Re: Phasing out the crate... Ah bless her x Did OH disturb her? ;D That's excactly how we leave Dexter and only he's in his room off the kitchen,sometimes he's been in his crate,sometimes not x
Re: Phasing out the crate... Surprisingly we had a peaceful night!! I was still awake when OH came home (just about lol) and he said he didn't hear a peep from Penny, he didn't even hear her lift her head or get up to have a look - which I thought she might as the front door is directly opposite the kitchen doorway (last nights photo is taken leaving out from the top of the stairs into the hallway lol) We had a fair bit of whining at 4:30am so I did get up, let her out for the toilet, take her cone off and put her in the crate for a few hours. I think it was because it was getting light - she did this on holiday too as I didn't take the crate cover and would start whining when it was light. She never does this when her crate is covered properly, so this is going to be something to work on I think. Not quite sure how to do it - maybe just ignoring her might work, I'm not sure at the moment. Anyway, the kitchen was still in one peice, everything as I had left it and not even the blankets ruffled up. So all in all it was a successful night! Wonder how we'll get on tonight....
Re: Phasing out the crate... Good luck for tonight! Sounds like she is getting used it. Benson is dong well, apart from the fact I had to use a dustpan and brush to sweep up part of a shabby chic cupboard...well never liked it anyway.. : We have a similar set up, crate in kitchen with door open and a baby gate across the kitchen door
Re: Phasing out the crate... We had to go food shopping today so we left her loose in the kitchen today. Obviously we weren't there to hear if she whine or anything but when we got back she was stood at the gate waiting for us. I'm hoping she had been on her bed and then just got up to come and see us when she heard the door opening. Again everything was still untouched and in it's place. Getting ready for our second night tonight. Hopefully she won't have us up at 4:30am with the sunrise again... Still not sure how to tackle that. We have blinds in the kitchen we can shut but it still won't make it that dark. Guess I'll just have to see how she does... I'll try ignoring her for a bit if she does whine to see if she settles down.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Sounds successful so far, fingers crossed it will continue to be so! It is likely the early sun plus the change of routine that is leading to the whining. The best thing to do is to ignore it, she will give up once she knows it doesn't get her anywhere.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Well that's what we thought when she was whining in her crate in the mornings. Every morning about 10-30minutes before the alarm would go off she would start. I ignored it every time and only went downstairs in a gap between sessions lol. She did it ever since she was 7 months old, until the last few weeks! Anyway, last night seemed to go ok. I didn't hear her whine when OH put her to bed, but I was half asleep. He said she went to bed fine. 7:10am wake up this morning but she wasn't whining. I could hear her getting restless and it's the time we normally get up anyway.
Re: Phasing out the crate... This morning she whined for over an hour. From about 5am until I got up at 6:45. It wasnt a loud screechy whine that she used to do as a puppy, more like a quiet sad 'have you forgotten about me?' whine. I'm back to work today so she's going to be on her own all day. I'm worried about leaving her out for that long as we've not had very long to get her used to it. Do I chance it? Or do I leave her cone off and shut her in the crate for today and chance her licking her wounds (she has still shown no interest at all in them). She's so sad and depressed with her cone on, she hates it. Just lies on the blanket and doesn't really do anything.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Sorry Lauren,only just getting my forum time in now ....8 pm here so I guess you will have sorted out what you were doing.....you've seen so many more dogs post op than me ,but for me,being terrified of licking or worrying the wound I would have chosen the lesser of 2 evils and left her in the kitchen with her cone on .... What did you do in the end? X
Re: Phasing out the crate... I went ahead and left her in the kitchen out of the crate today. I left a radio on classical music down low and closed the blind on the window to make it a little darker (not that it helped much I'm sure but it was more to keep the sun off her as it pours in through that window sometimes). My OH arrived home before I did and he said she seemed fine, was just led on her bed. There were a couple of things she had pulled down off the top of the crate but that's probably more my fault for leaving them up there and she could have just knocked them off if she was sniffing around up there. Fingers crossed it's going well at the moment.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Penny slept through all night last night and no 5am whining!!! She was also really good left alone while I was at work today - she didn't even get off her bed when I walked in the front door. She waited until I had come in, put my bag down etc and then opened the baby gate!
Re: Phasing out the crate... The last couple of days seem to have been going well. When we went to the gym last night I left her cone off as her Spey wounds are healing really well. When we came back she was curled up in her crate! That was so nice to see - she never goes in there of her own accord unless she knows we are putting her to bed or going out, she'll never use it in the day. One thing that has be a bit worried is she has started to scrabble up all her blankets and pull them out of the crate. I'm not sure if this is a sign she's not liking being left out or what. Certainly something to keep an eye on anyway. This weekend we are off to buy a new baby gate as the current one has fallen out of the wall AGAIN. It only last a week this time! The trouble is our kitchen doorway is super narrow. The one we have at the moment is the Linden extra slim and on the smallest it will do it only just fits. I want to get a pressure mounted one as I think it will stay better but I can't find a decent one in slim so we may have to get a normal sized one and fit it to the outer doorway... Our house is weird. There's the kitchen with a doorway, then a weird recess area with a pantry on one side and the side door on the other and then another doorway into the hall. The one into the hall seems a normal size so I think we might be best using that one.
Re: Phasing out the crate... I use retractable fabric gates - they are fab. Just a slim unit on the wall when not in use. The ones I have are very robust. I have two of these: http://www.amazon.com/Retractable-KiddyGuard-Avant-Baby-Gate/dp/B005J04B60 These aren't the cheapest, but I'll keep them always as I use them on the stairs. You can get cheaper ones.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Yeah I've seen those and it's the cost that puts me off, though I can see how good they are as they'll fit most size of doorways. I would be wary about the soft ones though as I already have one of these for the bottom of the stairs http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplay0_10751_-1_126109_10001?_$ja=tsid:49662&cm_mmc=googlemerchantcenter-_-nmppla-_-NULL-_-NULL&gclid=COeH2vi2l78CFQfJtAodSBoA8g&gclsrc=aw.ds When she's really trying she can pull it down and I would be worried to use one to confine her in an area for a long time.
Re: Phasing out the crate... Glad the crate phasing out is going so well......every so often Dexter has a dig of his blanket....it looks like he wants to get comfy and of course it makes sense to ruffle it all up and flop down on a scruffy mound when you could have had the nicely folded ,prepared ( usually freshly laundered ) one I make for him ???
Re: Phasing out the crate... Well it still seems to be going well. Penny is still pulling her blankets out of the crate and ruffling them all up, and the other morning I came down to find she had pulled the outside blankets IN her crate... Perhaps she was cold...? Anyway here's a pic of our new baby gate! As you can see it has to go on the outer archway rather than the inner but I don't think that it will make a huge amount of difference for us. My next project may be getting rid of the crate entirely and getting her a proper bed instead... Has anyone done away with their dogs crate in favour for a bed? We don't have room in the kitchen for both.
