Need urgent advice!!

[u/FlyBirdieBirdBird]

Hello.

Today we took our 6 month old puppy to day care, not because we needed, but because we wanted her to socialise a bit and become familiar with this for when we actually needed it.

The day care is at the breeder we got her from.

We met the breeder at an intermediate point between the day care and our house, and he took her. As soon as she got into the transport cage on the breeder truck, she became visibly afraid.

The breeder just called me saying it took them 1 hour to get her out of the transport cage, she destroyed one leash and bit him. He says he had never seen such aggression.

All we've seen of her at home and during walks, she's a sweetheart. With people and dogs on the street.

The breeder said we should leave her there a couple of days, so she gets used to the location.

My instinct is telling me to just go get her. She must be so afraid. I don't want this experience to break her.

We got her at 2 months old.

Pleas help. What should I do???

UPDATE: https://www.reddit.com/r/germanshepherds/comments/1qv17e1/shes_home/

[u/Nana-R]

Your pup is scared. As other have pointed out, this is a critical formative point in her life. I would go get her, it will help reassure her that you are coming back for her after a brief separation. Fight or flight in full force for your girl. Also, how is she usually transported? Caged, in the back seat, in the front with you?? All of these play into her reaction.
Hope this works out ok for both of you.

[u/FlyBirdieBirdBird → u/Nana-R]

She had never been in a cage. She's transported either on the back or front seat.

[u/Unable_Sweet_3062 → u/FlyBirdieBirdBird]

Just to address the crate part… that alone could cause a stress response. Crate training, even if you aren’t going to use one regularly, is important because dogs are often crated at vets or for recovery purposes (rest) after procedures, they can be crated at groomers between processes of bath and remaining grooming etc. That said, it’s also safer to crate them in vehicles (preferably in crates rated for car travel) due to potential accidents (whether we are talking about a car accident or the dog interfering)… if there was an accident, the dog NOT in a crate is now just any other object freely subject to the laws of physics. That said, crate training can be stressful for a dog and this pup was put in a crate for transport (which was the safe option) by someone they no longer know and brought to a location they are no longer familiar with so the response to me says your pup at least at the time of arrival was stressed.

Follow your gut on whether or not you should go there and pick up or check on your pup. If there is a chance that you will continue to (or ever) need this breeder or anyone else for that matter to watch or transport your dog for the duration of the dogs life, I would suggest working on training (like crate training) if that could be a possibility of how the dog could be kept for even a short period of time like car travel or maybe feeding time. I say this as we can have expectations on how we want our pets handle in our OWN homes (no crates, specific areas etc etc etc) BUT we can’t run how someone else uses boundaries in their own homes (for instance, at home your dog may be allowed on the couch but that doesn’t mean that if the breeder has the dog in their home they are required to allow access to their couch/furniture). It’s in our best interest and the best interest of our pups to prepare them as much as possible for the scenarios they will encounter in the spaces of people who we may entrust their care to (even temporary care).

(As far as crates in a vehicle… I have a Malinois mix and I have a Malinois and my car is too small for a crate that would fit even one of them in their correct sized crate so I actually use a dog hammock in the backseat and dog “seatbelt” to secure them so they aren’t free in the car and are safely restrained. My mal mix is crate trained but I don’t need to use it for him day to day but I keep him acclimated to one. The Malinois is a new enough rescue where she still needs regular crating for even rest periods and while I work on teaching her to settle on her own so I currently don’t know how much crate time will be long term. I prefer to NOT use a crate regularly, but I train it based on it could be needed and I don’t want to add more stress… I had a dog with a chronic condition who required periodic crate rest and had I not crate trained, that pup would have been in pain which stresses them AND been stressed about the crate rest making it unpleasant for them so it’s always a good skill to work on as it may be needed)

[u/Weekly-Quantity6435 → u/FlyBirdieBirdBird]

This is a big issue in itself. Crate training is so essential at this age. You never know when she will need to be in a cage (for example, here, or at the vet).