws and got out. (She had major crate issues when I got her at 10 months old). I did have it repaired eventually, but I haven't used any crate very much since getting this repair done.

As far as accidents, I also had that problem with Hudson when I first started trying to leave her home without being locked in her crate. Interestingly, she was exactly 1 year old at that time. There was not much I could do except go back to crating her (where she very rarely had any accidents), which I did for about 5 more months before trying her free once again. We suffered through a few accidents, and now she is well behaved 95% of the time.

 

[laylabalayla]

biting wire crate

i am actually thinking about the mesh crate. my concern would be her clawing or biting through it. it may do the trick though as i am always home with her. the only time she is left is when we go out to visit(maybe a couple hours) the funny thing is she does not have an accident when she is left when we go out for a couple hours(strange?!) well thanks for the advice and i will let you know how things go. oh, to the one who had the same problem as me, did you go back to using your mesh crate to potty train like she was a puppy?

 

[Joe Beam]

Chance bit through his wire crate last Sunday. He's been able to rock a couple wire parts back and forth enough so they fell right off (like bending a paper clip until it breaks). He finally got four in a row cleared out and he was trying to squeeze through the hole. Luckily he wasn't wearing his collar, because he could have gotten stuck. I've got it all on my webcam...it was pretty scary. He had his entire head sticking out, but his large chest was never going to make it.

I had to go buy a new kennel. It's another wire one but it looks like it's of better construction. Also, it's finally warmin up around here so I can take them for their morning walks again.