I have a 2 yr old rescue I’ve had for a few weeks. He sleeps fine in his crate, goes in voluntarily and on his own randomly. He gets a nice 30-45 minute walk and sniffs everywhere, so plenty of stimulation. He goes in his crate calmly without issue when I leave in the morning. Then he barks for 10-15 nonstop. Then he will calm down and then bark for 30-45 mins on and off. He’s not too crazy during this time. He’ll paw the door a few times, sit down, stand up, eat from kong, move his mattress and see if digging will get him out(Viewed via webcam.) Question is what can I do? Stuffed Kong helps a little. Delays start of barking and makes barking intermittent as he will stop to eat. I may try giving him free reign of my bedroom to see if that helps. Any other suggestions? Free reign of house would be hard now due to cat. Don’t trust either with each other. He doesn’t get worked up as I’m getting ready to leave and it doesn’t matter who puts him in crate in the family. He acts the same for me, my daughter, the walker. He gets 2-3 hours of walks daily, 30-60 min of training, and time playing with toys, chew bones, etc. even more Fri-sunday. Yesterday he had a few hours of playing fetch and a walk before and still showed same behavior.
Hi @Bug0926 Sounds like a bit of separation anxiety behaviour. I would go back a step or two in the crate training, i think you may have transitioned between being dog locked in the crate and you leaving. Jo Laurens has an article on crate training and there is section on the very problem you are experiencing. :https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/
It's possible that it's SA, but it could also just be an expression of boredom and frustration at long periods of confinement. Is there some way you can shut the cat in one room and give him other rooms, so he can be left out of the crate? If out of the crate, you can hide stuffed Kongs around the room or even kibble, and try to give him more to do. If the issue is mainly boredom, this will help a lot. Have you considered a Furbo camera? That way you can throw kibble for him to find at times when he is getting a bit bored...
Turns out it's mostly confinement issue. Cat stays in daughters room and dog is downstairs and spends most of day, eating breakfast, playing with toys and snoozing while gone. I'll work on the crate training and him not barking when he's left in a room while someone goes upstairs. But there's no reaction now when we leave.
