Need advice on Crate Training

[my1stdane]

Our 7 week old Dane hates being in his crate. He sits in there and cries and barks. He ended up in bed with us last night because I can't stand to hear the poor baby cry.
How can I get him used to it? He'll need to be in the crate when I go somewhere and I don't want the whole neighborhood hearing him cry.

[danelvr]

hello,

all puppies will cry when first intro. to the crate. just stick a blacnket in there for the to lay on, and a chewy toy(bones, no plastic or fluffy toys, in my exp. they can chew on them and choke). the puppy is going to cry no matter where it is, when left alone, because it was just taken away from its mother and siblings. now i have to admit, when i first brought my baby kash home at 7 weeks, i thought 7 weeks was too young(i had my reasons for bringing him home to early though) so i let him lseep with me on the floor for the first two nights.

after that, he could put in the crate, right next to my bed. that way he could hear me breathing, and likewise with him. sometimes, if you put a tick tock clock(the loud ones) right above the crate, the noise of the clock will imitate a heartbeat, helping them go to sleep.

im gonna warn you right now, it might take up to 2 weeks, deoending on pups personality, for the dog to totally quit crying at night. which measn your gonna eba sleepy mommy. just ignore the puppy, pretend you dont even hear it. the more attention the pup gets the more it will want to cry for attention, but as soon as it learns that crying will get it no where, it will stop.

so whatever you do DONT take the pupy out once its in. if you want it to sleep with you that night, dont even put it in its bed, put it in yours with you. or else he will know that whens he cries that lovely door gets pushed open, and hes allowed to sleep with you:)

hope that helps, and good luck with your up and coming sleepless nights:)

[2danes]

let me just say that i have never heard a puppy cry like mine did the first couple of nights in the crate. you would swear that some one was trying to murder her. my best advice to you is you can NOT cave in and take the puppy out. then it will learn that if it cries, it will get his/her way (and they can learn that very quickly). we put a radio on really quiet next to the crate door and it seemed to help a little. if the crying gets unbearable like my pups did we were told by a trainer to bang on the top of the crate just once very hard and say NO loudly. this worked pretty good although we had to do it a couple of times the first night, after that she was fine. just stick it out, you're gonna be really tired from lack of sleep but the pup should stop in a few days.
-Erin, Phoenix, and Griffin

[arhoadsfoust]

Hopefully this will help you and hopefully someone reading these posts will help me.

We got our Dane very early at 6.5 weeks. We set up his crate with a nice warm blanket and some toys... the very first night home, he went right into that crate and went to sleep. Never heard a word out of him unless he needed to get up and pee which at 6.5 weeks was every 2 hours.

However, Diesel is 4 months old now and over the last 6 weeks has started to HATE his crate. He knows that when he is crated - we are away. He has severe separation anxiety. We have tried the crating while we are home. We have tried to make it fun and only give him favorite treats when getting in the crate. I am not sure if it more about the crate or about us leaving him.

We both work during the day but we aren't gone any longer than normal working folks. Once we get home, all attention is on him! He still has issues. He gets all kinds of attention and we take him everywhere we possible can to help socialize.

So -- make sure your crate is close to you and your family. We leave the TV on during the day. Diesel does quit crying after awhile in the crate but he rips at the crate with his paws and bites at it also. I am so afraid he is going to hurt himself.

All of the breeders and advice for crate training says they will end up loving it if you do it right. Well, either we're doing it wrong or we just have a Dane that doesn't fit the norm! Any advice for me! Thanks.

Amanda, Brad & our boy Diesel!

[D4D]

I don't crate train, but I suppose my method may be similar to crate training - My Pup, Pee Wee, has got her own room (the bathroom, because it's the easiest to clean).
She is fed in there, so she's not worried about going in or out. When she first was closed up in there, she cried and cried like she was being hurt! It's like a newborn child though - If you go in there all the time, they learn how to get your attention. The next worse thing is to wait until it gets to a point where you really can't stand it (because it's got Louder and LOUDER!) so you go in. Which of course teaches them that if they REALLY let you know, they'll get you to come to them. ;-)
To get Pee Wee used to the fact that she wasn't being deserted, I would feed her, then close the door whilst she ate. As I said, when she first worked out she was locked away from me (I was only in the next room) she cried. When she first started to cry (as in, immediately, before it got loud) I went in to check that she was OK. I gave her a pat & praise, then left her. It took her 9 minutes to shut up... and the trick is to be IMMEDIATELY in there, the second she goes quiet (think again like kids... if it's quiet, it COULD be trouble }> ) and give lots of praise. Then leave again. See how long it takes for them to be quiet... and as soon as they are, go in and praise. Once the crying is almost non-existant (ie: less than a minute or two), let them out with you again, so that they realise it's not an eternal thing. Do it a couple of times a day (like, every time you feed her) so the message sinks in.
Pee Wee took 3 goes to get the idea. By the third day I had her, I had to leave her locked in for 4 hours whilst I was at work - And according to my landlady (whom I'd fore-warned), she never let out a peep. :D

[Aggie]

I think an important thing is to never comfort them when you take them out, it will only teach them that they were correct to be upset. Also, don't make a big deal out of saying good-bye and hello, again, it will build up the event into a huge deal. When I leave its "get in your crate" treat "good boy. watch the house" I'm gone. Maybe we were lucky, but this method never made it a big deal. Plus, we just got a nicer blanket for in the crate, and I catch him going in more and more to just hang out.