Agility, I am aware not to use the crate to punish. I also did not plan to use the crate-in-the-basement as isolation. It was just a nice place to put it, where all her stuff can be and a play area. I have never had a dog that would not go into a crate willingly, and stay by itself. Just lucky to this point, I guess

There are obviously issues with Dottie that we do not know. She is eager to please, and seems to be intellingent. We are successfully and consistently ignoring her jumping, and already we can see a difference. She has a tendency to play very rough if we don't watch it.

We do have her in a crate in the kitchen now. She is happy if she can see and hear us. If we go upstairs, she gets anxious after a few minutes. When she quiets down, we then speak to her.

Borzoi, Not sure how well the crate as a dinner box will work right now, as she is off her food. I take her to vet Wednesday. What do you do with them when they are not in the crate? I am unwilling (no flack please) to let her be loose to potentially potty in the house... then we will have to undo THAT. We don't have a fenced yard, so I cannot just turn her out.

Right now we are trying to get some sort of schedule. Since she is not a puppy, with the puppy-bladder, I was thinking I would not to have to take her out as often... maybe I was wrong?

1. Take outside until she potties; if after 10-15 minute walk she has not gone, back into upstairs crate (we have always used "Go in your house" so we think of it as house, not cage or jail.) Take out again in 30 minutes.
2. Play in basement, fetch, water, food if that time (though as I said she is off her food)
3. walk for about 10 minutes or until she goes
4. back into upstairs crate. She gets pup-peroni (yay we found a treat she loves) when she goes into the crate, and at various random times when she is being quiet, to reinforce the good behavior.
5. repeat in a couple of hours. (I now realize I should maybe take her out more often?)

We are also taking a couple of longer (about a mile each) walks a day for exercise. (great for me, too!!)

I thought when crate training, you remove dog from crate and immediately go to the potty area (ie outside for us) If she potties you play a while, eat, or etc, in the house, then walk again and put her back in crate. If she does not potty, she goes back into crate. Then they eventually get that the whole house is the crate. If they don't soil their house, and you don't give them opportunity to soil yours, they learn to go where you want them to go. At least this is how I have always done and read about this in the past, though we were dealing with puppies, and not 1+ year old dogs.

I have hopes for her, but we all have some learning to do! I also a) tend to want 'my mother's perfectly behaved cocker spaniel behavior' immediately, and b) forget that we have had her for less than 48 hours, and we are all still in shock from all the changes!

Thanks again everyone for all the advice! Even though I have had pets for years, it is always good to have info so I don't make the same mistakes!