# Dog Possessive Over Crate!!! Help!!!!!



## stegd34 (May 12, 2008)

To make a long story short...

I just rescued a 6 month old dog from a family that was going to kill him if no one picked him up in 1 hour. He is the brother of my 2 dogs so I had to take him in. We have had him for about a week and he is already a different dog. At his old home to was chained outside on a leash about 4 feet long with a muzzle on I think for most of the day. The family had 4 kids who I think terrorized him. The husband I am 99% positive beat the dog. He is crate trained, and I think he was terrorized in the crate.. 

So I have gotten him used to people. He is ok with kids. The problem I have is he is possessive over his crate. He is ok if an adult walks by his crate, but if a child walks by the crate he grawls.. He doesn't attack or anything, he just grawls.. It's only kids though not adults.. Any ideas how to fix that??


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

Have the kids throw treats when they walk by...even if he growls. 
You need to change his perception to...good things happen when kids pass by. The treats do NOT reinforce the growling.....that is a common misunderstanding. You will start to see less and less defensiveness.


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## shewolf4 (Feb 24, 2008)

Dont throw treat in, gently push them in- throwing is to assertive and he will most likely charge at the kids- not good. Gently push the treat through, talk to him, let him know he is a good boy. Poor guy- I hope the former owners dont have any more dogs- they dont need animals period


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

stegd34 said:


> To make a long story short...
> 
> I just rescued a 6 month old dog from a family that was going to kill him if no one picked him up in 1 hour. He is the brother of my 2 dogs so I had to take him in. We have had him for about a week and he is already a different dog. At his old home to was chained outside on a leash about 4 feet long with a muzzle on I think for most of the day. The family had 4 kids who I think terrorized him. The husband I am 99% positive beat the dog. He is crate trained, and I think he was terrorized in the crate..
> 
> So I have gotten him used to people. He is ok with kids. The problem I have is he is possessive over his crate. He is ok if an adult walks by his crate, but if a child walks by the crate he grawls.. He doesn't attack or anything, he just grawls.. It's only kids though not adults.. Any ideas how to fix that??


Not right now, He may never come out of that problem. I would let the world take a few spins, from your description the dog's world has just done a complete total change for the good. Let's put in human standards, if somebody had you in handcuffs for 6 months and threw in a beating (who knows) hourly/daily/weekly. Then for the teasing part laid you on the floor and had a bunch of blindfolded drunks dancing the polka around you, with the same rules as the beatings. I would take odds on the fact even though you are much smarter than the dog and could obviously understand what has happened it would take you a long time if ever to fully adjust back to normal. I know this is an outrageous comparison(maybe, who knows for sure) but it may help you understand. This is only my way of looking at the problem.


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## stegd34 (May 12, 2008)

shewolf4 said:


> Dont throw treat in, gently push them in- throwing is to assertive and he will most likely charge at the kids- not good. Gently push the treat through, talk to him, let him know he is a good boy. Poor guy- I hope the former owners dont have any more dogs- they dont need animals period


We got our 2 from a shelter, and the shelter put the old owners on a website that I guess shelters can look at. It tells them who not to let adopt dogs, so hopefully they will not get another one.



wvasko said:


> Not right now, He may never come out of that problem. I would let the world take a few spins, from your description the dog's world has just done a complete total change for the good. Let's put in human standards, if somebody had you in handcuffs for 6 months and threw in a beating (who knows) hourly/daily/weekly. Then for the teasing part laid you on the floor and had a bunch of blindfolded drunks dancing the polka around you, with the same rules as the beatings. I would take odds on the fact even though you are much smarter than the dog and could obviously understand what has happened it would take you a long time if ever to fully adjust back to normal. I know this is an outrageous comparison(maybe, who knows for sure) but it may help you understand. This is only my way of looking at the problem.


I totally understand where you are coming from. I know this problem can't be fixed overnight. I am just looking for ideas of where to start. What to start having the kids do, to make him start to understand it's ok.


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

I was rushed earlier and really should have expanded on the 'how to' of this technique. There are some very firm rules for this:

1. Find the distance where the dog begins to growl
2. Work from there...don't get any closer.
3. Toss the treat and walk away
4. Don't look at the dog (challenge)
5. Don't talk to the dog (we're not looking for other responses from the
dog...keep it simple and to the point...children will want to pet or even
add a sit and that is not what we want to happen here).
6. Move closer only when you see he is no longer growling at say 6' 
....now, move to 5', then 4', etc. until you can hand feed.
7. Go slow...don't rush it by trying to skip the intermediate distances. 
That can set your training program backward very quickly.


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## rosemaryninja (Sep 28, 2007)

TooneyDogs said:


> I was rushed earlier and really should have expanded on the 'how to' of this technique. There are some very firm rules for this:
> 
> 1. Find the distance where the dog begins to growl
> 2. Work from there...don't get any closer.
> ...


I agree totally. Do not push the treat into the crate or force him to accept the treat from the child's hand if he isn't comfortable with it. You want to treat him for being calm and comfortable, so you will probably need to do some tossing at the start.

Find his 'safe distance'. The distance from which he is comfortable with a child standing from his crate, ie not growling or tense. Watch the corners of his mouth - they will tell you a lot about how tensed up he is feeling. Now, slowly desensitise by feeding a treat when he is at his safe distance away - feed the treat when he is calm and relaxed, NOT when he has started to act up. Eventually the 'safe distance' will start to decrease. Give it time and a lot of patience. This is the safest and most solid to solve a problem like this.


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## stegd34 (May 12, 2008)

TooneyDogs said:


> I was rushed earlier and really should have expanded on the 'how to' of this technique. There are some very firm rules for this:
> 
> 1. Find the distance where the dog begins to growl
> 2. Work from there...don't get any closer.
> ...



That sounds good.. I will start trying that. Thank You!!!!


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