good for you, kruker.

That's awesome, kruker.

will you keep the name daddy?

Absolutely not. Might name him Hacksaw Jim Duggan. American him up the best way I know how.

We have a pile of old fleeces our dog sleeps on (mostly Phillies fleeces from signing up for credit cards on Opening Day). Anyway, she loves dragging them out of the house and into the yard. I bring them back in and she drags them back out again. What the hell?

when the team is down everybody knows

She's probably thinking "Everytime I bring these jackets outside my human brings them back in. What the hell? Arf arf arf"

Arf arf arf nearly got me.

My dog sleeps on WFC fleece blanket. Makes me tear up seeing her on it.

Anyone have tips on crate training? I've never really done it before. Guy has been fine with my other dog---maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but I get the feeling she's a little down about having another dog in the house---but otherwise seems fine. He isn't housebroken, so need to get him used to the crate until he is. Cried so much and tried to escape when I shut the door on him this morning. My stomach has been in knots since I left him alone. My girlfriend usually works from home, but is out at meetings until Wednesday. Have the dog walker coming to take him out, but man...still worried about him freaking out in the cage. Guy is a real sweetheart though. Can't wait until he can go free range like my other dog.

nope. lock 'em up and don't worry about it. at night i would have a blanket covering the cage. i called the cage 'bed.' they learned pretty quick to go there. never use the cage to punish the animal.

jamiethekiller wrote:nope. lock 'em up and don't worry about it. at night i would have a blanket covering the cage. i called the cage 'bed.' they learned pretty quick to go there. never use the cage to punish the animal.

also a small treat everytime you put him in there is a good idea

all my dogs started to use the crate as a place to feel safe or sleep. Even though I don't have the crate out Brutus still uses the same nook in the kitchen where it used to be.

Yea, been giving him a treat when he walks in. I put a nice dog bed in there and ask him to "go to his room" when just hanging out in the living room together. He goes in there on his own, but starts to freak when me, the gf or the other dog aren't in there with him. Should I keep it closer to me at night so he sleeps in there?

My big concerns are him stressing out, then because I leave the house at 5am, his making noise that wakes up the gf or neighbors.

kruker wrote:Yea, been giving him a treat when he walks in. I put a nice dog bed in there and ask him to "go to his room" when just hanging out in the living room together. He goes in there on his own, but starts to freak when me, the gf or the other dog aren't in there with him. Should I keep it closer to me at night so he sleeps in there?

My big concerns are him stressing out, then because I leave the house at 5am, his making noise that wakes up the gf or neighbors.

being a rescue, you may have to deal with separation anxiety for longer than usual as it's once your dogs trusts that you'll be back is when they stop whining and freaking out when you leave.

but consistency in training is key, so your gf will have to learn to deal with it until he starts to get used to crate and being left alone

kruker wrote:Yea, been giving him a treat when he walks in. I put a nice dog bed in there and ask him to "go to his room" when just hanging out in the living room together. He goes in there on his own, but starts to freak when me, the gf or the other dog aren't in there with him. Should I keep it closer to me at night so he sleeps in there?

My big concerns are him stressing out, then because I leave the house at 5am, his making noise that wakes up the gf or neighbors.

I think you need to build him to be able to go in there when you leave and he knows that the crate is his safe place. Our rescue was crate-trained before we got him and he sometimes will just go sit in his in crate in the other room because he feels comfortable. As soon as I touch my keys or my wife touches her purse, he sprints to the crate. As long as he associates it with good things and not bad, you will be good.

Cool. Yea, I think I might work from home the next 2 days to ease him into it. We'll see when I get home today, I guess.

kruker wrote:Cool. Yea, I think I might work from home the next 2 days to ease him into it. We'll see when I get home today, I guess.

Do you have an iPad? There is an app called Dog Monitor that you can use remotely to see how the dog is during the day. When you ping the iPad, the app will take a picture at that moment and you can listen in to see what the dog is doing. We did that right after we got our dog and confirmed that all he does is sleep.

Interesting. No ipad. Wonder (doubt) I can do it on my Surface.

btw, thanks guys. appreciate it. my other dog i adopted when she was 3 or 4. came completely trained. been over 13 years since i trained a dog and then it was the family puppy.

kruker wrote:Interesting. No ipad. Wonder (doubt) I can do it on my Surface.

I bought a cheap wifi camera from Amazon when I was crate training my dog. It doesn't do audio, though, but still was good for my own peace of mind when I was at the office and leaving him in the crate all day (he did get a break from the dog walker, of course).

Costco actually has a $40 off deal on a similar Samsung camera right now: http://www.costco.com/.product.100234327.html