AlphaOfGino
New member
One morning after coming home from a 12hr night shift I find my all of Gino's toys on my bedroom floor and when I go to open my closet to change clothes I notice my doors will not slide on its rail. Both of these are red flag to me because I never give all of Gino's toys at once and I block my closet door from Gino. My first reaction: Gino go into my closet and chewed on everything inside of it. Boy was I pissed, worried, but most importantly thankful the doggy God was looking after Gino.
Naturally there are days when Gino (soon to be 6months) cannot be supervised by a human because of work, school, or social life schedules. So I as his main human (I have my brother, mother, and grandparents as back ups) am really really training EVERYBODY, not just Gino but the other Humans in the house as well, that Gino must stay in his crate when he cannot be physically supervised by a Human for the simple fact that it is SAFE! Yes it sucks to be enclosed in a wired box for 1-4hours, but it beats being physically harmed.
I've been training Gino for weeks to stay in his crate without barking. My process is: several times throughout the day I'll lure Gino into his crate, give him a treat, closed the crate door, give him another treat, look away from him by doing something random in the room, if he doesn't bark ill give him a treat, repeat that several times before I actually go out the room, I'll leave the room for a few seconds to a minute or two (gradually increasing my timing), and only returning with a treat if he is not barking. It has been going ok.
Now I've been training my humans by reinforcing the logical reasoning of him being safer in a crate vs roaming freely in my bedroom with only a doggy door enclosing him into my bedroom. I've also been telling that of course he will bark because no one naturally likes being confined but eventually he will stop barking. I've been telling them do not give him attention if he is barking, only give him attention if he is quite and calm (yes, I make sure he is hydrated and had a potty break before being crated). I've been begging them to leave him in his crate if you cannot watch him!
But the humans are resisting the crate more than Gino is. They keep telling me "no its ok leave him out nothing will happen to him", "what can go wrong", "all he does is bark", "we feel bad for him he is like a prisoner". So one night I had to go to work, my brother was going to be off work at 11pm, and my mother was out at a party. My grandpa was ganna be home but he lives in the back house and isnt really interested in watching Gino for hours, he'd rather just peak in to see if G is doing ok and give him potty breaks every couple of hours, which is fine by me. But before I left for work, that whole day they all, except my brother, kept telling me to leave Gino out of the crate because my grandpa would watch him. They said the doggy door was enough to keep safe.
Stupid me I listened to them. I left him out of this crate and let him roam freely in my room with just he doggy door blocking him from leaving my room. I left the lights and tv on. Two of his toys out for him to play. There's nothing G can reach that is small enough for him to choke on. No exposed wires. He does chew on my furniture which i can tolerate. But I do have mirror closet doors. One i blocked with a big dresser, the other I blocked with a bin full of stuffed animals. I left Gino at 6:30pm, my grandpa was scheduled to take G for a potty break and to feed him dinner at 9, and my brother was going to come home at 11pm.
I was stupid because I came home to find out he had pushed the bin aside, rammed his body into the mirror closet door, and chewed on everything that was in the closet (toys, poopy bags, clothes). My brother came home to the mess, questioned my grandpa, and my grandpa had no idea. Only response was "its ok, he's ok".
No NOT ok! I told my grandpa this is the solid proof of why Gino needs to be crated. I told him, what would he have done if the mirror broke on Gino and sliced his neck? What if he chocked on something? What if he cut himself? My grandpa's response: Its ok i would of heard him cry. AND THEN WHAT? No. No, I'm not having it! I'm am for now on strictly enforcing Gino be crated if no human is there to watch him.
Thanks for letting me vent. It's frustrating when everyone is not on the same page as me with training Gino.
Attachments
Last edited:
so happy all are OK
