Crate - Help!

[Jen]

Hello All!  

We recently added Izzy, a black goldendoodle to our family.  We have had her 3 weeks and she has been wonderful except does not like her crate.  This is the 4th puppy we have trained and the only one that wouldn't take to her crate.  She does not pee in her crate or destroy the comfy blankets that are in there, she just barks a lot...I work part-time, so she is in for about 3 hours a day, but my dad lets her out in between.  When we go to bed at night, she barks for about an hour and then settles down.  She is almost completely house trained, rings a bell to go out and has only had a couple of accidents since we got her.  Any tips that anyone has would be great.  We tried covering the crate, giving treats in her crate, feeding in her crate, etc.  She will eat in there and will take treats unless we close the door, then she just looks the other way and lets the treat stay there until we return.  

Thank you in advance!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

When I brought our puppies home, I used a snuggle puppy. I bought ours on Amazon and both dogs did fine in the crate. I don't know if the snuggle puppy was the reason, but they seemed to like it in their crate. I hardly ever crated them when I was home. Could you possibly train her to go to a bed near you when working? Our Vern got so hot in his crate at night, that I didn't crate him long at all in there during the night. I had a bed in our bedroom and shut our bedroom door. I also let them sleep with us, but that is personal preference, I know. The only other help I can offer is try giving her a really high value treat only in the crate so she associates it with something fabulous. I also turn a TV on for my dogs and I always used a fan to mute noises. Will she stay in the crate with the door open? I know when I stopped crating my dogs at night, I still kept their crate in there with the door open and sometimes found them in it in the morning.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

For night time, you could try placing the crate on a couple of chairs beside your bed.  That way you can comfort her until she goes to sleep.  This is what we did for AnnaBelle.  We always gave her a few pieces of her kibble when she went in the crate.  As soon as we told her it was time to go night night, she would run into the bed room and sit right at her crate and wait for me to pick her up and put her in.  She would turn around and sit and look straight at the kibble jar.  She had a Snuggle Puppy as well.  She still loves him today although we no longer use the heart beat or warming pack in him.

[Marni and Hanna]

So Im not much help here-but I had to laugh out loud at the last sentence...  My Hanna is 6.5 years old and to this day will almost always refuse a treat when we leave the house if she thinks she should be going along and doesn't get to go with us.  I think its her way of saying "Ill show them ! I won take their stupid treat !!"  : )  Gotta love our doodles!!

[Stella]

I highly recommend Susan Garrett's Crate Games DVD. A little pricey, but so worth it :)

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

I have nothing. Lilly is 5 1/2 yrs old. She hates the crate. If I use any d that sounds like crate, she runs and hide. Great, lake, wait...