Please help! My 18 month old black lab is crated whenever we are gone. I give her a chew toy whenever she is in her crate. The problem is that she licks her paws excessively while in the crate...the saliva pools up in the tray of the crate and she is very thirsty when she gets out. Any ideas on how to change this behavior?
Hi Laurie and welcome to the forum I have moved your post to a thread of its own, so it gets more attention. I tried to pm you about it but you've elected not to receive pms, so I hope you find this thread... Cheerio, Rachael
Hi Laurie, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you are having problems with your girl. It sounds like she is salivating an awful lot. Does she have an itch or scratch? Often licking and chewing paws can be an allergy thing. They can't get to the bit they need to scratch, but the paws are their default target. If she is only doing it in her crate, it does make you think it could be an anxiety thing. Dogs chew things when they are anxious or worried. Is it possible at all to video your girl whist you are out? It might help you see what is going on?
Hello there, and welcome It sounds like your dog is in a fair bit of distress when you leave her in a crate, unfortunately. It's a bit difficult to say more than that without knowing your dog. She could be very scared of being left alone, or in the crate, and so on. If it's at all possible to do so, I'd consult with a professional who can observe your dog and give you some advice. In the meantime, I wouldn't crate her or leave her, if that's at all possible. Is she ok in the crate while you are there?
Hi there and welcome. Do you leave her in the crate while you are at work? Or just while you are out shopping and so on? Can you leave her out of the crate in a safe area, and if so what happens then? I would try not leaving her alone for several days and then very gently start re-training, perhaps in a safe room rather than the crate. And I would leave water with her, since you say she is thirsty when she gets out.
She is only in her crate for 2-3 hours at a time. She only licks her paws when in the crate, and does so if she is in for 10 min, or 2 hours! We have tried leaving her out of the crate, at first for short periods of time when we were gone, and working up to about an hour, but she started chewing/destroying things when we were gone, so we started crating her again.
Hi Laurie, have you tried using frozen kongs stuffed with delicious food, these would take her sometime to eat and keep her occupied maybe leaving her paws? You could try this and leave her in her crate for a short while to see how she gets on. If it's successful you could always have several ready in the freezer for times when you need to leave your girl crated, this might just break the habit of paw licking. Could you perhaps take her for a long walk before she needs to be crated she might well just sleep? Also leave the radio on for company. Just a couple of suggestions as this must be really distressing for you and your girl x
It honestly sounds like a stress reaction to the crate - if this happens when you are there, right by the crate. The solution is no crate (and a completely dog safe room), or a complete rework of crate training - which is likely to be very, very slow and you'd have to put an awful lot of work in and take it extremely slowly. Can she eat if she is in the crate?
Did she have a bad experience in her crate, maybe she caught her tail or paw or hurt herself in some way so now she has negative association with being in it?
It also sounds like she is quite anxious when you leave (trashing the joint is is typical sign of an anxiety problem). I'd suggested an experienced behaviourist to help you with the paw licking and the behaviour when she's left alone uncrated. Whereabouts are you located?
