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Adopted a shelter dog, have a few questions
We recently adopted a shelter dog who has lived, basically, her whole life in the shelter. They picked her up as a stray when she was about 2 months old and has lived there for the rest of her 1 year 4 months. She was only adopted out once before to an older couple who realized they couldn't care for her (1 whole week, so sad!)
With all that time in the shelter, she hasn't really learned how to play with toys. She chews on her Kong just fine, and sometimes a bone, but she seems to have no interest in anything else.
We've gotten her to run around with us a few times in the yard, but, other than that, not much of a player.
Any advice on how to get her to play with toys?
Also, we're working on crate training. Unfortunately, we didn't end up taking it slow with her in it, which was a big mistake on our part. She'll go into her crate without an issue now when we tell her to go to bed, but she will cry, bite, and claw at the door to the crate. Literally, she has torn the door off of the airliner crate!
I think we've worked her through the very destructive portion, but is there anything that we can do to help with her crying besides ignoring her? I've gotten a pheromone that's suppose to help, but it's been in there a week, and no luck. She also has her toys (see above!) and her kong, which she'll eat after about an hour of crying.
We usually try to have her inside the crate at night. With it getting so hot outside in the afternoons and not having any shade in our back yard, she's usually crated 3-4 hours inside during the afternoons now. We're working on leaving her inside the house by herself for short periods too (And she did so good last time *proud mama!*)
**EDIT** Meant to also ask about outdoor shade for dogs. We're adding tress, but that'll be a while. Any suggestions for igloos or other types of outdoor houses for dogs?
Re: Adopted a shelter dog, have a few questions
This is a great blog post about teaching dogs to play with toys:
http://loveandaleash.com/2012/03/20/school-days-leash-walking-and-toy-play/
Please don't leave her outside unattended. It's much safer for you to crate her inside while you're gone.
I would feed all of her meals in the crate and give her special, extra yummy treats she only gets in there to reinforce that the crate is a wonderful place to be. Some dogs also seem to stay more calm when their crate is covered with a blanket - we had a foster who would only relax when we made her crate nice and dark this way. Lastly, don't make a big production about letting her out of the crate when you get home. That will reinforce that you being gone and her in the crate = bad. I usually ignore my dog for a few minutes after letting her out until she calms down, and then I calmly put her harness and leash on and take her out.
I wouldn't leave her outside unattended. It's really easy for them to get stung, bitten, or jump a fence.
How long have you had her? When we brought our foster home, it took her about 2 months to start to relax and play with toys.
It sounds like you're dealing with Separation Anxiety. I would get the book, "I'll Be Home Soon" and pick up the Anxiety Wrap or Thunder Shirt. Give her some time to relax and hopefully her personality will start to come out.
First, yay for adopting! And second, you've gotten great advice so far. Please don't ever leave your dog outside without you there.
As far as playing with toys, that will take time, if she ever even shows an interest. My parents adopted a dog who, even though our other dog was playful with toys, never showed an interest in 'playing' besides an occasional chew on a Kong. Give it some time, and just keep introducing toys to her and have them accessable to her. (I'm leary on leaving toys that have strings on them in crates, if you can't watch them, they can chew on the strings too much which can cause issues, so I only leave Kong type toys in my dog's cage; I'd leave stuffed toys too, but those last about 3 seconds before being torn apart).
My dog, a rescued shepard pit mix, chewed the door off an airliner crate. We ended up having to sepnd a little more money and get the Kong brand crate (available from Petsmart). It's a heavier wire, and the door actually lifts up (think like a garage).
Keep all this in mind. You did a fantastic thing by rescuing, but it will take time. She just may not be used to playing with toys yet. Fill her kongs with peanut butter when you put her in the crate. It'll take some time, but she'll come around
You have definitely gotten some great advice. On the crate training one of my favorite things is the crate fairy. When we were crate training Ziva the crate fairy would come visit with super tasty treats.
Basically we would leave something SUPER yummy (we started with a little bit of bacon) in her crate while she was outside and then just let her find it. We always found it how funny it would take her to find it but then once she did she would constantly be going back to her crate to see if the crate fairy had visited again. I think that helped her a LOT with the crate.
Hooray for adopting!
We get many dogs that we foster that have no idea what toys are or how to play with them. My dogs do a good job of modelling for foster dogs, but if you don't have another dog around, you can model play with the toy and bring it to pup's attention, and also show them that toys are better things to mouth than furniture: no! replace with good toy; good toy! It's a special thing to see when they finally realize what toys are and start to play with them. It has taken mine up to two weeks to get comfortable with toys.
Crating is a great thing; ours has some separation anxiety so he pees whenever we leave. Feed him there, keep it near you when you guys hang out so the dog can go in there as it pleases, and give really high quality treats only when you crate (kong treat, great rawhide, something he only gets in there).
We have had our rescue, Henry, for about 10 days now and he had a lot of the same issues...we found that having him eat in the crate made a huge difference. Also, we put his bed in there to encourage him to sleep there at night. We ddon't close the gate at night, but he stays in there happily. He also goes in there during the day when we are home if he wants to nap.
Make the crate his "happy place.". That will make all the difference.
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