Oliver Files - A New Blankie!!!

 

 

Winter is coming on here in central Iowa and at some point we're going to have to put a bed in his crate so he will stay warm during the night; we keep the house at 58F during the night.

 

He was being a pest earlier so I decided to perform a social experiment with him, lock him in his crate with a polar fleece blanket, to see what his reaction would be.  He did good, he spent a few minutes rearranging the blanket and proceeded to go to sleep.  This is good because I was concerned about him shredding his new dog bed that I'll be making for him; basic polar fleece with polyfill inside to give him a couple of inches between him and the metal floor of the crate. 

 

In case your worried about his being isolated during the day while in his crate, don't I'm a full five feet away from his crate working on the computer plus he won't be in there for long, during the day he spends anywhere from five minutes to four hours in there all depending on what errands I have to run.

 

I just wanted to see what his reaction was to the blanket, it took Angel a good five years before she would tolerate anything in her crate other than her food bowl, we'd give her a blanket and in the morning find it outside of her crate and her sleeping on her back legs straight up in the air!  Now she sleeps on a polar fleece dog bed I made for her, again with the legs straight up in the air.

Oliver Files - 100713

For the most part he's been a really good boy today, and then there's this bit that started a few minutes ago that's earning him crate time!  He just can't seem to let the cat alone.

Day Three Morning Three - Don't Eat the Cat!

Thomas just got Oliver on the nose and real good!  Ollie yelped and backed off.  Round one of don't eat the cat is over.

Oliver - Yesterday morning in his crate. 

This morning he didn't want to go back into his crate, can't say that I blame him, and he refused to eat his food in his crate, again can't say that I blame him.  So we brought his food bowl into the kitchen and John gave him a handful of food to show Ollie what it was, ok lets stop here.  I've NEVER had a dog before that didn't care if it ate it's food or not.  Most of our dogs have been of the variety, weimeraner, that inhaled their food and so fast it was blinding!  

The good news is Morning Three his obnoxiousness is down a whole fifty percent, he's jumped on me only once this morning.  We are still working on coordinating potty breaks, and his need to push Angel (fifteen year old twelve pound sheltie) down onto the floor, I'm so afraid he's going to break her back.

I'm sore all over from his sheer strenght and size, and from walking him.  So overall this was a good decision.  Hubs and I are taking turns walking him and are building up for one long walk a day, in addition to his three to five short walks.

How to Keep a Dog Crate from Squeaking

First start by putting a piece of plywood under the crate, over the old uneven wood floor, to create an even surface.

Second cut out a piece of cardboard roughly the size of the pan for the crate.  This cardboard will go between the metal grate bottom of the crate and the pan, NOT inside of the pan.

Insert your cardboard noise buffer!

Insert crate pan and line it with a bed, matt, etc., for your favorite pooch.  And he didn't fight us on going into the crate because it didn't squeak!