How to leave puppy home for 3 hours or less?

[Nikki]

We are totally baffled by Botti's traumatic response to the crate. He, totally, freaks out. Bites the bars to the point that he has bent them. He is fine sleeping on the floor at night but if I need to go out during the day, I can't leave him alone so, it's either doggie daycare or he goes to the office with Michael. This has been going on since he arrived at nine weeks--we are in month seven. I have tried the following: treats, blankets over crate, in the crate, a piece of our clothing, tick tock clock, music, tv, toys. And we sent him to obedience school with my one goal of the program to be that Botti would go in the crate--not happening. So, if the crate does not work for when we need to go out to dinner, grocery etc ie no longer than 3 hours how do I go about training Botti to stay home alone/unsupervised? Any thoughts or suggestions will be much appreciated:))

[Stella]

Susan Garrett's Crate Games DVD is excellent for helping with crate training. I have a doodle who would not even go in the crate and I found this DVD excellent for getting him to accept the crate. He still doesn't love it, but at least goes in of his own free will! We only use the crate at agility trials, at home my dogs have free run of the downstairs of the house. Of course, they are both adult dogs now, as puppies we used an ex-pen because we were having bad experiences with the crate.