Crate Training on Christmas

I couldn't help but snicker as I read the crate training story . . . I 
also have a crate-training story. I picked-up my puppy on Christmas Eve of 
1999. I didn't know how to properly crate-train a dog and took some 
ill-conceived advice from a nameless, know-nothing. That advice was to 
wait until the little ball of teeth and fur fell asleep and sneak it off 
into the puppy-prison. Then sneak off to bed. Hmm . . . took about five 
minutes for the 7-week-old puppy to wake and realize she was in exile for 
no good reason. After 20 some minutes of listening to "leave the puppy 
alone, howl, yip, cry, snivel, howl, don't say anything, howl, yip, cry, 
snivel, howl, it is for her own good, howl, yip, cry, snivel, howl, she'll 
get over it, howl, yip, cry, snivel, howl, leave the puppy alone . . . and 
then there was silence. Lasted for maybe two minutes. And then it sounded 
like someone was ripping the puppy apart, limb by limb. Enuf is enuf . . . 
Stomp, stomp stomp, as I go down the hallway of my trailer. And the smell 
hits me  :(

There sits my little princess . . . nary a square inch not covered in 
well, umm, smelly, green,  runny poop. WAHHHH!!! So, at 2:30 am, now 
Christmas Day, I'm scrubbing down the dog in the bathtub. Her cage, 
safely thrown out the front door to freeze into a gory mess. We finished 
the night, together, on the couch. Until she woke me with a bite to the 
back of the neck. I yelped and turned around only to be greeted with a 
paw to the face and four Christmas scratches . . . welcome to life with 
a Malamute . . . she is now eight months old an Unholy Terror  :)  
I love my puppy!
Tanya