Night #1 Here we go!!!!

[Wasseem Sidhom]

and the crying started.

[John Wang]

When you put him in his crate, do you actually physically put him in, or do you command him in/lure in with treats? There's a huge difference. We give Boomer tons of treats when he goes into his crate, and periodically give him treats when he's in there. We also keep the crate in an area with high traffic, the kitchen/living room. We crate him maybe 20-30 minutes before we actually leave the area so we're still around him while he's crated, and that lets us give him treats/attention. When we leave, we don't say 'bye' or anything, just make it casual.

During the day we also practice crating him. Best time we do it is while we're preparing dinner/doing dishes, so he has company during that time.

Boomer followed us all throughout his baby weeks. He's just entered his teenage months, so he likes to wander away now, but will still follow me if I happen to run into him in the house.

Good distractions would be age appropriate nylon toys filled with peanut butter or something. Boomer hates it when we leave, but couldn't care less if I give him a treat-toy and then we sneak out.

Do consider from my earlier responses the IRIS fence and vinyl! You can give him a VERY large space around his crate that's perfectly safe for him to have accidents in. It's a little expensive (Close to $90 if you buy both) but IMO, it's completely worth it if he has even one accident, and the fence piece-wise is cheaper than 4 gates. We use it to block rooms, stairs, garage door entrance, any part of our house. I can't recommend it enough.