We've got a Houdini on our hands

We were out all day Sunday and Monday so we had our dog walker over a bunch of times. Ever since we went to Florida earlier this year and Ginger chewed a remote control, a napkin holder, and our couch, she's been crated whenever we're not home.

She's not happy about it, but listens when we say "crate" because she eats her dinner in there too. Someone asked a week or so about about un-crate training dogs and it appears we're doing that sooner than we planned.

Ginger has a touch of separation anxiety. We've worked on it the last 8 months that we've had her, and she's made a lot of progress.

Sunday we came home to find the front of her wire crate bent. It was obvious she was using some part of her body to try to get out. I told our dog walker, and asked her to call us if she found any damage on her mouth or paws, since I didn't know how she bent the crate.

Monday night we came home at about 8:30pm. The last time the walker was there was at 5. Rusty spies Brinkley at the front window and right next to him, Ginger is standing there.

My heart started beating fast, imagining what the inside of our house was going to look like, taking mental inventory of what was in the garbage can and if she could have ingested anything that would hurt her.

We walked in the door. Dogs were very excited. I did a circuit around the living room, kitchen.

Absolutely nothing was out of place.

Not even her crate! The door was still closed. I tried to open the top, and couldn't. I thought... did our dog walker leave her out of it? So I called her. Nope, it was closed when she left.

So I took a closer look, and found this:



Somehow, she had gotten the bottom latch undone and squeezed her 75 pound body through this space. I don't even want to picture how she did it, because I envision all the ways she could have seriously hurt herself. She's a big girl. But also a determined girl. And instead of focusing on all the negative aspects of this, we're choosing to focus on the fact that she didn't touch the garbage, couch, papers on the table, or anything else she could have damaged.

So, she let us know we need to start trusting her and we are un-crate training her.

The end.

Message edited 10/20/2010 9:48:39 AM.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

You have one very smart, skilled dog!!!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

My dog knows how to do this, too!!! I was just thinking this morning about how I want to get a garbage can to go under the sink or on a cabinet door so we could uncrate train Lucy. She did the very same thing a week or two ago! I think she just kept pushing at the crate door until the bottom latch slid undone and then pushed the bottom half open and snuck out. I'm just glad she didn't get stuck halfway out and hurt herself. She's too clever for her own good!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

wow that is one smart dog!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

Misty has also done this...I highly recommend slowly increasing the times she's left alone before you go back to your old routine.
Only because you have no idea how long she had been out and it may not have been long enough to get into trouble. We had the same issues and we made sure to get the crate that has the little tabs on the locks so she can't pop them up and we slowly increased the times we did leave her out when we were gone.
BTW, she is now home alone for 8 hours a lot of days and does nothing bad...but it took us about 4-5 months to get there. And she's 6 and has been getting left out for that long since she was around 2.
Also, we still leave the crate up and open, it's her "safe place" and if she is sick, we can confine her without her feeling as though it's some kind of punishment.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

Poor baby was dying to get out. Lucky she didn't choke herself in there. I hope she is going to be a good girl from now on.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

Gotta love those little (or big) fur babies! They definitely make sure they get what they want!!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

Thanks ladies I'm trying to harness that problem-solving skill she has into better things like dog agility in the backyard.

Gerty, I'm glad to hear these methods worked for you. Ginger is a lot like Misty in that way. I remember how Misty wouldn't go far, and come back to check in - our girl does the same thing too. We've been leaving the crate door open but she always wants to be close to us so she never uses it. When Brinkley was a pup, he did use it as a safe haven but neither of them go in there anymore.

We're going to go back to leaving for five minutes with the video camera rolling and slowly increase it as she becomes more calm. That's how we've been doing it with her in the crate, and until last weekend, she was doing very well. It was the longest absence since we took a trip earlier this year, so I don't really blame her. I know we just have more work to do, but she'll continue making progress.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

What a brat.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

she's a genius! I love the pic, she's very adorable.

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

what a cutie..

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

I am absolutly hysterical reading this....especially when I got to the end and saw a very similar face to my Jake on the same couch! Oh, those labs - they are mischevious little creatures! But, man, do they make me laugh!!!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

LOL! sounds familiar!!!

Re: We've got a Houdini on our hands

I was at the vet with Brinkley last week and weighed Ginger. She's actually 91 pounds now.

I still don't understand how she did it without hurting herself. She hasn't been in the crate since, and has been doing pretty good. We have been increasing our absences from five minutes, and we're up to about 25 minutes now. We left Saturday to walk down to the supermarket and videotaped her.

She was pacing and staring out the window for six minutes before she laid down against the door. It took her another 15 minutes to put her head down and actually relax. And we came home five minutes later, which was *great* because subconsciously - she was rewarded but only after she relaxed.

I being able to help her get over her fears, instead of just confining her for safety. I'm kind of glad she busted out that day and forced our hand. I have to remember that sometimes, we are the ones that limit them and they're capable of a lot more than we give them credit for.

Message edited 11/15/2010 11:28:09 AM.