We, Via and I, attended an UKC obedience and rally trial weekend. I crated Via in the car (which I warmed from her from time to time and parked in the sun as we had a high of 7 degrees here today.)
She was comfortable in her nest. The crate is wrapped in cardboard and then covered with a wool blanket. We also had two 30 minute romps in the snow (which Via enjoyed and I did not) and several trips in to the dog show to work around the distraction of all those dogs. She greeted lots of people mostly politely. She greeted Magic mostly politely but then decided that she should body slam him to get him to play.
She is so big that I forget that she just turned 5 months old this week. I look at her and feel like she should be running level 1 rally courses and. But, alas, Via hasn’t even generalized sit yet and laughs at the idea of loose leash walking.
Tomorrow I’ll do the crate in the car again mostly. But I’ll also crate her for PART of the day inside the dog show, maybe in the storage room. She’s hung out in her crate silently at dogs shows when she was younger. But now that she knows that she can leave the crate to work / play / whatever, she comments that everyone is having fun but her. We’ll work on that during tomorrow’s lunch break (so that she doesn’t distract any of the working dogs.)
Via played in the snow during a break from her crate at the dog show.
Via has a look at the rally ring during the dog show.
The cold does not seem to bother Miss Frosty Lips! She is so pretty and you’re right, it is hard to remember she’s just five months.
Also try crating in the main room with a blanket that completely covers the crate, when quiet fold the front up so she can see the other dogs. when/if 🙂 she barks drop the blanket front back down to cover over the front. She has a choice, she can bark or she can see. If it is just too much stimulation for her covered or uncovered then off to the storage room.
The storage room is a great idea, they can hear all the noises and get acclimated and if they voice their opinions it will not cause a disruption. If you want to be really ambitious have two crates set up. One on the main floor and one in the storage area. If she is noisy have someone move her to the storage room, when she is quiet give her another opportunity to mainstream by coming out for some interaction and socialization with you, and some exercise, then try crating in the big room. Get barky then off to the storage room again.
It’s amazing how much Sawyer and Via look the alike!