destructive behavior in the crate :(

[Lisa & Greg]

One of our 6-month-old goldendoodles, Noodles, has gone through five crate mats, two in the last two days. The first few she would just tear and get into the filling, but the last two times she tore into the mat covers and ripped the inner foam pads to pieces.

We are trying different types of mats and also have toys and a blanket in the crate to occupy and comfort her. She is always exercised and tired when she goes into the crate at night, and she always goes in without a fight.

It's obvious there's something going on with her - she's frustrated or something - but right now I don't know what to do.

Anyone who has had experience with this have any advice for me? Could it be that the crate is too small for her now? She can lay down OK but can't stand up fully. I tend to not think that's the issue because she loves to be in small spaces - she still crawls into a cage-like area under the metal and wood coffee table in our family room as she did when she was much smaller.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A crate should always be large enough for the dog to fully stand up and turn around. However, that probably doesn't have much to do with her tearing up her crate pads. Does she have appropriate chew objects in the crate? 

How much time does she spend there?

[Lisa & Greg]

Yes - as I mentioned we always have chew toys in the crate for her. She only spends the night in the crate - about 7 hours.

[Lisa & Greg]

I should mention that neither of our puppies has been spayed yet. We plan to spay them this month. Not sure if that might be a factor...

[Carol and Banjo]

Banjo loved his crate and a couple of chew toys, but did not want any type of mat or blanket in it. He preferred the hard, cold floor. Maybe that's the problem?

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I think the crate is too small. She should be able to stand up and move around. Also, my dogs did not like any mat or blanket or anything in the crate with them. It made them too hot. We actually stopped crating Fudge after a couple of months and Vern after a couple of weeks at night and just kept them in our bedroom, with the door shut. They both preferred sleeping on the cold, hard floor. Maybe try uncrating her at night and see what happens.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I agree that she could use a larger crate if you plan to continue crating her overnight. If  you watch dogs sleep that aren't crated, they get up and move and stretch during the night so it is important that she be able to stand completely upright and make turns in the crate.  But I don't think it has anything to do with the shredding.  Tara too preferred laying on the floor of the crate and would push her mat aside so we finally just removed it.  It could be that even though she has been exercised she is not getting enough to sleep through the night and she is just bored and finds shedding things to be great fun. Dogs seem to be natural born shredders. I would just remove the mats and/or try a bit more exercise before bedtime.

[Christy&Riley]

Riley tore up a few pads so we switched to towels. At first she would push the towel to the side or chew on it so we removed it and had nothing but chew toys in the crate. I felt bad but she didn't leave us much choice. Now at 7 months she will finally lay on the towel in the crate. Just yesterday thought of trying another pad or doubling up the towels. For Noodles, I would just give her only chew toys for now and try again later. I think it's hard for us to comprehend sleeping on a cool floor but they are so warm blooded it probably feels good.

As for crate size, we jumped up to a large crate with no divider back in September. She can fully stand and has room to walk around a bit. Kind of a mini apartment. Towel at one end and toys at the other. She never had crate accidents so we felt safe giving her that extra room.

[Christy&Riley]

Here's a picture in case it helps.

[Kyoko]

I also do not think the crate size contribute to her behavior.  Charlie never chewed or tore things, but Pinot Grigio ( Standard Poodle )does. He did tore a fleece blanket, and small rug. So he now has large beach towels in his pen. He does not  bother those and seems to like them.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I don't think the size of the crate has much to do with her destroying her mat, although the crate may be too small for her size. Its fairly typical for puppies, even older puppies, to destroy their mats. Both Lucy and Oscar did. Lucy got over it at about 16 mos. and I still haven't reintroduced Oscar to a crate mat. BTW, they both seem perfectly comfortable on their plastic crate bottoms. Wintertime is really the only time they sometime prefer warmer/softer surfaces.

[Lisa & Greg]

Thanks everyone for your help. I was thinking of just having Noodles sleep in the crate with no mat or even starting to sleep in our bedroom or one of our DDs' rooms. I don't think she'd do well apart from her sister Bootes though. My DH got a new mat today so we'll see how it works. She sleeps on the floor so maybe a matless crate wouldn't be so bad anyway. I'll keep everyone posted. I also need to get a bigger crate for her - separate issue I know but she's just going to keep getting bigger!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Riley hates a crate mat and will go mad with one in the crate. He likes his crates bare. Looks awful to me but that's the way he likes it. I think you should take the mat out and be done with it. I do think that a bigger crate is needed though.