My wife and I adopted a now 16 week old mini Australian Shepherd 4 weeks ago. She had spent a month with a foster before we got her where she learned to spend the night in the crate (8-9 hours), mostly potty trained, and a couple simple commands. We usually keep her out of the crate for 1-3 hours at a time with naps in between of 1-3 hours. She overall has done well in the crate with some exception… but she is young. Also, she did break a canine a week ago that exposed the pulp where the vet recommended extraction only if she is showing signs of pain, infection, or decrease in eating, which fortunately, she is not showing at this time. Just today, I did allow her to simply be in her play pen for an hour with minimal interaction with me allowing her to bark and eventually mostly relaxing while being bored. She is also getting very aggressively snarly and bitey with our hands and leash the past week plus but giving her something else to chew on does help part of the time.
The problem we are currently having the past 2-3 days is that she has been getting very barky and whiny in her crate during the afternoon pawing at the door and sides as well as biting and licking the cage when we put her in. We make sure she is fed, watered, and pooped/peed yet she still is barking and whining.
So, what should we do? Take her on a car ride (calms her right down), let her bark it out (which makes my wife feel like a bad dog mom), spend more time with play, or something else?
submitted by /u/Aromatic-Arm-9774
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