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treyball3 · Sep 6, 2007, 11:54 AM

My 7 month old Beagle/Boston Terrier mix is starting to rebel against her crate. We've had her since she was 9 weeks old and have been crate training from the start. She was doing great with it. We would grab a treat and say "kennel" and she would run into the other room and go right into her kennel no problem. Lately we have chase her around and wrestle with her just to get her in there. We're pretty much on the same schedule everyday and she seems to know when we're getting ready to leave. We get treats and she just runs and hides under the couch or table. Its very hard to catch her and when we do she turns over on her back so we can't pick her up. Sometimes she wrestles around so much its hard to even grab her. Once we put her in the crate she does pretty well and doesn't wine or bark much. Any ideas on how we can get her to be okay with going into her crate again?

labman · Sep 6, 2007, 01:44 PM

It is quite obvious she thinks she is a big girl now and in charge. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete For more on being top dog, see Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position, Letting your dog know you are the boss

If she isn't spayed yet, do so immediately. The crate problem could be part of the flaky behavior as her season approaches. Once started, you will have to go through the whole hassle.