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| commented answer | Am I doing enough for my dog before, during and after crating?? Thank you, Nancy! Its nice to hear that. Just love him so much!! We may try the room idea soon if we can figure out what room he can't destroy. :) |
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| asked a question | Am I doing enough for my dog before, during and after crating?? I have massive guilt about crating my dog while working. We got him as a 10 week old puppy and had the dog walker come twice - he slept more then though. He's now a 67 pound, 1 year old puppy (we increased the crate size!) He's a hound/lab/staffordshire terrier/pointer mix - has a lot of energy but is pretty good for a puppy. I took him to daycare starting at 7 months until just recently. He had an incident and got put on "probation" - I won't get into all of that, but he basically got too excited when dogs came and left and they would grab him by the collar to put him in a crate at those times, and well, he didn't like that and got into it with another dog who came at him while he was upset. ANYWHO.. that said, I now have to have him home while we're working. I'm gone about 9 hours, and have a great rover walker coming midday. I get up earlier now and take him for a long walk first thing (30-45 minutes), let him stay out of his crate while I get ready, then play catch him in for another 30 minutes before I head out. He's out of the crate for about 2-3 hours before I go to work, back in for 4, gets a 30 min walk, then back in for about another 4 1/2 hours. I walk him when i get home, play outside, give him interactive toys, etc at night - then he sleeps in the crate. I would love to leave him out of the crate, but he has had issues with eating foreign objects (one surgery already) and i'm too worried about him destroying something and choking, for now. So, my question is - am i doing enough? I'm slightly exhausted as it is, but feel bad if he's lonely or bored. My husband's work schedule is longer, so he can't help too much. I know the dog is awake sometimes in there because of a security camera. I can't leave too many toys in the crate other than Kongs which he empties very fast. He destroys other toys. He's just sitting there staring. :( I should note, this schedule is every other week - then my stepsons are with us and home earlier after school - which helps! Would love some feedback or other ideas to tire him out more! thank you! |