DirectorMan

I'd appreciate it. Thanks. If she has any other tips/suggestions to offer, that would be great as well. I could use all the help I can get.

Vibrating collars have been suggested as replacements for clickers in clicker training for deaf dogs, as well as for getting their attention prior to a command such as a recall. The conventional wisdom is that one shouldn't use them for both purposes as the dog would be confused as to the intent of the vibration. Assuming this is true, for which of the above options would you use a vibrating collar, and what would you use as a substitute for the vibrating collar for the other option? The alternatives to vibrating collars that I have seen on deafdogs.org have their drawbacks, but I can't think of anything better.

I haven't ruled anything out, but for the time being I'll see what we can accomplish without drugs.

No meds at all. We started giving her St. John's Wort a couple of months ago. It may be helping her be a little more calm when she's just hanging around the house, but it hasn't noticeably helped her remain calm in the crate, but then I never expected it to be a miracle cure. I'm hoping that by following the suggestions made on this forum, and by spending a lot more time training her, that I will be able to greatly reduce her issues, if not eliminate them altogether.

Is it possible that the comforter is the trigger? It's always on top of the crate, but I pull it down over the door when I leave to block her from seeing the "demons". Perhaps I'm feeding into her sense of isolation. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Thank you, GentleLake. That's good advice. How would you suggest I approach using the comforter? I could randomize things so that sometimes I put the comforter on and sometimes I don't, but I'm concerned that without the comforter on the crate, she may be fine for an hour, and then suddenly decide to revert to her "barking at shadows" behavior.

Last night I tried spraying the lavender air freshener in Mocha's crate before putting her in. At first I thought that she was going to go ballistic, because she whimpered more loudly and paced back and forth more than before, but strangely enough she calmed down within five to ten minutes. Hmmm... Just now I put her in the crate with her evening meal and kept the door open. After about five minutes I began closing the door bit by bit over the next five minutes. Then I slowly brought the comforter down over the door, which meant she was no longer going to be able to see me. Once she realized that she was beginning to lose sight of me, she stood up, and once the comforter completely covered the door, she began to whimper and pace a bit, but after a minute or so of that, she stopped. I could tell she was still a little anxious, but I decided to slowly make my way out of the room. It's been ten minutes and I haven't heard anything, so I will assume that she's settled down. Mocha is so smart, though that there is the possibility that she will figure out that getting fed in her crate means that I will be leaving her. Keep your fingers crossed.

I just remembered that when I first put her in the crate months ago, I did not put a comforter on it, and she would occasionally bark at the closet door. My guess is that this behavioir ties into her general issues with lights and shadows. She can be fine in the kitchen in the early morning when the sun is first rising, but becomes anxious just an hour or two later and tends to hide between our legs and the cabinet doors. Just another thing to watch out for, I guess.

Thank you waffles and chelstfrox for your advice. Mocha seems indifferent to most things that other dogs like to chew on, other than bones filled with marrow or treats, and it seems that every time I do an internet search for a safe chew toy, somebody has a reason why it may cause broken teeth, gastric distress, etc. Would you folks on the forum care to chime in with your experiences/recommendations? I will try feeding her in the crate and see how that works out, as well as tossing an occasional treat in there and leaving the door open. Currently I have a comforter over the crate. I need to follow your suggestion, chelstfrox and get something dark that is of a lighter material than the comforter, since summer will soon be upon us. I will try staying near the open door when I put her in the crate, but I am concerned that she won't go to sleep as long as I am there, and that when I close the door the anxiety will kick in again, but as my wife says "Nothing beats a failure like a try!".

I would love to test that theory out, but we have two dogs and two cats in the bedroom with us, and Mocha has aggression issues with them. Just one of the many "gifts" that Mocha brought us.

The bedding isn't soiled and I haven't changed my laundry detergent. If either of those items were true I would expect her to pace back and forth in the morning as well, but she doesn't. I have blocked off as much light as I can from coming into the room because she is easily spooked by light and shadows. Could what seems to me to be minor differences in the amount of sunlight that comes into the room in the afternoon as compared to the morning be the cause? The only other thing that I can think of that is different between the morning visit to the crate and the afternoon and evening visits to the crate is that I spray some lavender air freshener on her bedding in the morning.

My dog Mocha is a deaf BC that I adopted four years ago when she was a year and a half old. A few months ago I taught her to stay in a crate. She is in the crate twice during the day and she sleeps in at at night. I always put a treat at the far end of the crate prior to her entering it. A week ago she began exhibiting reluctance to enter the crate in the late afternoon and when I put her to bed at night. She has no problem entering the crate in the morning, though. When I can get her to enter the crate in the afternoon and at night, she immediately paces in the crate, and it can take a half hour to an hour or more of my staying within eye's view before she will calm down and go to sleep. Is she becoming reluctant to enter the crate out of boredom? What kind of training can I do to get her to relax? I've tried Melatonin but it seems to have no effect. I tried Rescue Remedy yesterday, but I'm not sure if it helped, so I'm going to keep testing it with her. I am limited in the amount of exercise I can give her because I blew out my knees a couple of years ago taking her on long walks. I've seen suggestions about leaving her a frozen Kong stuffed with treats in the crate, but I'm worried that she'll go back to being anxious once she's gotten all the treats out of the toy. Any suggestions would be appreciated. BTW, she has lots of issues to deal with, so I hope everyone on this forum will tolerate what will most likely be a lot of postings I'll be making asking for opinions/feedback.