My puppy escapes her crate. How do I keep her safely inside?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Mice just have a natural ability to escape. The cage you get should be able to be closed securely. Any good quality commercial cage should be fine to keep your mice safe. Good luck and have a nice day!

Poor, Luna, the crate bit her! When you are home, continue to encourage her to be comfortable with the crate. You can try switching out bedding or blankets inside, place it in a different area of the house, or place blankets over it to give it a different feel. When you are home, throw treats inside without shutting the door. Play with toys in and around the crate. Feed her inside the crate. Give her some time before locking her in there again, and I am sure she will come around.

This is a very frustrating behavior to have to deal with. Sometimes invisible fence works. Other times a tie-down or run system is effective. Another solution is do you have a trainer work with you and your dogs in your home to address this issue. Punishment is a tricky method as it has to be done immediately after the behavior in order to be effective as well as it could backfire and cause aggression.

Being only 6 months old, it is safest in a kennel until he gets used to the new routine. It will prevent him from having an accident and destroying things out of bored and possibly ingesting something that may harm him. If you can start getting him used to the kennel before you leave to let him know it is a safe spot that would help. make sure you give treats when he gets in there. Leave him toys as long as he does not destroy or ingest them, and make sure to rotate toys so he does not get bored with the same one every day.

Poor Crash! In most cases, dogs who tear up their crates and try to escape from them during the day have severe separation anxiety. This is a serious problem that will require professional help to treat, so I would recommend getting in touch with a veterinary behaviorist who can evaluate him in person and help you put together a detailed treatment plan to work on his anxiety. This may include prescription medication to help keep him from panicking while you work on training him to be more comfortable by himself during the day. You can search for a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in your area here: www.dacvb.org If you don't have a behaviorist nearby, you could also consider working remotely with a trainer who specializes in this problem, such as Malena DiMartini: https://malenademartini.com/

It sounds like Buddy needs a kennel or a playpen with a top on it unfortunately. Now that he has figured out he can jump out he is likely to continue this behavior because it is rewarding to him. My own puppy discovered he could climb his play pen at a young age! I purchased some thick plastic garden fencing and used it to put a "roof" on his playpen to prevent this. Another option would be a large crate if you want a bigger area for him to play in. They also make very tall playpens for larger dogs, but be sure that Buddy isn't actually climbing the side of the pen before you get one of these!

One option that can work for dogs who like to escape are under ground electric fences. You can purchase one and install it yourself and go through the training or the companies offer an instillation and training service. The dog needs to wear a special collar that detects the fence and will administer a correction if the dog gets too close. Most dogs will respect this system although some dogs will not. I recommend to do some research about these systems and see if they area good match for you. It is very difficult to train a dog not to escape and I don’t know many people who are successful at that. Otherwise never leave Miley unsupervised in the yard as this will elimate her ability to get out. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.