Waffles begins to hide!

Behavioral Issues
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  • M

    Hello again everyone!

    Waffles has made some very very good progress (for those who are new to us and our past with Waffles, visit http://www.basenjiforums.com/showthread.php?12794-Violent-lil-girl!) since the last time we saw you all! She is sleeping through the nights much better, no longer crying about 90% of the time when I come home from work/lunch to let her out in 4-5 hour periods, and she is learning more and more that the house is no place to go to the bathroom.

    We do however have an issue with her wanting to go INTO the crate at lunch and in the morning when we have to leave…

    Since she is now 11-1/2 weeks old, she is still a hyper little girl and wants to play 24/7, especially coming inside from a fresh walk outdoors. Here's how it is going when we bring her in one last time before crating her:

    1. Once she goes to the bathroom, we carry her up the stairs to the 3rd floor (since she is still too little to run up and down the stairs on her own) to our apartment.
    2. Inside now, we let her free in the living room (her main play area) to run around before we crate her.
    3. She then proceeds to "pretend" to play, before a few seconds later running under our credenza/buffet hutch and hiding.

    We have to pull her out from underneath because she will not budge, I believe she has caught onto knowing that she's about to become crated.

    She is fed water/food inside of her cage every day for every meal, to get her comfortable...but that seems to have its limits. She is also given a rotation of Puppy Treat spray/cream cheese in a Kong for going inside of the crate, but she is done being lured inside. She knows what is about to happen.

    So the crying is for the most part done, but she will not go inside on her own. Any suggestions would be extremely helpful, thanks!

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  • eeeefarmE

    When do you put the Kong in the crate? If just before you will lock her in, I would change the procedure. Put the Kong and perhaps a couple of other treats inside the crate and lock her OUT awhile before you plan on leaving. Let her know it is there, let her want to get at it. Then open the door and let her have the treats, but remove the Kong. Don't lock her in, but play with her for a moment or so, then put her in with the Kong. Hopefully this will help with the "hiding".

    Also, have you trained a "kennel" command? If not, do so and ask her to go in fairly often, not locking her in but instead just giving her a treat. Don't initially ask her to "kennel" when you are going to lock the door, only when you aren't. Eventually…..and with patience.....you will work up to sometimes locking it and sometimes not, but always rewarding her for going in. At least, that is the way I would proceed.

    If the above doesn't work for you and she continues to hide, I wouldn't give her the opportunity. I'd arrange things so I didn't let her loose after returning to the house from the walk. No point in "practicing" a bad behaviour.

    "In order to get along with a Basenji, you have to be at least half as smart as the dog!"

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