Keeping them content in their crate.

[Lindsey, Lee, Whopper and Simba]

Hi all,

Whopper has never quite taken to her crate and is now 16 weeks. She loves to go in and take things out and recently she will stay in there with peanutbutter (we know this jar isn't tainted) or some other treat, but the second she finishes it and realizes she is shut in she starts barking like crazy. We have tried randomly putting small treats in there throughout the day to increase her interest and now have a bed, her special blanket, and lots of toys in there, but nothing seems to work. My sister has been living with us and says once we leave for work, she can bark and cry for over an hour. We do leave on classical music for her as well in an effort to eliminate distractions and calm her as much as possible. At night, we've found that she sleeps much longer and more easily out of her crate on a futon in our bedroom. She has never chewed anything she wasn't supposed to or had any accidents having this freedom during the night. Do you think we need to crate her at night to help crating during the day? Do you have any recommendations for toys or treats to keep her occupied longer? We are contemplating getting a baby gate to give her a little more room to move while we're at work but know that at some point the chewing phase is going to set in. Thanks in advance for any thoughts. As a side note, in the past week and a half she has really discovered her bark and is certainly trying to use it to get what she wants when she wants it.

[Lindsey, Lee, Whopper and Simba]

My sister has her out with her whenever she is home and awake basically. My sister is only with us temporarily though. We live in a townhome with multiple levels and Whopper stays on the third with us in our bedroom and my sister sleeps and has her bathroom on the second. With the music and everything on and my sister sleeping, it's hard to believe that Whopper knows when my sister is there in the morning and when she isn't since my sister isn't there all the time. Who knows though...doodles are pretty smart. We haven't had any complaints from anyone yet but find it hard to believe that noone hears her since when we leave the house, we can hear her barking outside. We do know the walls between the homes have extra insulation and fireproofing material so hopefully that's blocking it out but we have no idea. I guess we probably need to load up a kong with goodies that will last longer. She's never in her crate when anyone is there with her since she really is a well-behaved puppy.

[Adina P]

Occasionally there are dogs that just do not like the crate and never will.
My suggestion would be to put her crate inside of an exercise pen like this one:

Leave the crate door open ( perhaps zip tie it to the side of the ex-pen) that keeps exercise pen door closed. This way she can go inside of her crate if she wants a small space, but she is able to come out of her crate and still be confined.

[Debbie and Thomas]

Hi there from Toronto, our Goldendoodle Tomas was born Sept 30th! So Whopper is the same age and so far the last 8 weeks have been a whirlwind. We did not crate him as we really did not have the room. We just downsized to a townhouse but we do have a main floor laundryroom. Its fairly small and this is where we decided to have his sleeping area. We have a cozy blanket on the floor ,his sleeping baby(stuffed animal which he we gave him the minute we brought him home)and a few chew toys. We play classical music on the radio in the daytime when he goes in there. I put a baby gate up on the inside of the doorway, just to avoid the scratching and close the door. In the daytime-he will yelp and bark for a few seconds-but at night he goes in himself sometimes. At night we turn out the light and have never had to go back in-even the first night. Needless to say all dogs are different.
Debbie

[Ellen]

I second Adina's suggestion about attaching an exercise pen to the crate. On the days that Riley doesn't go to daycare, he's "crated" but because of the exercise pen, he has a little patio area to roam around and play with his toys. When he was younger, I would put his food and water in the pen area so that he would associate his crate with good things. I also partially covered the crate with a blanket to make it dark inside so that it's cozier for sleeping. Initially, he hated his crate +patio, but now it's not a big deal, and he will voluntarily go into his crate when I tell him to (but this took a while to train). Even when people are around, Riley will sometimes voluntarily go into his dark crate to go to sleep.

One of the toys that I use to keep Riley occupied in the crate is the Dog Pyramid (http://www.pawlickers.com/products/toys/puzzles-games/dog-pyramid). You put food into an opening at the top, but it's weighted on the bottom. So, everytime a dog pushes it down to get a treat out, it bobs back upright. It takes some manuevering for the treat to fall out of the hole. I'll just put his kibble in there and leave while he's trying to get the food out. Other toys that I use is the purple Tug-A-Jug and Buster Cube, which also take some manuevering to get food out.

Good luck!

[Lindsey, Lee, Whopper and Simba]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We have begun to put some of them to use and have noticed some positive changes in her desire to be in the crate.