My puppy hates her crate

[BaxtersMa]

I got Baxter at 7 weeks of age, and he had been in a crate with his siblings. I bought him a crate for home and placed it beside my bed. It was his special place and he would go there often to rest sort of like a "get away" for him. The first few times that I left him home alone, he did well in the crate. Then it became a chore to get him into the crate if I was leaving the house. When he was in there and I returned home, he had his nose wore raw from trying to get out of the crate, and the neighbours say he made quite a noise.
I decided now at 5 months of age, and all the fighting to get him to the crate when I am leaving.....to try him alone in the house.
I make sure that all harmful things are out of his reach before I go, and since I also have 2 cats, he does have company. I leave the radio or TV on for him too so it isn't so quiet.
I started out for 15 min, then a half hour and so on. No complaints from the neighbours, and I come home to find him patiently waiting. He NEVER goes near the crate anymore.
I don't know if this is a bad thing, but he hasn't tried to destroy anything when I'm gone.....hopefully a little freedom will make him less anxious when I go out.

 

[CaptainJack]

suggestion for a happy medium

This is the first time I've posted anything other than a question. My baby boy is 18 weeks old now, but we brought him home at 7 weeks. I do use a crate for sleeping at night and for short times during the day, It's great when I need him safely out of the way. I have to say my crating experience has been much smoother than many I've read. The first few nights home I actually had the crate on my bed so he could be as close to me as possible but still crated -- maybe that helped?

Anyway, I didn't want to leave him in the crate all day while I was at work. I've read that you can't expect a puppy to hold it more than an hour for each month of age. And although I've modified my hours some, there are still days when I am gone all day. If they have no choice but to soil the crate, they will, and I've read that messes up potty training. So, I gated off my kitchen, but still felt there were too many dangers for a young puppy, not to mention my molding and cabinets.

My solution is a happy medium in the way of an excersize pen. I bought one of the 8-panel , 4ft tall pens from drs foster and smith, and set it up in the kitchen on top of a plastic tarp to protect the tiles on the floor. From day 1 Jack's food and water has been inside the pen, as well as his puppy pads (he came paper trained ) . There is 16sqft of space when it is closed, so there is also room for a nice mat. When i'm home, I just open it up so it's in a big U-shape, but leave his water and papers in there. I wouldn't suggest keeping in closed and using the door ... jack scratched himself on the door when he was very little. Anyway -- if you have the room -- this is a great solution. It gives a puppy plenty of room, they can see everything, and keeps them safe!

I don't know how long it will work, when he gets much bigger he might be able to topple it over, but by then he should be ok to be in a large crate all day :cool:

 

[Kaylamyboxer]

Kayla hates hers.I can't get her to even touch it.

 

[pcprovost]

I broke down after days of howling and let our puppy who was 6 weeks old have run of the house. After weeks of being tired of cleaning up poop I finally put her in her crate last night.

She normally sleeps on her pillow in our room durring the day and sometimes at night or she sleeps in my sons room on his bed with him.

Well last night we played with her until she wore out and then I put her in the crate beside my bed. And she only cried a little. She slept almost through the night except for one time last night and I let her know I was there and the little sweetie went right back to sleep.

I don't know if it was her pillow I placed in there or what but it worked and I was so glad to not be woken up to steping in poop and sliding across the wood floors in pee

I got her out of the crate at 7:40 and put her outstide to pee then fed her and hopefully husband took care of the rest.


She is 12 weeks old now and she only used her crate for a short while because she hated it! I would come home after leaving her for 3 hours and she would have water everywhere! the crate would be halfway across the kitchen and she would look she just came out of a dumpster with water and dog food all over her!

I don't know what it was that made her decide to sleep there witout throwing a fit but I'm glad she didn't


I would try using a pillow that the puppy likes. It worked for my Layla.


Christie

 

[paula carter]

I think that boxers are great dogs and crave attention and if she is only a young pup even if your popping home for dinner i think this is just far to long for her. My boxer loves his cage because he's left once or twice a week at the most and he knows when we go out we will return shortly if you can't be with him you at least need to getb a dog walker.

 

[Shanz]

Cinnamon hates hers too... When i first got her i kept her in a little carrier at night.. she wouldgo in it herself and sleep in it and then she would be let outin the morning. Now she sleeps inmy bed, but when we go out we put herin the crate because we have an older dog and the puppy likes to chew on her tail and brandy does not like that. Cinnamon freaks out..when we come home her blanket is all messed up and her food and water bowl is tipped over.. she also howls and barks.I think im gonna set up our video camera next time we go out to see exactly what she does. And shes only left in there for 2 hours Max.

 

[brwneyesk8]

Yup the crate next to your bed works wonders. It took care of even the quiet wimpering. In our case...we had a futon mattress on the floor before we had gotten our bed....and so Porter's crate was pretty dern close to my head. He felt more secure and I could roll over and pet him through the crate at night. We moved it away a little at a time until we didn't even need it. Now he sleeps with us in the bed sometimes, or on his bed in the bedroom or on the couch in the living room depending on his mood. good luck!!

 

[tvlgrl]

my buster

Ok, everyone, I need help ASAP!!! My puppy is 4 mos old and hates her crate. I don't mean a little, I mean alot.!!!!!! I have tried everything from leaving the door open and putting treats in there, to putting her food in there so she can come and go as she pleases and learns to like it. I have never put her in there as a means of negative reinforcement. I can't figure out how to get her to like it. It is like WW2 trying to get her in there when we have to go to work. I come home everyday and let her out at lunch time and I am almost at the point that maybe it is causing more harm to take her out and traumatize her just to put her back in there again. what am I doing wrong? HELP!!!!!

my buster is now 5 months old and this is his 3rd crate- it is a completely open wire crate and i put a folded blanket in there and he loves it
it was like trying to stuff a watermelon into an olive with the travel crates- but they were enclosed except for the front door
that might help you
arlene