It has been a roller-coaster of a weekend. I didn’t post yesterday because the weather was so beautiful that I spent the day playing with Sadie. Love the blog, but the blog is nothing without spending time with our lady! 🙂

The Good
Potty training is going so well! Sadie is ringing the bells to potty and rarely rings just to play. We have been accident free for days, maybe even a week!
Sleeping at night is so much better, too! Sadie is sleeping well in her crate and will respond to my sleep command if she tries to wake too early. I usually hate Spring Forward (day light savings) because you lose a very precious hour of sleep. Not this year! It tricked Sadie into thinking it was 5am when it was now 6 am! I have big plans for 6:45am tomorrow! 🙂
Walking on the leash is going very well. Sadie loves it and with the gorgeous weather, we take 2 or 3 walks a day! As her confidence builds, she is surging ahead and I see pulling in her future. I’ll have to get on the training for nice leash walking soon.
I just registered Sadie for puppy school, it starts in a few weeks. Lots of training to come.
The Bad & Ugly
Sadie is not doing well when we leave. She has some pretty intense separation issues. It doesn’t have anything to do with the crate. I have done everything you are supposed to do to get your dog to like being in a crate.

It is comfortable. It has toys. I put this cover over the crate to make it den-like. I feed her food inside the crate. She gets treats for going into the crate. She gets treats for being quite in the crate. It is not the crate. She likes the crate. She’ll go inside the crate while we are home, she sleeps well in the crate. She HATES being alone.
I left her for 2 hours today to go and train for the half-marathon. Before I left, we went on a walk and played in the backyard with the frisbee and tennis ball. She was tired. When I left, the crate looked like the picture above. I left the TV on, playing classical music. I left her with a Kong stuffed with a Kong bone.
When I got home, I decided to sneak into the house through the front door. I parked in the driveway and immediately heard Sadie crying! Oh, boy. I pulled into the garage and braced myself for what to expect.


Sadie had chewed up the crate cover. She untied some of the ties and destroyed other areas. Not sure if you can tell, but there was a little blood on the fabric from her chewing… she lost 2 baby teeth in the process! She peed a little in the crate and turned over her bedding. She ate the treat, but only until it got difficult to get more. Once the piece sticking out of the Kong was gone, she gave up. It should have kept her busy for a while, but she didn’t keep at it. She had drooled a ton!
When I let her out, she ran straight to the water bowl and then we went outside. After a hello and play session, we went upstairs for me to take a shower. Sadie was so exhausted, she walked into her crate and went to sleep!
After the shower & lunch, she went back into the family room crate and finished her treat. I let her, so the crate continues to have good associations. Now she is sleeping inside THE crate, minus the cover.

I’m at a loss. We have a vet appointment tomorrow for Sadie’s next round of vaccines. I’m going to talk to him. I don’t want to feel trapped at home and I do not want Sadie stressed out for hours while we are gone. I am thinking about letting her have the family room while we are gone to see if that is better. Marcus thinks that is a bad idea… he repeats, “it’s not the crate, it’s the separation”. He said she’ll destroy our family room if we leave her out to roam. I think he may be right, but what next?
I’d give you a ‘Fistful of Dollars’ to solve this problem! 🙂
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