Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi everyone!

I adopted my boy on Aug 13th. He is about 6 months old now, and albeit a handful has been a wonderful companion. BUT- and this is a big one, Theon will bark non-stop when he is in his crate with the door shut. Whether I’m in the room or out the house, he will not stop. He isn’t afraid of the crate; he knows he gets fed in there, and will happily run in at breakfast or dinner time, or sit in it whenever he believes he should be fed. 

I have tried just about everything I’ve read so far. Frozen kongs, his favorite chews and toys, hiding food in the blanket, closing the curtains and having the lights dimmed, playing calm music to drown out any outside noise... nothing seems to work! He barks, whines, and scratches at the floor of the crate. Then when he gets let out he passes out immediately because he’s been working himself out so much. 

He doesn’t need to be in the crate overnight. He has a tie-out linked to the bedframe so he can sleep on the bed without being able to tear into anything. But that also means I’m right beside him and any messing with pillows, sheets, etc is easily caught. But when I’m not home he can /not/ be left out, for his own safety.

Currently his alone/crate time is limited to when I need to go run errands or visit somebody. Blocks of 30min-3 hours max. He gets played with for 15-30min, potties, and gets a 15min ‘cooldown’ before being crated. Where he is then offered his toys and treats, which get ignored. He doesn’t get let out until he stops barking which he typically does as soon as he sees me, with a calm ‘good boy’ I don’t make a big deal of it (but he does- he’s all over me) and try to get the collar onto this now-hyper dog so we can go potty and he doesn’t lose his bladder in the excitement. 

I’m at loss, truly. I hope you guys can help me sort this out, as I’m looking to move into an apartment but this obviously won’t work there. 

My dog also has some separation anxiety. He is 5 years old but I adopted him just over four months ago. He’s typically in the crate no more than 3 hours once a week when I take my parents to church. At their house, we leave classical music on for him, have one side of the crate covered where light comes in just a bit, the rest of the room is dark. We also have a fan blowing in the direction of his crate on low, and use a scented (lavender blend) plug in. I am not convinced pheromone plug ins work but some swear by those. 

I throw tiny bits of treats inside the crate to entice him in, close the door, sometimes give him a “rest” cue, and exit the house without much further fuss. Sometimes he starts to bark or howl if we take too long to leave. But he’s stretching when I return so I am sure he was napping. 

My father feels guilty about keeping him crated and wants to guve him the freedom of the house when we step out but since he’s an anxious dog, I am not convinced yet he’s ready. Frankly, I don’t trust him to NOT start tearing up his toys, furniture or start chasing flies into their glass patio doors and hurt himself or destroy property. He’s already tore holes in a couple of crate pads when I was driving him to/from dog training classes because I think he was stressed.

I have started him on Purina Calming Care probiotics and Zyklene supplements (ordered from Chewy) but still too early to tell their effectiveness. 

I do believe some calming scent may help. Try it at times when he is very calm so he associates it with that state of mind and work toward using it in more stressful situations.

My other dog was a barker and I used to teach him to stop by showing him a treat and make the quiet sign by putting a finger over my lips. As soon as he hushed, he got the treat. 

CBD oil may be helpful

How does he do if you leave him out of the crate? My dog absolutely can't stand being left in a crate or even allowed to roam in a room-- after a LOT of trial & error we realized that he needs to be able to see our front door, and then he'll hang out calmly on the couch while we're gone.