I'm posting this question for my sister. She has adopted an 18 month old lab mix dog. With the advent of back to school, she now has to try and crate train Shelby. They've done some crate training with her and when they are home she's okay. She is fed in her crate and does just fine with it.
Shelby is not fully house trained and for her protection and the protection of the house she needs to be crated. The problem is she cries and barks all day while in the kennel. She also has a doggy sibling who is outside of the crate and helps with the whining and barking. Tucker (the older dog) hated the crate when he was younger and actually chewed his way out of 2 of them! Tucker tries to help Shelby by chewing on the outside of the crate.
It's been 4 days and the behavior hasn't changed. Today she's setting up a camera on the kennel to see what goes on while she's gone. She doesn't have the option of going home to let them out during her work day. Shelby also has food sensitivities so treats and things like Kong can't be used for soothing.
They don't have a room that would work to put Shelby in for the day. And she lives in town and her neighbors have told her about the all day bark fest, so far they are being quite nice about it but she wants to fix this problem soon, before she gets an official complaint. Any suggestions?
