My little guy is 11 weeks old. We got him last Saturday. He does not like his crate at all. But as is suggested in the leerburg dvd, I put him in there when I cannot watch him. How can I get him to be ok with it and not fight me every time? I feed him in there. I have tossed treats in and clicked when he goes in. I'm using "Crate" as a cue word, and "good crate" when he goes in. Once he is in he settles down, and he makes it though the night. But as soon as someone enters or leaves the room, he cries. Mostly it is his fighting me when I got to put him in though. He is quick lol.

Anyway, is it just a matter of time, or is there something I could be doing differently to help him?

Thanks so much.

For the most part it boils down to time and consistency.

Time in regards to everything, you and they need to form the habit.

Consistency in regards to being fair and providing a relatively regular schedule of in and out time.

Many of us here do the "toss in the treat" thing. This works but takes a little time. One thing I have done was to make sure there was a treat WAITING for my pup BEFORE he got back to the crate. This way he didn't see me toss it in - it was already there so now he goes into his crate and begins to look around. Sometimes he'll find something, sometimes I give him something, and other times he gets nothing. So, he never knows what is going to happen but more often than not he gets something - so going in it a GOOD thing for him to do.

Don't get me wrong, mine cried too - for a while - not long. Responding to the cries by going over to the crate to try and soothe him will backfire and only re-enforce the crying. As he learns that when he cries, he gets attention - you have to do the opposite of what we would do with a human baby.

Only praise him when he is quite and calm.

Eventually, it will stop. In the beginning you have to make sure that he gets' plenty of opportunity to go outside and relieve himself so that you can be sure that he's just not trying to get your attention to let him out.

My 8 wk old pup was very food motivated--and still is--so it was easy getting her into the crate with treats. She still whined the first few weeks anytime we left her in the crate, but it got dramatically better after the first 4-5 days. (We would also reward her with treats when she was quiet and being well behaved in her crate.)

She is almost 7 months now and we still reward her with treats when she goes to her crate. She will go on command, but we like to make it a positive thing for her and she's finally started sleeping in there on her own without us telling her to go to her kennel.