HOWEDY JP,
On Jan 18, 12:31 pm, "JP" <vze2w....DeleteThis@verizon.net> wrote:
> Why can't you put him in the crate he sleeps in?
> He seems very secure there from your description.
>
> JP
Here's more on crate "training":
From: "The Puppy Wizard" <ThePuppyWiz....DeleteThis@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 03:13:12 GMT
Subject: Crate Training / Chewing / HOWESbreaking Puppy - Starry's
Scary Night
HOWEDY People,
> I have a couple of young pups.
The Puppy Wizzzard has trained dogs for forty
years. When HE began training, crates were only
used for trainsport. The Puppy Wizzzard never
owned a crate until 1980. It was Dane size,
made of stainless steel with a custom made tray.
It was a GIFT. Actually, it was more than a gift,
it was practically FORCED on HIM. Not wanting to
look a gift horse in the mouth, the crate fit
neatly next to HIS bed and served as a table,
and only functioned as a crate on rare occasion
when dog shy company shared HIS bed.
> I want you to tell me what I should do
> with them during the day when I work (3 hrs)
> and at night (7hrs) or when I might want to
> go shopping, to dinner.........
TRAINING has always served The Puppy Wizzzard well...
The PROBLEM with raising a pup is NOT in HOWE
to CONFINE the dog, but HOWE to TEACH the dog
not to chew inappropriate things. That takes
about WON HOWER per room... to totally HOWES
train the dog.
Destructive chewing is an anxiety relief mechanism.
Puppies do not destructively chew unless they're
MISHANDLED.
Chewing for teething puporses is EZ to control by
leaving WON appropriate hard and WON soft chew toy
in each area of the HOWES, so they're convienient
but not "everywhere." Over loading the HOWES with
toys tells the pup that EVERY THING is his to chew,
and so they will.
HOWESbreaking is INSTINCTIVE. Puppy naturally
HOWESbreak themselves at about five weeks old,
if they're given the ability to get to an appropriate
break area. A tray with some newspapers serves
well for that and can function for occasions when
you're not able to return within a reasonable time,
say if you have an emergency. The pup won't get
nervous that he needs to relieve himself and has
no place to go.
Locking a pup in a box teaches the dog the box
is his HOWES and YOUR HOWES is his territory to
foul.
Locking a pup in a box does NOT give IT a sense
of security, it makes them ANXIOUS, because the
pup INSTINCTIVELY KNOWS he does not have the
ability to relieve himself in his appropriate
break area.
Crating confounds HOWESbreaking. That's HOWE COME
you can't HOWESbreak a dog in a day or two... like
The Puppy Wizzzard's FREE WWW Wits' End Dog Training
Method Students report. Traditional traines FEAR dogs
making mistakes, they're afraid the dog will LEARN
to relieve himself on the floor if you have any
accidents. Dogs do not relieve themelves because of
scent in their own HOWES unless another dog has visited
and left a mark.
The problem for traditional trainers is they have NO
METHOD for addressing a behavior after the fact. Catching
the dog in the act is infantile thinking. A dog has the
intelligence to understand that he shouldn't have done
WHATEVER he's likely to do as a dog sometimes will do.
THEY KNOW what they did earlier just like you and me,
but probably better than me.
There's no reason to crate them. Crating inhibits
HOWESbreaking and disavails us of training opportunities
and causes animosity, hyperactivity, separation anxiety,
fear of thunder, obsessive / compulsive barking, whining, chewing,
pacing, digging, self mutilation, car sickness,
intestinal and digestive disorders, shyness, aggression,
OCD behaviors and idiopathic epilepsy.
The notion that dogs love their dens is FALSE. They
HIDE FROM REALITY in there, like you'd hide from the
boogeyman and pull the covers over your head or killfile
a poster you didn't want to hear from. That reinforces
the fear and inability to cope.
Giving a dog a den to retreat to CAUSES insecurity
because the dog never learns HOWE to cope with
situations of their environment. Every time somethin
disturbes the dog and IT retreats to the crate, the
FEAR is REINFORCED.
When the dog comes out of the crate it's like a soldier
coming out of a foxhole. Everything represents danger.
Socialization will not be effected, the dog will still
go out and make pals etc, but the constant reinforcement
of his fears EVERY TIME the dog returns to the crate might
negate the benefit of socialization.
Certainly that doesn't happen to ALL dogs, and that's not
to say it cannot be possible to PUPPERLY crate train a dog.
But to lock a dog in a box to AVOID BEHAVIORS you cannot
train is doing the dog and yourelf a terrible disservice.
The Puppy Wizzzard has trained mostly giant breed protection dogs for
forty years, and cannot understand HOWE a person is expected to be
able
to depend on their dog to protect them and the HOWES if he's locked in
a
box.
The Puppy Wizzzard ordinarily has WORKING PROTECTION dogs at six
months
of age. HOWESbreaking is EZ if you just give the dog the opportunity
to
allow NATRURE'S PERFECT HOWESbreaking plan to fulfill it's
territorial
imperatives... like protection, for example.
Subject: letter about crate
Starry's Scary Night
Anyone reading this letter is familiar with my white
shepherd Starr and her problems with fear and anxiety.
Starr has made a lot of progress since my last letter
and continues to make progress almost daily.
For a while Starr was going through a transition
period where she was expecting me to go back to the old
ways of training and discipline. She would refuse to
perform the commands right and just not want to work.
With a ton of self-control I kept the exercises simple
during this time, spending most of our training session
doing the "hot and cold exercise."
Starr soon bounced out of her unsure sliding-back-
and-forth stage and is stable now. The reason for this
letter is to talk about crates and the emotional state
they can put a dog in.
Only after I dealt with the crate situation I'll be
explaining was Starr able to make real progress. After
that the back sliding mentioned above was only a matter
of time, patients and being consistent.
First let me just say that I'm not saying that you
shouldn't use a crate. Only that you make sure to use
it right for the emotional state of your dog.
Ever since Starr was a pup whenever I left her alone
I put her in her crate. If we had company Starr went in
her crate because she was not friendly and would bark and
hide. Nights she also spent in her crate which seemed like
a retreat to her, a comfort zone. But that false sense of
security made the world outside her crate seem all the
more scary.
Starr was unintentionally "taught" that whenever
something was unusual in the house that she was to go to
her "safe place" and then everything would be all right.
The problem became evident when we got Starr home
afterher training in FL. Starr was so much more confident
in herself. But her fear was triggered by all her past
feelings associated with her familiar surroundings.
Mr. Howe told me to expect Starr might back-slide and
to simply keep working her until she came around.
I worked with my dog but at night I put her in her
crate. The next morning all the work I had been through
the day before, and whatever progress she had made seemed
to have disappeared.
I spoke to Mr. Howe about what was going on and he
explained that the false sense of security Starr got from
the crate was making her fear the outside world. When she
got in the crate she felt safe, after all that was where
I put her whenever something was unstable [if I left, company
etc..] When she came out she was leaving behind that security.
At first I was going to try to recondition her to being
in the crate but I was so afraid of all the training and
confidence she got in FL being lost that I decided to just
stop using the crate. So I left her in my bed room instead.
She was not comfortable with this at first. It seemed
like she felt she didn't know where she belonged and that
made her anxious. But using the "surrogate toy" technique
and sound distraction and praise cured her of this anxiety
in less then a half hour.
Now Starr is comfortable and content to hang out alone
in my room. She's not emotionally confined to just my bed
or to her doggy bed and she is not at all destructive. I
am lucky that Starr's separation anxiety was never expressed
in messing or chewing, though once she took my violin shoulder
rest from my closet and kept it with her on my bed. She did,
however tip over my waste basket twice. Both times I addressed
the expression as it says in Jerry's manual and that's no
longer a problem.
Crystal Arcidy
====================================
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