Destructiveness Curled

Over the past two years we have had Heart, she has been getting more daring with her destructiveness. At first I blamed it on us not cleaning up enough before going out. Then I thought it was perhaps due to her not getting enough exercise. That thinking has all changed though.

One day Heart had spent the entire day with me while I worked from home, then I took her for a walk. Near the end of the day, in the 45 minutes I was out of the house to pick up the kids, she went on a rampage.

Another day I know the house was dogged down, but she still got into a basket and a bin of toys. The bin she figured out how to get the lid off. The basket she somehow pulled out from under a low shelf and wrecked a pair of Sue’s riding glasses.

We had finally had enough. We started crate training her. At first it was small steps. We had the assembled crate in our living room and she ate meals in there. For the first meal in the crate, it was hard to convince her to go in, but she eventually did. Now she eagerly heads in.

We did the meals in the crate for a couple weeks, then one afternoon I saw Heart sniffing around the house looking for treats. She even went in the crate looking for one. I gave her lots of praise for that.

We decided to step up the training a bit, but first we had to get something comfy in the crate for her. The kids and I went to Bosley’s and managed to find a bed that was cushy, and fit in her crate perfectly.

It seems to be working. One night I was sitting in front of the tv after the kids had fallen asleep and noticed Heart wasn’t on her bed. I checked all her usual spots in the house to flake out, but she was nowhere to be found. I even checked the office in the basement, but nope. Sure enough she had made her way into the crate on her own and had curled up.

Since that night I have seen Heart in the crate many times, she has even slept in there all night instead of on the couch like she usually does.

The next step is to leave Heart locked in the crate while we leave the house for short periods, gradually making our time out f the house longer. A long process for sure, but hopefully this will eventually curb her destructiveness.