SaskiaTas
Boxer Buddy
I'm sorry if this is long, but I'm really not sure what to do. I don't want to label our dog's behavior as something it isn't, but we do need to figure how to solve the problem. I just don't know where to start.
We have had our 11 month old boy Logan for about 3 weeks now. Ours is his 3rd home (breeder kept him for 7 months, last owner had him for 4 months.) He is housebroken and crate trained, knows how to sit, has not had any destructive behaviour, and only had a couple of accidents in the house the first week he was here. He is an amazingly calm dog for a unneutered young male boxer. We have to specifically take him out to get him to exercise and run around...he will not chase balls or sticks without a lot of encouragement and even then usually stops after 5 minutes. (His previous 2 homes had other dogs to play with; he seems to need companionship in order to get moving.) He doesn't bark, jump, chew, or get into things. Generally he has given us hardly any trouble...except:
We recently found out that when we leave him in the crate, he turns into a completely other dog.
He whines, barks, bites and claws at the crate (bending the heavy metal bars), and thrashes around so much that he has gouged the walls next to where the crate was sitting. He will do this for HOURS on end...not just for a few minutes and then calm down. He hasn't injured himself (yet) and doesn't seem to drool excessively though. When we come home he is completely calm when we walk in the door, and waits patiently for us to open up the crate. It is only because my husband came back once after leaving and saw him through the window (without Logan spotting him) that he found out what goes on. Logan is not afraid of the crate itself. Both my husband and I work from home and although he usually naps in one of our offices he sometimes goes into the crate on his own during the day, and calmly sleeps in it at night in a room adjacent to our bedroom. He never hesitates to go into the crate. In the morning he waits patiently to be let out. He does tend to be what my dad calls a 'velcro dog'...wanting to be near people and get reassuring pats frequently. He is not interested at all in toys...I've tried kongs (with and without treats), rope pulls, flavored nylabone type gnawing things. Nada - they just sit there unnoticed.
It is only when we leave the house with him in the crate that this beserk behaviour occurs. We noticed something similar the first night we brought him home...we closed him into an entry hallway while we fixed dinner and he yelped and jumped so much he knocked things off the walls and scratched up the door. So I really don't want to leave him out of the crate when we leave...we have an open plan house and there is just too much he could possibly destroy. I want to figure out how to get him to relax in the crate while we are gone just like he does at night. I've read some posts on separation anxiety, but they seem to all be about the problems experienced and not the solutions. Can anyone tell me (or point me to information) how to figure out what is causing him to go crazy and what can be done?
We have had our 11 month old boy Logan for about 3 weeks now. Ours is his 3rd home (breeder kept him for 7 months, last owner had him for 4 months.) He is housebroken and crate trained, knows how to sit, has not had any destructive behaviour, and only had a couple of accidents in the house the first week he was here. He is an amazingly calm dog for a unneutered young male boxer. We have to specifically take him out to get him to exercise and run around...he will not chase balls or sticks without a lot of encouragement and even then usually stops after 5 minutes. (His previous 2 homes had other dogs to play with; he seems to need companionship in order to get moving.) He doesn't bark, jump, chew, or get into things. Generally he has given us hardly any trouble...except:
We recently found out that when we leave him in the crate, he turns into a completely other dog.
He whines, barks, bites and claws at the crate (bending the heavy metal bars), and thrashes around so much that he has gouged the walls next to where the crate was sitting. He will do this for HOURS on end...not just for a few minutes and then calm down. He hasn't injured himself (yet) and doesn't seem to drool excessively though. When we come home he is completely calm when we walk in the door, and waits patiently for us to open up the crate. It is only because my husband came back once after leaving and saw him through the window (without Logan spotting him) that he found out what goes on. Logan is not afraid of the crate itself. Both my husband and I work from home and although he usually naps in one of our offices he sometimes goes into the crate on his own during the day, and calmly sleeps in it at night in a room adjacent to our bedroom. He never hesitates to go into the crate. In the morning he waits patiently to be let out. He does tend to be what my dad calls a 'velcro dog'...wanting to be near people and get reassuring pats frequently. He is not interested at all in toys...I've tried kongs (with and without treats), rope pulls, flavored nylabone type gnawing things. Nada - they just sit there unnoticed.
It is only when we leave the house with him in the crate that this beserk behaviour occurs. We noticed something similar the first night we brought him home...we closed him into an entry hallway while we fixed dinner and he yelped and jumped so much he knocked things off the walls and scratched up the door. So I really don't want to leave him out of the crate when we leave...we have an open plan house and there is just too much he could possibly destroy. I want to figure out how to get him to relax in the crate while we are gone just like he does at night. I've read some posts on separation anxiety, but they seem to all be about the problems experienced and not the solutions. Can anyone tell me (or point me to information) how to figure out what is causing him to go crazy and what can be done?
