Greetings from a cheese head :p

[Tanya]

for the kennel, please google crate games adn crate desensitization. you need to do things to make it a good postiive thing to make her like it. Most dogs won't liket he crate if they are just simply crated. Baby steps. feed her in teh crate (door open); throw high value treats and toys for her to find. and then you can find free videos going thru Susan Garrett's crate games on youtube.

[Brother Ron]

Thanks everyone for for the helpful ideas. Her name is Brownie, and are not sure if we should try to change her name.
We can already see a change in the short time we have had her. (2 weeks tomorrow)
I am beginning to think that perhaps she has just been left alone with no socializing at all, and probably scolded or yelled at for chewing something when she was left alone all day.
She is not as jumpy as when we first got her( she used to cower badly if I moved my hand or arm suddenly ) which led me to think she has been hit a few times.
Brownie is so lovable and she just craves attention. I took her to our cabin with me last weekend and we walked the logging trails on the 200 acres we own.
She stays within 15 yards of me at all times, and comes to me when called.
I think my next step is to get some training material so that things will go smoother for us.
Well, time to get a fire going before work.

Thanks
Ron

[Meeps83]

Glad she's doing better We've been leaving Maverick kennel-less at night since he was 6-7 months old and he's almost 10 months old now. I don't trust him to give him more freedom, but maybe brownie would be better. Since she doesn't like her kennel, what about an x-pen? She might feel more comfortable and less restricted in that. Also, there are the hard sided closed off kennels and the wire kennels. Many dogs like one but not the other. Maybe brownie prefers the other kind of kennel.

[WhoopsaDaisy]

I agree with above posts. I adopted my black lab at 7 months and she was with a man who left he a kennel in the backyard and called her Suzy "when he was home" he was hardly home at all and she has a scar on her nose from trying to get out of the crate. She was back at the breeders for a month and being called "Lacy". I changed it to Daisy with no problem- I wanted it to be 2 syllables and sound similar to Lacy and Suzy. I don't think it hurt her at all to change her name at that age.
She also hated going into her kennel but like others have said we played crate games and I fed her in her kennel a lot and now she goes in there to sleep on her own.
Daisy was also scared of unfamiliar things but has gotten much better since then. She still hates stairs and statues.

[Snowshoe]

I have heard people wonder if changing the name might even be a good thing. Suppose the current name is associated by the dog with unpleasant things or at least with a harsh or unpleasant tone of voice? Just as changing a command that has been corrupted to a new word, a name change might help the dog learn new, good associations.

Every stray dog I ever found I gave a name till I found it's owner and all those dogs happily responded to whatever I called them. The cat next door had the name we gave her and the name her owners gave her and she happily responded to each of us. I think dogs and cats treat their names sort of the same way we respond to different nicknames people might give us. We know more than one name for ourselves, they can too.

[WhoopsaDaisy]

I have heard people wonder if changing the name might even be a good thing. Suppose the current name is associated by the dog with unpleasant things or at least with a harsh or unpleasant tone of voice? Just as changing a command that has been corrupted to a new word, a name change might help the dog learn new, good associations. Every stray dog I ever found I gave a name till I found it's owner and all those dogs happily responded to whatever I called them. The cat next door had the name we gave her and the name her owners gave her and she happily responded to each of us. I think dogs and cats treat their names sort of the same way we respond to different nicknames people might give us. We know more than one name for ourselves, they can too.

Now that you say that, it reminds me of the puppy class I went to when I first got Daisy. He said to humans a name holds a lot of meaning - our identity, etc. But to a dog when they hear their name it means "look at the person saying that" or something along those lines. He said it much more eloquently but it made me feel better about the name change at the time.

[4Thelove]

Welcome, looking forward to pics!

[MikeLynn]

Hello, welcome and thank you for giving Brownie a nice home. Can't wait to see her pictures.

[Brother Ron]

Tomorrow we will stop at the inlaws for a visit with her. They stopped by the first day we had her, so maybe it will be a good place to start with other people. Brownie is a very smart and lovable dog, and I am learning how to train myself here. lol We have been working on simple things like sitting to be hooked up to a leash or when being given a treat or chew. And the reason she didn't want to come into the house the first time is probably because she was afraid of stairs. She wouldn't go downstairs to check the fire with me, but would sit at the top and whine. I finally decided to teach her to go upstairs first by taking her upstairs to the bedrooms. She came up half way the first try, then all the way up the second time. Since then she has no problem going downstairs to check the fire with me. She likes going for rides in the car, but seems afraid in my truck? It might be because she has been trained to sit in the back seat and my truck only has one seat, or it could be because she feels more road vibrations in my truck? We will have to figure that one out. She has been going into the kennel to eat food and grab a toy once in a while and even walks in and just checks everything over sometimes, so she isn't really afraid, she just doesn't like being locked in there when left home alone for a couple hours Tomorrow afternoon we will go to the cabin so she can roam the woods for a couple hours with me again. She seems to have an endless supply of energy for that We had a chocolate lab when our children were growing up, and she was an amazing dog. Family members said we would never find another dog like her, but my wife and I both agree that Brownie is very much the same, she just needs time to adjust and plenty of TLC to overcome her fear of people and figure out her place. Our other lab would not touch a plate of food if you left it on the coffee table and left the room.... this little girl will snatch something if you turn your head for a minute. Ok, enough rambling.

Thanks everyone for all the helpful ideas.
Ron.

[Halcyon]

Hello and welcome!

I have nothing left to add. Best of luck with her!