Laser pointers. We used to foster "hard-to-adopt" (because their former owners left them locked in a damn crate about 20 hours a day and ignored them until they went insane and just needed to spend 6 months with a real human/doggie family) cases for German Shepherd Rescue. We sent every fosterling to his/her new home with a laser pointer. Even if you are tired/sick/disabled/whatever, you can always delight and exercise the pets.
I know this happens but it grieves me to my heart's core. Which isn't easy to get to. D'G has a laser pointer, but I'm not sure how the batteries are.
Doggie could get more stimulation, but can mostly spend 24/7 with me. The very idea of crating a dog that long hurts my tummy. I crate him when he seems hyper stimulated/ barky, or when he's tried to grab food. For an hour or so, unless it's night and I'm ready to sleep.
Then tough love ensues. I take him out first. He knows when I'm in high dudgeon.
People who are almost never home should not have dogs. But they don't realize that, so they get a dog anyway. The dog gets left alone all day and is lonely and damages some property, so then he gets left alone all day in a crate. Any time he gets let out he goes completely apeshit, so he ends up spending more and more time in the crate even when folks are home. Eventually they decide the dog is a BAD DOG so off to the shelter he goes.
We are almost always home (Hubby telecommutes, I have a flex schedule so I stay home the one day in 2 weeks he needs to go downtown.) And we have 3 children and 2 dogs. It's dog heaven at our house.
His crate is open unless I need to quiet him. Not often, but sometimes he get barkily overwrought. But sometimes he just goes and goes. I've learned to tolerate his noise, mostly. The crate's got a well-fitted pillow. He sleeps there by choice, sometimes. I watch the dynamic. He likes pillows.
Dogs DO like their crate if it has not been used in an abusive way. It is their nature to want to retreat to a smallish, enclosed "den" type of shelter to rest. Unfortunately, stupid humans are able to twist this normal inclination. "Gee, he likes to sleep in the crate for several ours at a time. Why not just lock him in while I leave the house for 18 hours at a time?"
Perrine likes laser pointers, but sometimes all she wants to do is watch it move, not chase it. (Other times she'll chase it very enthusiastically, including up the wall.) She knows the sound of the switch on my laser pointer, and if she hears that or sees me pick it up, she'll start looking for the dot.
But it seems that sometimes she wants something to chase, and sometimes she wants somone to chase her. And in the latter case, sometimes I can get her to change her mind and sometimes I can't.
(no subject)
(no subject)
Doggie could get more stimulation, but can mostly spend 24/7 with me. The very idea of crating a dog that long hurts my tummy. I crate him when he seems hyper stimulated/ barky, or when he's tried to grab food. For an hour or so, unless it's night and I'm ready to sleep.
Then tough love ensues. I take him out first. He knows when I'm in high dudgeon.
(no subject)
We are almost always home (Hubby telecommutes, I have a flex schedule so I stay home the one day in 2 weeks he needs to go downtown.) And we have 3 children and 2 dogs. It's dog heaven at our house.
Crating
Re: Crating
(no subject)
But it seems that sometimes she wants something to chase, and sometimes she wants somone to chase her. And in the latter case, sometimes I can get her to change her mind and sometimes I can't.