Goolia83
Boxer Booster
Roxy HATED the crate at first too. We let her sleep with us for the first 2 weeks and in that time frame, increased time in the crate during the day. (both with us there and gone)
Do you have an area in your house that you can gate off or maybe put him in a bathroom while you're at work? If he is alone for more than 3 hours at a time, or doesn't know how to hold it that long yet, you shouldn't be letting him have accidents in the crate. You need to give him a potty area so he can learn good habbits, and NOT let him get used to sitting in pee. He will learn to associate the crate as his bed soon and not want to pee in it. We did this and she only had 2 accidents in her crate EVER!
Another thing that I think helped a lot is that we bought a dog bed and had it in the living room for the first 2 weeks. We made sure she knew it was her bed and she slept on it ALL of the time. Then when we started to put her in the crate after 2 weeks we put the huge dog bed inside! We didn't even have to put the divider in because she knew the WHOLE thing was her bed and wouldn't go in there!
She is 15 weeks old now and will sleep all night long in her crate and we make sure she's not in there for more than 4 hours at a time during the day.
Good Luck! The first 2 weeks were pretty bad - it gets a lot better after that!!
Julie
Do you have an area in your house that you can gate off or maybe put him in a bathroom while you're at work? If he is alone for more than 3 hours at a time, or doesn't know how to hold it that long yet, you shouldn't be letting him have accidents in the crate. You need to give him a potty area so he can learn good habbits, and NOT let him get used to sitting in pee. He will learn to associate the crate as his bed soon and not want to pee in it. We did this and she only had 2 accidents in her crate EVER!
Another thing that I think helped a lot is that we bought a dog bed and had it in the living room for the first 2 weeks. We made sure she knew it was her bed and she slept on it ALL of the time. Then when we started to put her in the crate after 2 weeks we put the huge dog bed inside! We didn't even have to put the divider in because she knew the WHOLE thing was her bed and wouldn't go in there!
She is 15 weeks old now and will sleep all night long in her crate and we make sure she's not in there for more than 4 hours at a time during the day.
Good Luck! The first 2 weeks were pretty bad - it gets a lot better after that!!
Julie