[Bryansgirl]

Bella my 9 week old puppy freaks out in her crate She screams so loud I get migranes biting at the gate scratching nonstop Every other dog i had cried for a few minutes but gave up and went to sleep Bella cries For hours and hours and never calms down. she sleeps in bed with me cz if I dont let her I will get no sleep I need her used to the crate for when I leave the house and for when I get her spayed since she will be in the crate most of the time to keep her calm but Im worried she will break her teeth out pulling on the gate. I tried letting her go in on her own and she wont even get near the crate Ive never had a dog hate a crate this much she completely freaks out

 

[Red]

How did you introduce her to the crate? You can't just dump her in and expect her to be okay, or enjoy it. You need to break it down into smaller steps.

If she is too scared to go *in* the crate, click and treat her just for looking at it (if you don't use a clicker use a marker word such as "yes"). Use high value treats and reward her for looking at the crate, moving towards it, walking calmly next to it, poking her nose in etc.

Once she is a little more confident, hide treats in the crate when she isn't looking to encourage her to always check it out and associate it with good things. Your goal at this point is just to show her the crate is a good place, so don't close the door or anything. When she is happy going in and out the crate, start rewarding her for staying in the crate with the door open. When Zoey was a 10 week old puppy she picked this up soooo quickly, and would sit in the open crate whilst I wiggled toys in front of her!

When she's happy in the crate, totally comfortable, begin shutting the door for just a few seconds, then throw a puppy party and let her know how good she did. Slowly slowly increase the amount of time the door is shut whilst she is in there.

Giving her awesome things to do in the crate that she doesn't get anywhere else, such as special toys, chews or filling for Kongs is a good idea too. Also, don't let her out whilst she is screaming, otherwise she learns noise = freedom!

How long this takes depends on your puppy, as you don't want to rush her. It took a month for Kasper to become 'crate happy' as he had SA and was uber sensitive, whereas it took about a week for Zoey.

I'm pretty sure there's a crate sticky on the forum somewhere too, so have a look for that as well

 

[Red]

Oh I forgot to say, sometimes puppies that have had bad experiences with a crate will do fine in an indoor puppy playpen, which can be introduced in the same way.

 

[ChessaQ]

Some dogs are worse with crates than others, but you've obviously given in to her crying, and made it much harder for yourself. She now knows that she can get her way, so you're going to have to work harder.
Believe me I know how awful the crying is, but you absolutely have to ignore it til it stops. I promise you she can't do it forever. When I crate trained my dogs, I told them to be quiet when they cried,and sometimes said ah! very sharply and it worked. I'm aware not everyone agrees with that, but for me it worked and my dogs don't hate the crate. 2 even like the crate a lot.
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