[Dailydrool] Adult dog whining while crated

[Sarah.bersoux at gmail.com]

Hi all, I introduced myself recently but I will recap for the benefit of  
this post. My husband and I are both active duty military preparing for an  
upcoming deployment. I never thought we would have the exact same  
deployment cycle so I'll be first to admit it has not been easy making sure  
the pets are safe while we're gone. My two dogs (one basset/beagle, and one  
shepherd/chow? girl) are with a friend for the month of April. This is  
basically our trial run to determine if she can fit two more dogs in her  
family for a year on top of her own pets and (literally) small farm.

Chloe (my basset) is just over two years old and has been crate trained  
since she was a puppy. We don't have any issues with her in her crate, she  
ignores the hedgehogs and hermit crabs that also share that room. Quiet as  
a mouse when crated at our house. She gets plenty of outdoor time, play,  
interaction, and usually only goes in her crate at night. When we traveled  
cross country with her and had her crated in the hotel room, she whined,  
wimpered, and even barked the entire night (Talk about grumpy humans the  
next day). I chalked it up to stress/change of schedule/close proximity  
without attention.

When Chloe is crated now (which is on and off during the day, due to doggy  
politics and the fact that they don't all play nice together) she whines at  
my petsitter's cats. (To be fair, they taunt her. She HAS stopped trying to  
eat them, though). I didn't foresee this because I do not have cats.  
However I feel their pain since her kennel is in the middle of the house,  
they really don't have anywhere else where she can be more  
sheltered/quieter. It has been two weeks and she whines at them  
continuously while she is indoors.

Does anybody have any words of advice for this? Are we doomed? I am really  
trying to make this fit as its my plan A, and this petsitter is a longtime  
close friend who I have trusted with my pets before. We're trying to  
explore all options to make this adjustment easier. Thanks in advance!
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