For the last couple of months, she's been growing increasingly protective of her crate to the point where she's skittish around everyone if they pay her any attention (not just strangers, even Mike and I aren't immune). This weekend when we were in Mississippi visiting my family was the worst it's been. Roxy spent the majority of her time in her pet taxi (voluntarily with the door open) and when she finally decided to come out, if any of us acknowledged her or even said her name she would immediately bolt back to her crate.
We tried to coax her out with treats and toys which would work temporarily but always resulted in her going back to the crate. If you approached the pet taxi while she was inside she would start to growl under her breath and then get more aggressive the closer you came. The attitude hit rock bottom when she actually snapped at my grandmother and aunt -- two people who have shown her much love and affection in the past.
Mike and I discussed the situation on our car ride home and were about to call in some kind of dog whisperer or puppy counselor, but first wanted to try one last thing. A while back we received a cushy dog bed from our friends and put it in Roxy's permanent crate. As some of you have witnessed, she has an affinity for dog beds and we thought that may be what she was "protecting" with this behavior.
So Mike distracted her last night while I frantically hid the dog bed and replaced it with some old soft towels like she used to sleep on. So far, this has resulted in a completely different dog. Roxy hasn't bolted to her crate once in the last 24 hours and she's even snuggled up next to me as I write this post (something she hasn't done in a very long time).
Her pet taxi also has a cushy dog bed (her favorite one in fact, which we lovingly refer to as Mattie), which may be another reason she was protecting that space when we were away.
Only time will tell if the doggy bed intervention actually worked, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed the old, lovable Roxy will stick around. We have a group of Mike's family coming to visit this weekend so hopefully our adorable pet will not revert back to her mean streak.
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