My puppy hates her crate

[jennyp130]

Oliver was the SAME WAY as everyone said. He doesn't sleep in there at night though - we share the bed. He absolutely hated it. Foaming of the mouth...our neighbors thought we had a baby b/c of the way he cried. It took him a long time to walk right in on command though. He is a yr and 4 months now. About 1 yr old he would go in there on his own. I have a water bottle in there, food, toys, chews, comfy pillow, everything. I didn't think he would ever get over being in there. He even tried to bite his way through and recently got a tooth pulled b/c he wore the enamel off of it! He still hates going in there and I think he always will - but he walks in with ease now and I don't feel bad anymore. I recently tried to leave him out - bad idea. He's still too young and HATES being alone. Some people say chicken is a real good reinforcer for the crate...

 

[malinda]

We had the worst time trying to get Megan crate trained so I can sympathize with everyone of you. I tried a variety of things to get her to like the crate and there were many days I broke down in tears going this isn't working. My mom use to tell me it wasn't hurting Megan as much as it was hurting me to leave her in the crate and she was right.

We tried feeding her in the crate for meals. We would put her dish in the doorway and the plan was to move it back a little each time until she was in the crate eating. It didn't work. We would put treats in the crate, that didn't work. Her favorite toy in the crate, still didn't work. It got to a point where she would sit and stare at the crate and cry when she wasn't in it.

I called the vet who told me patients, persistance and time. After many months I called him back going what am I doing wrong and he replied some dogs can't be crate trained. Never tell me can't. Just as we were about to give up, Megan decided the crate wasn't bad.

There is a lot of information on crate training in the forums. Do a search and patience and persistance is the best advise I can give.

 

[thumpercab1]

Lucy and her crate

Our Lucy was 6 wks old when we brought her home, and introduded her to her new home THE CRATE!!. Lord you would have thought we were beating her. I not sure who cried the most me or her. for 1 week I tried everything. treats, clock, T.V. , put her in our room at night that was the worst, you name it we did it. I finnally came to the understanding that I had to make the stand, So I put her in the living room, shut everything off, went to my bedroom shut the door turned the TV on, and used ear plugs. that was 1 wk ago. Happy to report she is doing fine with it. I can now keep my door open don't need the Tv, and threw the plugs in the draw.

Good Luck

Lucy's mom

 

[Tuppence]

Oh my, the evil crate story all over again! >.< Tuppence HATED her crate, and she still isnt fond of it to this day! And I know there are so many great ideas here to get your puppy to go in the crate, but I'm going to offer my own humble idea to the list just incase.
We have friends who have been boxer owners for years, and when we informed them about how Tuppence would make the WORST noise in the world ALL night long in her crate they said to wait it out. They said that after two to three days she would learn and understand.....PAH! :rolleyes: So we tried that, and after three days of her NOISE I was ready to throw the crate out the window. So, I started looking into the dog bed idea, but I soon discovered that that wouldnt work either, she just kept on jumping up onto MY bed instead! So for a few weeks I just let her sleep on my bed (she was smaller then ). And then it hit me, I discovered that if I let her get to sleep on my bed, took off the top to her plastic crate and put her inside she would keep on sleeping! Then, after a while I eventually put the top on the crate, then I eventually shut the door, and she did perfectly! So then we went through the routine of getting her to sleep on my bed, putting her in the crate, and shutting the door.
So now, five months later, she goes to sleep somewhere in the house and I just carry her into my room and put her in the crate and she is fine through the night. Of course she cant stand being around her crate in the day time, but were still working on her, and its better then hearing her whine/bark/howl/yip/scream all night
Hope someone on here has helped! And dont give up!

Meribeth and Family

 

[FURIOSMOM]

I wish I had a success story to tell you. We had a male boxer for many years. He was the best boxer in the WORLD. However, he never got over hating the crate. We tried every bit of advice we could find. NOTHING WORKED. The best he could do was be gated in the kitchen. He was a very well behaved dog. We could leave him free in the house all day long and he never was a problem. My mother won't go in elevators. Brutus wouldn't go in a crate. She told me to train him a a free-run house dog - I was stressing him to much in the crate. It worked. Maybe mom does know best.

 

[JodyO]

One thing we tried was using specific toy ONLY for crate time. Cole could not touch the toys if he wasn't in his crate. After a couple of weeks, I was home during the day and heard Cole howling. I ran into the bedroom and he was sitting outside his crate begging to get in to get his toys. I couldn't believe it! Remember this (it really helped me get through crate training) your boxer is safer in the crate than hanging out free in the house when you are not home. There are too many unknowns outside of the crate, especially with the high anxiety feelings that boxers tend to experience when we leave. Just make sure to remove your dogs collar when placing them in the crate, then you will have nothing to fear. Good Luck

 

[Renee B]

My 12 week old girl Roxy doesn't like the crate much either. When we first brought her home at 8 weeks we put her in the crate and you would have thought we were killing her. I tried everything. Treats, Praise, Putting her food in the crate, toys. Nothing worked. We go to bed and she'd start howling and bark herself until she was hoarse. She would crap all over her crate she would get so upset, so we would have to get up in the night clean her crate (oh what a chore that was) put her back in and sometimes she would crap again and at this point we would just put her in bed with us and she was happy as a clam. She would burrow down in the covers like she was in heaven. Unfortuately for me I didn't get much sleep because she would like to sleep on top of me in some way or another. Finally now after much persistence and ear plugs she doesn't crap in her crate any more and she sleeps in it at night and if I have errands to run. She cries to wake us up when she has to potty. I still don't think she likes it all that much because after she goes potty she bolts to the bedroom to try and climb in bed with us. Good luck! I think persistence will pay off.

 

[Me-n-Zoe]

my crate experience

I was having a horrible time getting Zoe potty trained. I bought a crate out of desperation (maybe a bad idea). She HATED it. I took it back to the store and with persistence, got her potty trained. We have a dog door that goes out to the back where she can play. We live in the country up on a hill so I don't worry about someone stealing her. I am very happy not to have a crate for her. She isn't destructive in the house and since she can go out and play during the day (with our lab) I don't have to exercise her right after I get home from work. For me NO CRATE was the answer! *smile*

 

[Trinitysmom]

Thanks for all the wonderful advise! We bought Trinity a week ago, she's almost 12 weeks old. And she hates the crate! She seems to be getting better and on Friday she actually went all morning without pooping in it, man are those crates hard to clean :rolleyes: I think she may associate going in the crate withus leaving, we have been working with her to go in there even when we're home. So far we've gotten her to go in there to get her toys and she runs right out of there so fast! I am going to try some of the suggestions here to see if that helps, I can't listen to her cry anymore, it breaks my heart :(

 

[Andi20]

Xena hated her crate in the beginning too. I didn't really have a choice though. So every day I would stuff her in her crate with a kong full of peanut butter and half a box of cookies as compensation I guess :rolleyes: Then one day as I was dumping the cookies, she just walked right in :D
I set up my laptop with a motion sensing camera to record what she does all day, it recorded about 5 minutes of her moving around so I figure she either stood really still or slept all day. Now sometimes she goes in the crate to just lay down.