On 21 Jan 2007 09:49:51 -0800, wrote:

Hello everyone,

I'm so happy to have found this group. It's been quite a while since I
was on Usenet.

We have a Whippet (Charles) who is going on 2 years old. We got him
this summer from a breeder who decided not to show him anymore. He is
my 2nd Whippet, though the first is not here anymore.

Since Charles was trained as a show dog, he was crate trained and used
to being handled. However since being at our house he has developed a
major problem. When we put him in the crate and we are around, he's
fine. However, the moment we leave the room, or worse, the house, he
completely freaks out. He starts chewing at the crate, chewing at the
door, and eventually has an accident in the crate. We are to the point
where we are afraid to go anywhere because when we get back we'll have
to clean the crate and give him a bath.

We have tried putting him in the crate most of the day (my wife is a
stay-at-home mom so he goes out at 8am, noon, 3pm, and then after
dinner he comes out for the evening) to get him back to where he was as
a show dog, but nothing is working. The crate we use is the same size,
shape and color as the crate he was trained in, so it's not unfamiliar
to him.

My wife set up a video camera to capture his behavior and I've posted
it to my website. Please help. We cannot continue to come home to a
poopy crate/dog to clean up. If we cannot solve the problem, we are
going to have to send him back to the breeder.

I am hoping someone who has experience with whippets will answer,
because they aren't like other types of dogs and many times don't
respond the way say a retriever may respond.

The video is located here (its about 4 minutes long - but he does this
for nearly an entire video tape):

http://www.fusiondigitalproductions....yCharles-1.wmv

Do you have other dogs, or is Charles now any only dog? If he's by
himself, that could very well be the problem. Whippets generally do
better in multiple-dog homes than as single dogs. It's possible that
Charles' problem is separation anxiety, or maybe it is the crate
that's causing the anxiety. Putting him in the crate most of the day
"to get him back to where he was as a show dog" is not going to help
the situation, and the fact that it's the same type of crate he was in
at the breeder's is irrelevant, because he is now in a different
environment. If he's an only dog at your house, this is probably the
first time he's been alone, without other dogs around, and that's
going to require some adjustment for him. One way to find out whether
the anxiety is due to the crate or to being alone is to leave him
loose in the house and leave for a short period of time. You can also
observe his behavior in the house while you're home - does he follow
you from room to room? (This one isn't foolproof, as Whippets are
usually Velcro dogs and often follow their humans around.) What
happens if you go into another room where he can't see you - does he
whine and get agitated? If he really has separation anxiety, you can
either train him to accept being alone (get Patricia McConnell's book
"I'll Be Home Soon"), or you can get another dog.

Is it necessary to crate this dog while you're gone? If the problem
is the crate and not being alone (one of my former show Whippets, who
was crated extensively at the breeder's, hates being crated but is
very well-behaved loose in the house when we're gone, except for
destrying my bedmaking to get under the covers. But we have a
multidog home.), you could try confining Charles in a room where he
would be safe and unable to do any damage. That can be tricky with a
Whippet, though, because a closed door might exacerbate his anxiety,
and Whippets generally laugh at baby gates (as they're sailing over
them).

Mustang Sally