The Big Ragu

I crate Carmine. And I crated Clarice as well. There I admitted it. I believe in crating 100% to help housetrain a dog as well as keep the destruction to a minimum.

Carmine loves his crate (the den mentality of animals) so when we come back from the dog park, he usually nestles into his crate and naps. When I leave in the morning for work, he actually waits to go into his crate because a Kong stuffed with frozen peanut butter will go in before him and he loves it! I then leave and go to work without talking to him or saying goodbye.  

The other night I was watching “It’s Me or the Dog” (love her!) and she berated a woman who crated her 11 month old puppy (Carmine’s age) while she went out to work!! She said three hours in the crate is the maximum!!! I never heard that before and of course felt guilty about Carmine being crated for a longer period of time.  So I decided to start weaning him.

I left him alone on Sunday for about two hours.  I went through the “leaving” ritual but instead of locking the crate door behind him, I just closed it and left it unlocked.  I closed the doors of the rooms in my apt except the small work room where he likes to sleep on the futon.
I came home…..and although he greeted me at the door, I knew he’d been sleeping on the futon.  Nice job!!!  Later in the day, I left him again for about an hour.  This time when I came home he was just chilling in his crate.  Both times, no damage anywhere.

Of course I now had false security!! 

What separation anxiety?? He can handle my leaving!!  So Monday after work, I had to go to another job.  I stopped in to take him for a long walk and figured I’d test him again.  Went through the ritual and left him for about three hours.  When I came home, I saw a pillow from the futon on the living room floor.  I also saw white stuff scattered all over the living room:  at first I thought it was the pillow stuffing because he had ripped open the pillow. When I got closer, I realized he had taken some magazines out of the magazine rack and shredded a bunch of the pages.  I guess he disapproved of the front covers—not enough canines on them! The worst thing?  He chewed a piece of the rug, leaving an imprint of his teeth on the bottom of the rug as well as a hole in it.  Not very noticeable but I know it’s there. I was so disappointed.  

But then I realized: Why was he fine on Sunday and destructive on Monday? Probably because he spent some quality time running around the dog park Sunday morning.  Monday he only had a long walk in between.  So, I decided to try it again tonight.  After spending time at the dog park, I fed him then left for almost two hours.

I held my breath as I opened the front door, expecting to see confetti all over the floor or maybe even worse. The outcome?  All fine. He threw two pillows on the floor but who cares?  They were intact.

The answer is in the exercise.  Not just walking but running around, playing, being-a-dog exercise. So now I’ll continue to exercise him before he gets tested again.  And hopefully between the exercise and maturity, Carmine will decide when he wants to use his crate.