A little advice on getting puppy used to crate again

Hi,

I have been a lurker for some time and have joined this morning (introduction on new member board).

I was wondering if someone could give me a little advice. Louis is 6 months and up until 2 weeks ago he was happy in his crate at night.

Now we are even having trouble getting him to go in. Before i would say bed and he’d happily wonder in, we’d let him settle in there for about 30 mins before we shut the door and went to bed ourselves.

2 weeks ago we did the usual routine but when we said bed he wouldn’t go in and just laid on the laminate and turned his head away and ignored us, this went on for an hour. In the end I decided to put a treat in his cage and say ‘bed’. He went in but only really for the treat. This has happened every night since. He is even getting wise to the treat and won’t even go in for that.

I’ve considered moving his crate from the living room into the kitchen and leaving the crate door open and him having the whole kitchen. (There’s too many hazards in the living room for him to be left in there). However, he’s still not completely dry in his crate at night, he has a puppy pad in there and will sometimes use it, not always though.

Any suggestions for what we should try? Should we also stop leaving a puppy pad in his crate now?

I’m so confused what to do for the best.

I'd take the pad out, especially if he doesn't always use it.

To be honest, I'd do what you've sugested yourself - take the crate into the kitchen & leave the door open for him. I'm wondering if he was disturbed by some fireworks a couple of weeks ago, and he associates the noise with his crate?

The firework theory is certainly possible, we live in a built up area so it was quite a noisy night. We stayed up with him until around 1am in the hope that it would be quiet after that and it did seem to be. However, now that you mention it, there could have been some in the distance that we just didnt hear ourselves.

Thanks for your help.

Maybe try & put some nice things in there - treats for him to find, or a toy he likes.

It could of been something that disturbed him.....if i were u i would just keep doing what your doing encourage him in there with treats and toys. Dont just shove him in.....He will problably just "get over it" by himself.
As to the puppy pad yes definatley take it out. He's old enough now to have the bldder control to go through the night. Dogs hate messing there sleeping areas so by taking it out u will be encouraging him to "hold it".

How old is he? It could be he is just too young to hold it all night. The last time you feed and walk him can also make a difference.

he's 6 months old now jstaff so will have the bladder control to go through the night. I would of thought its the habit u have to break

Thanks for all your comments. We have decided to continue as we are and to do go back to basics with getting him used to the crate again.

If nothing improves then we'll move his crate and keep the door open. We were planning on doing that when he's older and better trained anyway.

He's got his first obedience training tonight. Really looking forward to it! If i get chance to have a word with the trainer at a break then i'll ask them for some tips also.

Thanks for your help!

Hope it works out for you