Drying off the Dogs

I'm so proud of Gypsy, as you may remember she really hurt herself when I left her crated while I was out for an evening back in October. She freaked out, banged up her nose and head, really beat up the crate, man it was an overall disaster! She carries a scar over her left eye from it, poor little girl.

Lately I have been working with her; having her crate for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, when I am home. She is now going right in when I command "Crate". If I hear her digging at the door I call out "Quit" and she will settle down. I knew she liked her crate, she will go in it and lay down when the door is open, but it was locking her in that freaked her out. Knowing that winter was closing in I needed to solve this problem, when you get really wet snowy dogs it is the best place to let them dry off.

Jake & Mollie are both very content to settle in their crates for this purpose, I just needed to get Gypsy to understand her crate is safe, she will get to come out and I get to save my furniture and carpeting!

She will now stay calmly locked in the crate for up to 30 minutes, kind of standard drying time around here. Then they each get a good rubdown with a towel and we are back in business. I have no need to crate her through the night or while I'm out as she completely respects our home. She has been left for up to 8 hours with no mishaps. She is really coming along, she no longer puts her feet up on the counter, broke that habit in about a week. She only got in the garbage once...what a buzz that was.....Delilah the Gypsy, wonder dog extraordinaire!