Hi, new member. We have a vizsla puppy that we got at 8 weeks and have had her for 10 days. She's our first vizsla and the first dog we are trying to crate train (past dogs have been poorly trained in general, too, so we're sort of novice trainers). We didn't have the heart to leave her in the crate the first night, so she and we got used to sharing the bed. We're working on positively conditioning her to the crate with food, toys and attention in there, aiming for gradually longer periods with the door closed. We've been moving a bit too slowly on this though. She has a lot of separation anxiety. We've had some issues with biting (hard) at night, so we tried putting her in there at night last night out of desperation when she was attacking one of us. After being closed in the crate, she was completely panicked, screamed and peed. I'm afraid we gave in and let her out after about 15 minutes with escalating levels of terrified screams. The breeder suggests biting the bullet and letting her cry it out, but I'd be more comfortable if we could get her more conditioned to feel comfortable being in the crate for shorter periods before leaving her overnight in it (of course, it wouldn't be uninterrupted overnight because she'd need to go to the bathroom at least once during the night). Any votes on gradual versus abrupt?
BTW, I think we do have a better handle on the biting issue; I know we're in good company there.
Thanks, Sarah
BTW, I think we do have a better handle on the biting issue; I know we're in good company there.
Thanks, Sarah