We spent Halloween weekend with the grandbabies and we had a BLAST! We took our two new rescue dogs, Tank and Moon, trick or treating with us and so many people commented about how well behaved they were. I guess they didn’t noticed that Tank and Moon were giving Brian and I a pretty severe bicep workout. Those rascally pups wanted to get near EVERY kid, and sniff EVERY tree, curb, adult, and treat bag.

We worked very hard all evening keeping them right next to us. Their previous owners clearly never taught them how to “heel.”

A couple of days before Halloween, we were gone for a couple of hours and, when we came home, we saw that Tank had eaten Brian’s Bible. That was extremely upsetting because Brian has had that Bible since he was 20 years old (it had been a gift from his mom and dad), and he read it every morning.

Tank had gotten up on the sofa (where he’s not allowed), gotten ahold of the Bible (Brian kept it on the end table), and did so much damage that we later wondered if maybe we should have named him Satan. Moon, on the other hand, had managed to lock herself in the laundry room. Or…did Tank lock her in there? We will never know!

The following day, we ran two errands. One of them was to Tractor Supply to get two dog crates. When we arrived back home, we found both dogs in the basement. That was the second time Tank had opened a door by turning the handle, and pulling the door inward – toward him.

When he did it the first time, I was on the other side of the door, watching the doorknob mysteriously turn. I thought we had a ghost! But, then the door opened and Tank pranced out, head held high, proud as can be. He usually acts like a big oaf but he’s very smart. He just likes to play dumb (like after he eats stuff he’s not supposed to!).

When we got the crates home and assembled, both Tank and Moon immediately walked into them. It was pretty clear they’d been crated before. So, we put new beds in the crates for them, along with their toys. Last night, we had choir practice at church. So, we put the dogs in their crates, closed them, and told them we’d be back soon.

We have a doggy cam in the living room. We weren’t 50 feet down the street when Brian whipped out his phone to see what the dogs were doing.

Tank was trying to bite through his cage and he was whining loudly. Afraid he would hurt himself, we immediately turned around, pulled back into the driveway, and ran up the sidewalk. When we got inside, we found that Tank, in less than 5 minutes, had already shredded his brand new, fluffy bed.

We let both dogs out of their crates (I told Tank, “You won!”), and dog-proofed the living area after closing all of the bedroom doors. We hoped Tank would be more interested in his toys than he was in opening more doors.  Needless to say, we were very late for choir.

While we were gone, Tank knocked down the security system box, which was screwed into the wall six feet high. Then, he chewed it open, got a battery out, bit a hole in that, and left a small puddle of battery acid on the tile. He was hiding under the dining room table. That’s where he goes when he knows he’s been bad.

I immediately checked his mouth. He stood there like an obedient dental patient, with his mouth wide open, letting me inspect his tongue and all the nooks and crannies. No battery acid burns. And, he was acting fine so I didn’t think he’d swallowed any of it. (And, he’s still fine today.)

Moon LOVES the crates! She gets in both of them all of the time, naps in there, plays in there, etc. But, we obviously have some training to do with Tank.

Here is Moon hanging out right now in Tank’s crate:

I have covered the crates with blankets to make them more like a “den,” and we are feeding both dogs in their crates, and closing the crate doors when we do. We’re working right near the crates, and will be putting them in for a few minutes with the doors closed every couple of hours or so – but with us still being in the same room.

If you have any unique crate-training tips, please post them in the comments box below. We sure need ’em! Tank is 2 1/2. Moon is 1 1/2. 

Oh, and I told our son, Frank, what Tank did. Frank said his dog, Opal acts out when he’s gone, too. She eats the buttons off his shirts. 😉

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Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.

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