Greta won't get in her crate anymore

[3CaniBellisimi]

Could Greta be telling you that she doesn't need to be crated anymore?

When my dog Tesoro was a puppy, I crated him at night and if I had to go out for errands during the day because he was a destructive chewer as a pup. I do work from my home; so most of the time, I'm home and my dogs are supervised and uncrated. But when Tesoro was a pup, even though he had plenty of chew toys, he'd go chew on the couch [he destroyed a nice sofa and ripped it to shreds] and he'd chew on everything in sight if he wasn't crated and was unsupervised.

However, when Tesoro was about 1yr and 6 months old, he was giving me trouble about going in the crate. He didn't want to go in the crate and was kind of telling me he didn't want to go in there. I checked his crate and it hadn't been soiled. Since it was an oversized crate, he hadn't physically outgrown the crate dimensions.

But, psychologically, Tesoro had outgrown the need for a crate. So I tried leaving the house to go to the post office and left him uncrated. I came home and nothing was chewed up, nothing was destroyed, and there were no messes whatsoever. So each day I left the house with him uncrated and increasing the number of rooms to which he had access for longer periods to test him. Each time, there was no destruction and no messes. I'd find that Tesoro would sleep on the new couch when I was gone (I allow him on furniture) and nothing was damaged. So I quit using a crate for him because he could be trusted to not break into things or destroy things. He seemed to outgrow his puppy destructive behavior so I quit using the crate for him and all is fine.

I do realize that some dogs must be crated because I have another dog Elsa who requires it. She gets horrible separation anxiety and I crate her anytime I leave on an errand or appointments because she will destroy my house and has done thousands of dollars of damage if uncrated. Elsa is an adult and she will always need the crate.

So perhaps Greta is being like Tesoro was? Maybe she is politely trying to give you the message that she can be trusted and that she doesn't wish to be crated?

Please let us know if you figure out this situation with Greta.

Best regards,
Anna Lisa

Attached is a photo of 2 of my dogs: Elsa and Tesoro on St. Pat's Day 2003