When I took Glindy on my business
trip last week, she was a little overwhelmed by all the newness. I
noticed this mostly from her loss of crate training.
When we first rescued her from the SPCA, she used to follow me from
room to room, and never let me out of her sight. Over time, she
became a little more confident when I was out of sight, but never
really lost her separation anxiety. If I ever left her home alone,
she'd tear things up, eat through walls and insulation, rip
curtains, and break house training. Overall, it was a rough time
for all of us.
Create training resolved a lot of issues. She can now be left alone
at home for up to five hours at a time. I won't leave dogs alone
and locked up for longer than that, but I imagine she'd be fine a
bit longer in an emergency. She likes her crate, and will often
sleep in it even when I'm home, especially if she wants a little
peace and quiet in a darkened spot out of the way of household foot
traffic.
Since she's happily crate trained at home, for the trip, I bought a
Portable
Pet Home. It's a soft-sided crate that I can put in the car,
open in the hotel, and (theoretically) put her in for an hour if I
wanted to go swimming in the hotel pool.
Unfortunately, she didn't want to go into the crate. Even though I
could get her to pop into it briefly for a treat, she grew quite
upset every time I closed the front flap. She clearly thought I
might abandon her there in that strange place, and preferred to
follow me from room to room, which she hasn't done in years.
In fact, even though she isn't allowed to sleep on the bed with me
at home, she seemed so in need of contact that I let her sleep in
the bed with me at the hotel. I'm sure the maids appreciated that,
but the important thing is that it really helped Glindy settle
in.
My one concern was that she'd over-generalize, and decide that she
is now always allowed to sleep on the bed. I watched carefully for
this assumption when we got home. To my surprise, she immediately
reverted to her normal behavior: she slept in her crate downstairs
whenever I was in my computer room, and slept in her doggy bed
upstairs when I went to sleep.
Whether one ascribes it to a dog following familiar patterns, or to
thinking that she understood that the hotel was a different
circumstance, she clearly saw a distinction. Once again, I find
myself proud of my smart and loyal dog.