Scared Yorkie after being in crate
 

Hi. This is my first dog, so I don't know if this is normal. My dog is 15 months, we've had her for approximately 3 months now. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so throughout the weekdays my yorkie has the privelege to be and about our house all the time, and she's so loving with everyone in our family. But, on weekends when our family run errands or go out we put our yorkie in her crate for 3 or 4 hrs. Note: she's crate trained so even when she is out during the weekdays she will go in her crate to sleep or just to get a break from the family for 3-4 hrs. So, when we crate her on the weekends I've noticed that when we come back and open her crate, she will growl at us, or be shaking scared, or prep herself in an attack/pouncing position. We leave her with her kong, and arrive with treats therefore I would expect her to be happy to see us. I just don't know why she reacts like this. Has anybody experienced this? Is 3 hrs. In the crate too long? :confused:

Three hours shouldn't be too long. Would you consider giving her one small room or an xpen to roam a bit while you are out? That may solve your problem. I suppose it depends on her potty habits and whether she is a piddle pad user or strictly outdoors pottier.

If you give her a small room or xpen, put her open crate in it for her to use.

Maybe she is scared and acting like that. I don't know. Is there anywhere else you can keep your dog when you aren't home, like a kitchen or bathroom with a gate across the door and bed and goodies in the room. Good Luck!

When you say "attacking position" do you mean she going into a play bow? Or is it something different?

My Cairn Terrier use to be very territorial with her crate. Especially in the morning when we would go to get her out of it, I would sometimes reach in my hand and she would growl. I would simply make a loud noise to get her attention ans say "NO!". And not get her out, but simply ignore her. She didn't like getting negative attention and then ignored so it stopped quickly.
I'm thinking that maybe she needs to kind of get "up and moving" so to speak at her own pace when you come home. Meaning, if she treats it as her get away spot, maybe she needs time to just wake up and get her bearings when everyone comes home on the weekend and she needs to simply wind down and adjust to all of the commotion.
:animal-pa
Hope that helps!
Good luck!
Gizmo's Mommy

We crate trained her to go potty outside. I think I will try to gate her up in a small open area as suggested. Would I leave her crate in that area when we leave? I guess my only concern is if she needs to go potty, I don't want her going in our house because she usually potties outside. But, then again it might be okay because we don't leave her for too long. Hmmm...I'm still wondering why she would be so scared of us especially when she gets her kong with treats when we leave and a treat when we come back. And thanks for the suggestions and I will update on how she does in the next couple of weekends.

Sounds like a great plan, give her a little space and test her potty skills. Take her out to potty right before you leave, always praise for a good potty, and then gate her in her small area, one with an easy to clean floor in case of an accident. Then take her out to potty immediately when you return.

Yes, definitely put her open crate in the area that you leave her.

Good luck! I'll be interested to hear if this works for you.

maybe instead of going right to her with treats and play and attention as soon as you get home, just open the crate so she can get out and then ignore her, let her come out on her own when she's ready.

Her attacking position is like a pouncing position where she gets low to the ground, ears back ready to lunge. Whenever she plays with her squeaky toys she lays them down, gets in her position and attacks the toy. When she gets in that position towards me or the kids I tell her firmly "no"and then she runs off and will be shaking scared. Am I doing something wrong?

When we come home there is a lot of commotion with 4 kids. We don't force her out of her crate, we open her crate door as soon as we get in and she comes out on her own. Maybe keep her in the crate until things settle down then open the door?

Hard to say for sure without seeing her, but she could be playing with you. Does she get along well with your kids or does she seem overwhelmed often by activity?

I should add that some dogs are more sensitive to even light correction. My younger boy, even when he knows he is being naughty, will feel bad if I say his name in a certain tone. He comes to me for reassurance, ears down. :p

Some dogs become possessive of their crates and this could be what she's doing. If this is what she is doing you need to be careful as she may try to bite someone if they stick their hand in her crate while she's in it.
It would be a good idea to have a trainer come to your home to asses the situation.

Yes, she does get long well with my kids. In fact, she loves my daughter, they lie down on the couch all the time, it's so cute. If she does get overwhelmed, especially when our kid's friends are over, she resorts to her crate. And our kids know and we tell our guests that when she is in there to leave her alone. Perhaps we might be disrupting her when we enter and open her crate up. We don't force her out though. But, maybe she knows that if she comes out that she will get a treat and maybe that is forcing her to come out before she is actually ready to come out. I wonder if i don't open the door to the crate as soon as we get home, but just give her a treat while she is in there. And when things settle down open her door. So, many options. I greatly appreciate everyone's suggestions because this is my first dog and have read books but still don't know for sure what I'm doing.

Yes, she does get long well with my kids. In fact, she loves my daughter, they lie down on the couch all the time, it's so cute. If she does get overwhelmed, especially when our kid's friends are over, she resorts to her crate. And our kids know and we tell our guests that when she is in there to leave her alone.

Perhaps we might be disrupting her when we enter and open her crate up. We don't force her out though, she comes out on her own. But, maybe she knows that if she comes out that she will get a treat and maybe that is forcing her to come out before she is actually ready to come out. I wonder if i don't open the door to the crate as soon as we get home, but just give her a treat while she is in there and when things settle down open her door. So, many options. I greatly appreciate everyone's suggestions because this is my first dog and have read books but I'm still unsure if what I'm doing is right.

lol, sorry for posting the same thing twice. I was thinking about getting a trainer since my husband and I have never owned a dog. And definitely will consider it because we want to nip it in the bud. She is such a sweet dog.

If she goes in on her own she okay with it...where did she come from?
My pup mill rescue went into a crate fine but shook, whined and was terrified in it...
open the door and back up fast...dropping treats...then working up with only positive reinforcement if not
Then try a play pen instead see if that helps...I personally recommend a 4'x4' area.
At my house we have a rule if the dogs are on their bed no one bothers them, no touching, period, no exceptions guests are asked to respect it as well. Their bed is their safety zone if they want attention then get up and come to us...of course my puppy figured out she could use her bed as base after eating my shoes she'd run to her bed and wag her tail at me...but I still left her there and alone...no doggy time out. Same dog loves her "box" she goes to it to rest-there's a bed in it and we no longer have to shut the door at night, she knows to go to bed in her box.Your dog may also be territorial hard to tell consult a behaviorist. May be fear aggression or territorial...?

She might just need behavior modification training so that she learns that she has a firm but very loving leader and has no need to feel territorial about any place in the home. She should not be in control of the crate or anything in your house - you should, as should all members of the family. Really, agressive behavior should not be permitted and allowing her to possess her crate could be dangerous as children can get curious or challenged by a territorial dog and, even when told not to, may reach into a dog's crate and get bitten. Since you probably don't know what kind of life or treatment she had before you got her, she may be regressing to behavior she learned in her former home. If you are not experienced in dealing with dog behavior correction through behavior modification with positive reinforcement, maybe you could do some research and find an experienced trainer to give you some advice on how to proceed. I would not "treat" her when first arriving for now as she may see that she is getting rewarded for her unstable behavior. With a little guidance from a good trainer and a lot of love and regular work with your little dog, you and your family can help this fearful sounding girl learn how to be a stable and happy dog. Best of luck with her.

If you have a iphone, they have an app that will allow you to watch your little one with a webcam to see if there is anything going on when you are not there that maybe causing so much anxiety when you come home. I have a webcam setup at home to monitor Brandi but she mostly just sleeps so I don't watch as often as I used to but it help me to determined if she has separation anxiety which I am happy to say she doesn't. I swear she falls asleep as soon as I walk out the door.

I actually found her in our local classifieds. Apparently, the wife of the couple that was getting rid of their dogs just had knee surgery on both of her knees and so she was unable to care for them anymore while her husband went to work.
We bought Calliope's kennel and she went in it fine, in fact the first couple of days she rarely came out she just observed us.
Her previous owner's I think trained her pretty well, she's not very territorial about food, about toys, about her special beds throughout the house, and I don't get the sense that she is territorial about her kennel. She is pretty good at listening, when we tell her "no" she stops what she is doing and will go about something else. It's only when we've been gone a couple of hours and leave her in the crate that she reacts this way, scared, growling, about to attack. Umm...like I said, she does the attack position on her toys, but she is not shaky scared with us throughout the weekdays when she is out. And she sleeps fine in her kennel at night, that is aprrox. 7 hrs. and she comes out in the morning happy. So, I'm figuring it's not staying in her kennel for long periods of time that is causing her to react this way because she stays in there throughout the day 2-3hrs. to sleep or just chill, when we are home. I think it has something to do with us leaving her alone for those couple of hours.
Like yorkietalkjilly pointed out, I don't know what kind of life she had. I'm thinking that Calliope was taken care of and trained early on as a puppy because she knows not to chew on things that aren't hers, she was potty trained, she knows simple commands, and knows how to stay in a kennel. But, I have a feeling that after the wife had surgery that the dog was neglected. The husband informed me that he had to leave the dogs while at work and that's why he wanted to quickly rehome their dogs.