My dog barkley is a half black lab half german sheperd she has a crate, but she is willing to kill herself to get out. She clawed out, but she scraped her nose, and it bleed for ever. What should I do?

Start with the bleeding. If it still hasn't stopped, start with cold compress. You could try some powdered alum or a styptic stick too. Bandaging a dog is usually hopeless unless you add one of those conical collars.

In most cases the crate is a wonderful tool the dog takes to readily. Pop a 7 week old from a good breeder into a crate, and it quickly learns to love it. Older dogs are slower to accept them, and maybe very resistant if there was past abuse or even if you are leaving it more than half a day at a time. There is just no good way to leave an unattended dog a whole day.

Some dogs just can't be left loose unattended. The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a "safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving itself.

I would not try crating her again. If you can't trust her loose in the house, you might try a tie down. They are just a simple, short length of chain anchored sturdily at one end and a snap at the other. Many dogs do well on them.

I agree. Every once in a while I run into a foster dog who simply can't be crated because they dig until their paws bleed. I tether them with a relatively short piece of cable - like 6 ft - instead of leaving them completely loose.

-Beth