[KLIMOV25gyi]

I started out with 2 dogs and a crate. Ike was the problem child, so he got crated. Then Rita randomly ate a couch cushion, lost my trust, and I bought another crate.

Then Owen came along and he got a crate of his very own. When he started to outgrow it (damn dog, I bought it before we picked him up with adult Basset measurements in mind, but he's a tad bigger than average in length) I bought a bigger crate, moved Rita to Ike's old crate, Owen to Rita's old crate and let Ike have house privledges because he became a saint overnight and stuck with it.

That's when I started feeding in crates because I needed to know who was eating what and if one dog doesn't eat, the others will polish off the food.

Enter Renee. She got Owen's old crate and life was good. All the dogs went into crates on command and would sit there watching and waiting for me to insert food bowls.

But Renee outgrew her crate, so I found another XL crate on CL and retired the smallest crate to storage. I moved Rita to the middle in an XL crate, Owen to the far right end in an XL crate and Renee to the far left end in a L crate, that way the two intact dogs are separated.

This makes bedtime and feeding time a frustrating exercise in dog stupidity. Even with their blankets in the proper crates and me there to indicate for each dog which crate I want it in, I get game of musical crates for moron dogs! Rita and Owen in the middle. Renee and Owen or Rita in the smaller crate. Rita, Owen, and Renee in an XL together and various combinations thereof.

I know they will learn, but Dear God..when?!?!? We do this 3 times a day. 2x for meals and 1x for bed. You'd think after about a week they'd start to figure it out. Yeesh.

If it wasn't so funny when they rush to the crates and traffic jam into them in various combinations, I'd be a raving loon, but its funny enough to watch that I lol and try again. After 15 mins or so, they end up in the proper crate and get fed or put to sleep for the night.