Crate Training The Older Dog

Ohhh, poor Dispatch, he’s probably close to my age in doggie years and he is now an older dog.  Over 6 years old.  OK he’s not a pup anymore.  This link is one of the best I’ve found for explaining what to do and not to do when crate training a dog  and it’s actually worked.  Well it’s worked as well as I could hope for.  He still isn’t quiet in a crate in the car but he isn’t quiet if he’s out of the crate so what do I expect?  I hadn’t even heard of crate training when I got him and when I did try when he was a year or so old there was no way he was putting up with it so I gave up.

Bichon in a crate with his bunny

What caused me to think I should write this post?  I’ve had a little success with teaching an old dog a new trick, I no longer have a dog crying in his crate.  The other day I put him in the crate  because I noticed he was “denned” under the chairs and table and figured he could den in his crate. I was playing on the internet(surprised? dripping with sarcasm), he did his whine that humans can’t hear hardly but I told him to be quiet.  I was going in the other room which granted isn’t far because this is an RV but it’s a BIG RV and I closed a door, came back down here, went up to do laundry and then realized the dog hadn’t been moving around with me?  Then I realized he was in his crate and had been there for like an hour!   As far as I’m concerned that is success, I could go in the other room and move freely around and he didn’t get concerned or @ least didn’t make noise.  So I tried going outside, he watched me but didn’t throw a fit.  He whined a little later on and I told him to be quiet and then when he was I let him out.  If you had seen the banshee monster with all four legs splayed out and stiff being forced into the crate door before and then heard him call his wolf ancestors to rescue him you would understand what a victory this is!

I'm sitting and the door is closed

I’ve been crate training Dispatch since early this summer.  It hasn’t been easy and if you know me it hasn’t been every day,  just when I think of it.  The first few days I was pretty consistent though.  The treat I used was a kong filled with mozzarella cheese, he was used to getting this every day when I went to work (can you say guilt trip?), this is probably why he lost a tooth, too much human food and not enough brushing.  Actually for probably 3 months if Dispatch got a treat I tried to make sure he was in the crate when he got it.  Of course if we bar-b-qued outside that was out of the question but most of the time he got his treats in the crate.  Any treat, bones, pieces of meat, if it wasn’ t dog food he got it IN the crate.  I basically did what the link above said to do.

Might as well relax till crazy woman lets me out

1. Put a treat in the crate and show the dog the treat. I pushed him in the first time but after he figured out I wasn’t slamming the door he was fine with going in.  He wanted to leave with the treat but I made him stay in there till he finished it.  I would leave the crate door open and sometimes he would wander in looking for another one.
2. Probably after a few days I moved on to shutting the door.  The first few times he wasn’t happy but that passed after about 5 seconds.  You don’t know how he feels about Mozzarella cheese.
3. We tried increasing the time he was in the crate.  This was going really well and I could leave him in there for like an hour.  This was in the same room as I was  in  though.
4. We moved the crate to another room.  This didn’t go over so well but after a week I could leave him in there and he knew he had to be quiet eventually to get out.  I could also go outside so I didn’t have to listen to the bowels of Hades screaming coming from the crate.  Not really but he can be SO pitiful.
5. I kept up with the crate training but had slacked off for the past month.  I noticed how Dispatch was crawling under the table and chairs which are jammed up against the wall (partly because daddy can’t take the tennis ball away under there or Dis thinks he can’t).  My laptop is here so it’s like he’s under my desk in his den which is where he wanted to stay @ home.  So I put his crate over here by me.
6. I started again with the intermittent crate training.  ALWAYS if he got cheese it was in the crate.  I’ve let him have his bones outside because he needs to chew on them more because of his tartar on his teeth (Dispatch discovered there was more to life than meat and cheese and ice cream).    Then the breakthrough came when I went in the other room and he was quiet.

This Bichon is Stubborn and spoiled.  Read here and here if you don’t believe me.   So if I can get him to stay in a crate with any amount of success makes me think it’s possible for all dogs.  My daughter has a yorkiepoo Charlie and he doesn’t like crates either but I think with time and patience maybe he will come around.  Of course he is Charlie too.  My daughter dog and house sits for a living now so having the dog in a crate would be advantageous.  She has someone to leave him with now if he would disrupt the household she is going into but it would be nice if she could take him anywhere with her.  Here are links to two other crate training pages, one from all about dogs, and here is what the humane society has to say about crate training.

My reasons for wanting my bichon frise crate trained?  He is easier to control.  I have hopes of people coming and I can put him in his crate if he gets too rowdy (someone came to the door and I put him in the crate tonight!).  He will also be easier to travel with and safer if he is in a crate.  He isn’t destructive @ all when we leave him alone and never has been so that’s not a problem.  He even throws up by the door if I’m not home because he knows he’s not supposed to do that in the house.  I’m not kidding.   I won’t use the crate hardly @ all if I’m gone but if I needed to leave a window open or something and couldn’t confine him in the house I do have a place to put him.  Also I have been in situations when I was working outside and had him but he wasn’t happy or safe on a leash.

Another flat Bichon photo

Oh the last picture?  Has nothing to do with crate training.  It’s Dispatch @ 5:15 in the morning saying I am one with the blanket, do not disturb.

UPDATE:  The dog evidently has no problems with separation anxiety anymore and he uses the crate as a place of sanctuary.  The only time Iput his collar on him is when we go somewhere.  So I put on his collar when I got ready to go for a walk, we’ve been doing these walks about a week now, LONG walks.  Then I got out the leash, walked to the door and called him.  No dog.  So I called again, no dog.  I shut the door and then opened it, he’s usually there waiting.  No dog.  He was hiding in his crate.  Evidently the mile walks are not to the bichons taste??  Too bad so sad he went anyway.

SECOND UPDATE:  I take two walks.  He was more willing to go outside on the second one.  Then he stayed by the door.  He planted his feet and was NOT going on another walk (the last time we walked was Thursday and it was really hot but I made sure he cooled off and had plenty of water).  I didn’t let him get away with it I made him walk behind me on the leash for a bit.  I took the stroller though and let him ride.  He was perfectly happy.  I feel like a rickshaw driver for a dog now!