Dog ramming head into crate

We adopted a dog in September that was fully crate trained. He had been great about going into his crate, he lays in there sometimes to nap when we are home and we give him treats & Kong when we leave. Lately he has not been going in willingly, and when we are leaving the house he yelps and rams his head into the crate. Yesterday when we got home after being gone only 2 hours, he had bent the bars on the crate door (I dont know how he did this), and one of the bars was broken and he managed to bend it forward. I dont know why all of a sudden he is acting like this. I'm scared he is going to hurt himself. Nothing has changed in our household lately, and like I said he still goes in there to sleep willingly when we are home. Anyone experience this or have any tips to help combat his anxiety? TIA!

Re: Dog ramming head into crate

I'm not sure what to say about his anxiety, but are you sure he still needs to be crated? When our pups started jailbreaking we took it as a cue that they no longer needed to be crated during the day. We tested them at first by leaving them out for 1/2 hour or an hour while we ran errands or went out to eat and then eventually did away with crating them altogether. We did have a setback or two where they were destructive and we had to re-introduce the crate, but they're fine without it now. Otherwise, I'm going to have to recommend the same old spiel- more exercise or possibly having a friend/neighbor/dog walker come in to let him out to play for a bit during the day. Good luck with your pup!

Dog ramming head into crate

Thanks, I'm just afraid if we dont crate him then he'll destroy the front door, or the door to whichever room we leave him in. Its just odd how it seems to be all of a sudden.

Dog ramming head into crate

This sounds like separation anxiety.

Dog ramming head into crate

If he is trained, I would leave him out of the crate. We got our dog Round the sMe time and when we got out, I close the bedroom doors and he has the rest of the house to roam.