Bella has started crying in her crate when put in at night. From day one she never made a peep and then suddenly about two weeks ago she started whimpering and now it's escalated to full on barking. Last night my husband finally had enough and just let her out to which she naturally slept quietly. I'm afraid doing this will make the crate something she will never want to go in again. I've been trying to figure out what she might find displeasing in the crate and my only idea is she may have grown out of it. It's a very large crate and she can stand, sit, and lay down but she can not splay out. If she sleeps on the settee she is normally splayed out, so that was why I was thinking it might feel too cramped. In any case, I've been stumped on how to train this because giving her anything (attention, food) is reinforcing the barking, whining and digging. I'm also afraid if we abandon it, she will not be able to be crated for travel or if we ever join any competitions. I'm not afraid of her having accidents or destroying things as she hasn't had any accidents in the house in more than a month, so I would say she is pretty much house broken. She also doesn't destroy cushions, blankets or carpeting, but she will shred any paper she can reach. Just to let people know that haven't seen my earlier posts, Bella isn't a lab but a spaniel type bird dog. Ideas?
What size crate do you have at the moment? If it is that the crate is too small to be comfortable Bella may be complaining
It's 90cm x 60cm x 70cm high. 35inch x 24inch x 27inch high. She stands at 52.5cm (20 inch) high at her withers and is around 19.5kg or 23 pounds. The sizing of the bench is well within what the breeder (and the crate manufacturers) recommends for her size/weight. But this is the only thing I can come up with as to why she has started to whine. The size and she just doesn't want to be locked in anymore.
When Juno was around 4.5 months old, so around the same weight, I moved her into a 42" crate which she loved as she just had so much room to sleep and I know most of us with Labs end up with the 42" to ensure that they have plenty of room. If he crate is on the small size, as far as Bella is concerned, I'm not sure that leaving the door open will make much difference unless she has an alternative bed to sleep on that she can sprawl on. Worth trying with the door open to begin with as long as their is no risk of chewing. Here's Juno proudly displaying her 42" crate WIN_20141012_125502 by Rosemary MCDonagh, on Flickr
