I might be over-reacting here, but my 4 month old puppy seems to be afraid of her crate. Whenever I take her near it, she begins to whimper and shake. I have tried the gradual food move, I have tried the in and out treat training, and I have tried ignoring the whimpers and whines. Am I just overreacting, or am I doing permanent damage here?

I'd love to answer any questions anyone has in regards to my training regiment, or my work schedule, as I feel this fear of the crate will become something worse.

Vagelie A Karatzas
Phoenixx1978@msn.com

Vagelie
Feed your pup its food inside the crate . Start outside the crate then move it (the food bowl)gradually closer to to the front of the door then just inside the door till eventually it is at the back of the crate .Your pup will learn that it is a good place to be , there's food there for it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Is your pup house trained at 4 months ? No damage should be done to your dog .Put it in the crate and leave it there except to go outside to take care of business and for supervised play time and to eat , if you are not feeding it in the crate.
I put my gsd in his crate when he first came home with us and for a week you would have thought that he was dying But now it is his place and he knows it .When my dogs come in from outside they go straight to their crates ,then , they find out if they can stay out or not.
You should read Ed Frawleys articles and the Basic obedience video is great (talks about crate training in it)though I haven't seen the revised edition yet , but since it is revised , it must be even better.And go through the old post lots of questions already asked and answered there
Hope this helps you relax , your dog should be just fine as soon as it figures out you are just giving it its own private bed room.

Rob hit the nail on the head. This is more of a handler issue than a dog issue. Your dog needs to live in the crate for awhile - until it accepts it. The only time out of the crate should be when its on its way outside and just after your bring it back inside.

This continutes until the dog does not trhow a fit in the crate.

But with that said a pup like this is never loose in the house uness you have your eyes on it.

Get my video Your Puppy 8 Week to 8 Months http://leerburg.com/120.htm

THis is covered in detail in this tape.

Vagalie,
You mentioned your "work schedule"...how much continuous time does your pup have to spend in the crate on a daily basis?

I head off to work around 11:30 - 4:00. back home till 6:00 - 9:00. My wife takes her for a walk, and feeds her around 6:30 AM, then I take her for a walk around 4:30. When we get back from work, it's a late nite walk and crating for the night. As per the 8 weeks to 8 months video, and the tips on the forums, I have been setting an alarm when we sleep and when we hang out in the house to take her out every 2 hours we are home. She just ABSOLUTELY hates the crate. Should I be leaving her in the crate more?

Well, that schedule doesn't sound too bad... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
(I asked the question because I've heard of folks leaving a young dog crated for 10+ hours at a time while they commute/work...)

When our pup was young, we used to leave him for about 4-5 hours crated alone in the house while we went shopping, etc. That way we couldn't hear him complain. When we were home the crate was always open, but he was also fed in the crate. At night he slept in the crate in our bedroom. (Sure got tired of dragging that crate from bedroom to kitchen and back again. We finally bought a second one!)
It's just a matter of sticking with the routine, even if the dog complains... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If you absolutely need to take him out because the yelping is getting on your nerves, then make yourself wait till he's between complaints and is somewhat quiet. You don't want to reinforce unwanted behavior.

thanx for all the positive feedback. between the website, the videos, and this forum, I don't know what I would have done without em. Thanx again

Vagelie Karatzas

Feeding helps a lot. I believe in that whole heartedly. But its not the end-all.

Some things to think about:

Where is the crate?
Is it too out in the open? Not in the open enough?
Does he/she throw a fit in the crate - or just before going in?
Is there a covering on the crate (like a towel)?
What kind of crate? Plastic or Wire?
Does the pup have enough exercise? (very important)
Is there enough things to do in the crate (for real, is he/she playing with the toys or not)?
Are you leaving it in the crate too long?

Our pups use to hate it. Its mostly diligence on your part to show them that (1) the crate is their space, (2) the crate is not a bad place, but a safe place, (3) the crate is a part of his/her life and to accept it.

We did this (and I don't know anyone else that's gone to this extreme):

For 3 days, we played with the puppy until it was exhausted. We made the crates up real nice with towels and toys on the inside. We didn't let them go to sleep if they did want to sleep in the crate. If they whined in the crate, we played more. But by then they were already exhausted. And I mean wild playing - running around - batting toys all over. Reaaaally hard to sleep type play - not soothing quiet play. Happy Happy Happy. If they tried to sleep outside the crate - nope .. play play play.

But once inside the crate .. everything went silent and no distractions. Comfy, coozy, snuggly. 3 days, no corrections needed. Kind of a dog reverse-psychology thing.

Go to http://www.chautown.com - click on puppies - then puppy activities - download "crate.zip" and check out the movie. These were two dogs, the spitz particularly, that HATED - HATED - HATED their crates. Hard to tell, eh?

David C

Sorry, that should read:

"We didn't let them go to sleep if they didn't want to sleep in the crate."

wow....That's all I can say.
My pup knows what "go crate" means, I'm pretty sure. She plants her butt on the ground, and doesn't move. As she gets closer to the crate, i.e. me dragging her there, she whimpers and whines until she goes in. Once in, she kinda punches the door until I put the cover over her crate. Then she lays down and I hear spouts of her every now and then. I'm hoping persistence on my part will cure this...but WOW. Those two literally RAN at the chance to "go crate." hehe...one even OPENED the door. most impressive