[tiffnbrown]

I recently rescued a 1 year old australian shepherd/corgi mix from a local shelter. When he is around people, his behavior is great. He does not mess in the house, gets along with everyone, including two other aussies, and is calm and quiet. The first day he was left alone, he was gated in the computer room. He scaled the fence and proceeded to tear down all of the curtains, pee on every piece of furniture, and defecate on my female dog's bed (I think out of passive aggressiveness b/c she bosses him around). I began crating him in a metal crate and video taped him to watch his behavior. He demolished the cage. He was then placed in a shepherd plastic crate and has since moved down to a sheltie-size crate. Every day he defecates in the crate and take his towel or newspaper and uses it to push the feces to the corners. He scratches trying to get out, such that he shifts the crate across the room and usually in a 180. He also had a elizabethan collar on from when he was nurtured, and he actually flipped the collar inside out so it was overtop of his body and he proceeded to chew all the plastic that connected to his collar, but has never touched his sutures. We have tried "pro-quiet" from the vets, music, tv, putting another dog in the same room, separating him from all the other dogs, chew toys (all of which he has destroyed), etc. The weird thing is that he can be left in a car while shopping or eating and he is fine. He does not terrorize the vehicle, only the house. He is an awesome dog, but I am just trying to figure out a way to get him to stop defecating in his crate. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[brownsa]

I rescued a 3 pound female Yorkie and she is so sweet, calm and submissive. But she whines a lot when she is alone. She does not tear up her crate but if she poops or pees in it, she does all she can to get away from the "mess". And that is when the "drama" begins. She has a cry that gets very loud for such a tiny dog and she wakes up at 4 am and cries. I started taking her to work with me and it helped a lot. She was so tired when she got home that she hardly wanted to eat. But I added Nutrical to her dry food and that helped too. Also, I took her out for at least one long walk per day even though she would get tired and start to walk slow. Your dog needs more walking and running time. Do you know how to skate? If you do, put on some roller blades and take your dog out to let it run while you skate. I can't do that with my dog because I will end up dragging her. There is nothing like exercise to cure what ails a dog. It makes them too tired to misbehave.

[RL4422]

Brownsa is right, exercise is a big help for this type of solution. However the unfortunate truth is this disorder is very hard to cure. I helped a dog once that had jumped onto the owners new black mercedes and broke through the garage windows in the door (those skinny windows 5 feet high). It was bleeding and horrified at what it had done. They don't know what they are doing when they are doing it. Although it ruined the paint and destroyed the garage and itself the owners were still very willing to help their dog.

The solution was to leave the dog in a safe place (nothing glass, sharp edges etc) for 10-15 minutes at a time. Each time you come back, play and cuddle with the dog for at least 30 minutes before trying again. Give them a treat when you put them in the room. Don't give a long "goodbye" that will only make it worse. You would need to take a couple days of work for this. They need to be reassured time after time that you are coming back! They panic that maybe you left them, and are never coming back. When you leave for long periods of time (Vacations etc) extra care will be needed. This disorder will never completely go away.