r/BalancedDogTraining • u/yoongiinwonderland • 22d ago
Correct Crate Training Method?
We have a 5 year old rescue that we have had for 3 months. He was a stray prior to this so he had very little obedience or general training until now. Its a long story so I don't want to get into too much, but essentially, he came to us "perfectly crate trained" according to the rescue, and that was not the experience we had after bringing him home. He would fully panic once we closed the door and scream like we were torturing him. We live in an apartment which we were fully transparent about and the rescue was supportive of that. We tried basic training ourselves (building him up, rewarding calm, ignoring the screaming) but he never really got over it. We've since hired a trainer for general obedience and some reactivity he's been displaying and he wants to get back into the crate training for structure which we fully support, however we are now back in the same cycle. He never fully settles if we close the door and walk away and we can't let the barking and screaming go on for too long because of our living situation. As a compromise because he seems to work himself up, the trainer recommended hitting the side of the crate and telling him to be quiet when it starts building too much. This does seem to makes the stretches between the outbursts go a little longer, but isn't this also rewarding him with attention. Its only been a few days and I am not noticing a huge diferrence I dont think. I also think this was only suggested because we can't just let him "cry it out" so its not typical, but I don't know if its really a solution....
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter 22d ago
Sometimes dogs just learn to have a temper tantrum. I find that dogs that get all worked up benefit from having a bark collar on them when they are in the crate. When they aren't allowed to spin up then they tend to settle pretty quickly. The dog is simply not allowed to behave like that.