A Comfy Place -- March 15, 2012

Last evening, as I came up to my home office, Bing came in and went into his crate next to me. This is typical. The crate door is always open and over time he has learned that this is a comfy place.

But last evening, Cyan, my almost 4-year-old, came in and closed the door on his crate and latched it. She thought it was funny. She also liked having control over him because he is barely tolerant of her and it frustrates her.

What is astonishing is that I wasn’t paying attention (I knew she did this, but was busy doing office things and didn’t process what was going on) and left the room. I went downstairs and while we were all in the kitchen, it occurred to me that Bing’s ever-presence was missing. “Where’s Bing?” I wondered out loud.

“OMG he’s in his crate!” I recalled…Pete went up and released him and he came flying down, all excited and happy.

 

This should be no big deal for a dog…it really should be just a normal event.

For Bing, the dog with what I can only describe as claustrophobia, this is HUGE.

He didn’t make a PEEP. No whining, no crying, no scratching at the door. Amazing.

Bing is a very cool dog…he loves to work, loves to be a demo dog, loves to agility and rally, freestyle and Nosework, and especially Treibball.  But he has never been very crateable. I have worked hard to get to a point where he can barely tolerate being crated at trials. It isn’t pretty but we manage, mostly. The car is still a big issue and we never leave him in there, ever. He’s chewed too many seatbelts and is only createable (barely) when the van is not moving.

Obviously he realizes now that the crate at home is a GOOD place.

Wow. Never thought I’d see the day!

Yay for Bing!

Bing Blog 59