While in the crate...

[sowczar]

Hello All...I am looking for some information...My wife and I have had our female boxer for roughly 6 months now...she is the best...she came to us from the breeder crate trained...We kept her in the crate when we got her, but in december we tried leaving her alone...Bella would be ok, but when she started leaving for long periods of time she began to get mischievious...we thought this was do to bordem, but weren't sure...Then she started having "accidents" in the house...Well to keep our house from reeking like pee and poo we went back to the crate...now bella is in the crate 4 days a week for roughly 7-8 hours...(either my wife or I come home at lunch to let her out...it is more like 3-4 hours, out an hour, in 3-4 hours...) Well recently she has been having accidents (poo) in her cage...

I know that a dog will NOT mess in their cage unless they absolutely must...but it seems strange to me, that this is reoccuring...For instance this morning, we took her out at 9:00am she went #1 and #2...we came home at lunch at 12:30pm and she had #2 in her crate...She did NOT eat anything this morning...

any thoughts..?

 

[megan313]

Separation Anxiety is my guess. My 6mo old would go poo in her crate 2 minutes after i shut the front door. I would take her outside to poo minutes before i left and she would go a lot, but if i left and had to go back in the house for whatever reason, she would already have messed her crate. the vet and i decided to give clomicalm a try (medication for sep anxiety). IT seemed to work, but we decided to get Roxie another puppy. We crate them together, and have not had an accident since. She was really lonely. This worked for us. I have taken her off of the meds and she is still okay!

Megan

 

[sowczar]

Thanks Megan313...Bella is 15months old and i can't see how it is possible for her to be in the crate with another dog...She is due for her shots in may, I will ask the vet about the meds...

I did find in another post that it could be crate anxiety...i neglected to mention that bella has a bruise on her forhead and cheek from running her head into the crate...

Bella is the best when we are around, no troubles at all...we have considered another puppy, since the breeder has said she NEVER had problems with Bella when she had her (you have to remember she was crated with 9 other dogs in the same room)...in fact, she was the best dog of them all...

So i guess it MUST be seperation anxiety...

Just in case you were interested here is bella:

http://sdcl.wayne.edu/ssts/scott/bella/bella_pics.html

 

[megan313]

What do you mean by 'not possible'? as in they might fight?? I was worried at first because our two roll around and get REALLY rough, but it seems like the minute they go in the crate, they calm down and sleep together. If this is what you mean, you could always do trial runs when you're home. I know what you mean about the running into the sides of the crate. When Roxie was having her problems, i would come home and the crate would be a few feet away from where i left it, because she would literally rock it back and forth so hard...

Also...our Roxie was such the *perfect angel* when we were home. We even had to take her everywhere with us in the car, because she would do fine if we left her in there, even for up to 2 hours. Unfortunately we had to plan ahead for the summer, knowing that in Nebraska, we cant leave pets in the car...Thats why we chose to get Baxter. We wanted to rescue our new dog, but we have a 2 year old and are expecting another baby in june, and i didn't feel like i would have adequate time to help a new dog adjust as well (especially if it carried baggage from possible cruelty in its previous home) so we got a puppy.

First, i would try borrowing a friend's dog to see if it even helps. Have a slumber party! Thats how we found out all Roxie wanted was a little brother!! (it would be better than getting another dog to try to help the problem, and having that do nothing but cause more stress) Just ideas!!! Good luck!

Megan

BTW, i was looking at pics of Bella the other day, she sure is a doll!!!