Dutch Shepherd Forum

Grendel turned 16 weeks yesterday. Over a week ago I got a pet gate to keep her in hall while I am not home, so she'd have more room than the crate. First time leaving her, I cone home to find her out and the small pet door in the gate open. She could still fit thru it and had figured out how to unlatch it. I duck taped it shut and left her again. Come home and she's out, gate untouched. She'd jumped over it.
Returned gate and got the extra tall, 41". Left her yesterday for a few hours. Success!
Come home today and find her out and the gate pushed off of the wall.
Numerous reviews claimed this gate kept full size GSDs and other adult, large breed dogs contained. My almost 30 lb puppy escaped. What the hell am I in for when she's older, larger and wiser?!

Lisa

you really thought duct tape would hold a DS???????????????????????????? LOL , sorry to laugh.

I really dont think these companies think about the brains of the dogs, just the size.

You may want to put in a real door. Or is there a basement or someplace to keep her that it wont matter if she trashes anything? Mine are crated if im out for a short time, mostly because Thalie gets such anxiety when I leave. I put then in the basement with plenty of toys and I have dog beds too for them.

The duct tape did keep her from opening the small door. She just got around that by jumping over the whole thing!
I do have an extra bedroom, but have to figure out how to puppyproof it. I'm also concerned that, because it shares a wall with the neighbor on other side of duplex, that neighbor will hear Grendel's whining/howling/crying, which is not good (neighbor hates dogs).
Grendel has really bad separation anxiety. If she knows I'm leaving, she will start crying right away, even with two kongs filled with food in front of her. When I put her in another room and close the door even when I'm home she goes off.
Actually going to take her to a trainer for private lesson and evaluation in next couple weeks. The guy is apparently quite well known, so hoping he has some suggestions for the anxiety.

Let us know how the eval goes.

How long are you gone for? What about crating? That sounds the safest.

Thought I'd throw this out there. It worked great for "teaching" Xander to stay home alone and behave.

First off he stayed crated when home alone until probably 6 7 8 9 months. I can't remember exactly but as a puppy there was no way he was going to be left uncrated alone. I wouldn't have a house left.

I bought a Foscam camera and installed it. It can be viewed from my phone. I would leave him loose in the house and go outside, maybe walk to the neighbors and watch him on the camera. Once I saw that he settled down I would return. I did this several times a day slowly extending the time away.

I still use the camera to check on him during the day. He has never destroyed anything while home alone.

This camera also has audio listen and talk. I can talk to him through the speaker. I would play this by ear and see how it goes. Xander did well when I would talk to him. He would look and listen and then usually go lay down. BUT.... depending on the dog I could also see this getting them excited by the sound of your voice and making matters worse.

I started using the camera while he was still crated to get him use to my mystery voice.

Maybe I got lucky but this method worked for me. I think the key was slowly increasing his time alone.

Gosh, lexi is abiut 1 1/2 years old and I'd never trust her left in the hiuse alone I can't even take my eyes off her more than a couple minutes let's see, I'm cleaning house today, didn't see, found her in a bedroom eating a tissu she got out of the trashcan ... later found her with my dust rag which she had in pieces I'm glad I have a fenced backyard but when I'm at work I put her in a 10 x 20 kennel area and leave my other dog in the yard I'll eventually trust her like my other dogs after they had matured and earned my trust ... but for now, no way. I had a rottweiler years ago and put a big piece of plywood up to keep him in the kitchen came home after work and he had jumped the half wall and did some damage kind of soured me on trusting young dogs alone in my house

Good luck ...