Crate Training Keeps Falling Apart After a Few Weeks

“I have an almost 11 month old mixed breed puppy. My dog in the last two months has been having accidents in the crate. She goes in the crate when she wants to but almost daily I can expect to clean up her crate. She has a platform bed in my room that she hangs out on but she has started to pee on that. I’m at the end of my rope with this behavior and I am really considering bringing her back to the shelter. submitted by /u/PowerOwn696 [link] [comments]”

“Hi all! I’ve searched Reddit for people who have dealt with a similar situation but haven’t turned up anything. I’m hoping someone here has some advice or can share similar experiences! My 5 month old puppy is dealing with some crate regression. We focused a lot on crate training those first few weeks and had some great success! He was sleeping through the night and would sleep from 8:30 to 11:45~ and from 1:00 - 4:00~ during my in-office days. We had even worked up to him chilling in the crate”

“We have a 10 month old female great dane. Brought her home in February at 9 weeks old. Started crate training a week later and she screams, cries, howls. Vet said give it time, ok cool. It is now October and she still screams, howls, cries She eats any blanket we put in to make it comfortable. Ended up in the vet ER after she ate half a blanket. She poops and pees in there. So we decided to just lwave her out at night and block her in the livingroom. Also side note we also have a 6 year old dane”

“Hi all. 8 week old Labrador came home yesterday. Breeders started crate training so not alien to him, he’s taking himself in there we’ve made that his safe space. Napping and slept almost through the night however only made a noise to toilet which was perfect. Just to ensure everything is going right. I’ve left the crate door open during the day so he can come and go in between his naps since he’s doing it even if I put him in there. Is it worth starting to shut the door just to really acclimati”

“We have a Miniture Australian Labradoodle(Maggie) who is 19-20 weeks old, she previously had zero issues in her crate with a blanket covering and was taking her day time naps in there comfortably for up to 2 hours and sleeping through the night in there too for ~8 hours. Suddenly shes no longer doing this, nothing has seemingly changed with her routine or anything but she now wont sleep longer than 1 hour be it during daytime naps or through the night. She cries and paws at her crate non stop af”

“I feel like a terrible person. My 16 week old puppy is really good with the “one hour awake, two hours asleep” rule during the day. Obviously it varies a bit but that’s our general pattern. Since we have a small house and several kids, we put him in his kennel during nap times. On a normal day, he’s out for 7-8 hours. We play, go for two 20 minute walks, etc. But I was sick today and could barely manage to care for him. He still got one walk in, but he’s only spent 4 or 5 hours out of his kennel”

“My puppy is 8 months old and is crate trained. Overall, she does very well with her crate and has no problem going in for naps. The issue is what happens after she wakes up . For example, when we need to leave the apartment, we’ll put her in her crate and close the door. She’ll usually sleep for around 2 hours. Sometimes she wakes up briefly and goes back to sleep, but eventually she seems to fully wake up. At that point, she will start scratching/digging at her mat pretty frenetically. We haven”

“My 14-week-old Lab sleeps from around 10pm, but every morning at about 6:45am he starts whining, crying, scratching and jumping around in his crate until we let him out around 8am. Sometimes if we get back out to the sofa to sleep he would calm down and go back to sleep but it still takes a fair bit of time. He normally settles absolutely fine in his crate and doesn’t do this during the night, it’s just in the morning. I also don’t think it’s toilet-related, as he doesn’t pee or poo when we let”

“My lab pup (almost 4 months) is completely crate trained, had one accident(still not sure if it was drool or pee. There was no pee smell just a small wet spot on the pad cover), goes in with minimal or no fuss. I got him the crate he’ll need when he’s full grown and have been using the divider for now. When did you guys take the divider down? Or did you gradually increase room as they grow? submitted by /u/Square-Ad8041 [link] [comments]”

“When he's done napping in his crate and ready to come out he starts barking and whining constantly. It never stops. I tried letting him conk himself out but it never ends. Letting him bark and whine for over 30 minutes seems counterproductive to his crate training. I don't like taking him out when he's doing it but I feel like I don't have a choice. I've tried working on the freeze and reverse drill. I'll wait for a brief second of silence and go in the room. When he star”

“My partner and I just got a 10-week-old puppy and we’re having a pretty serious disagreement about crate training. I’m a first-time dog owner, so I’m genuinely looking for advice rather than trying to prove either one of us right. My partner’s philosophy is basically that once the puppy is in the crate, we need to leave him alone and allow him to learn to settle. He thinks even acknowledging him too much is teaching him that whining gets attention. He is fine with us being quietly nearby, but be”

“Hi all! My puppy is 5 months old, she is a blue tick beagle and lab mix. I am at my wits end trying to get her to stop pooping in the crate. I genuinely don't understand this. I have tried different routines, and the entire time I've had her I've tried to associate the word potty for her so that I can try to get her to go before I put her in the crate. She hasn't gotten it at all. She doesn't pee in the crate but she poops in the crate, it's like she doesn't want to s”

“Athena is our 12 week old puppy we for 3 weeks ago. She is a Rottweiler mix (not sure with what. Mama dog looks like a million different breeds.) Someone please tell me that if we keep it up our puppy will eventually accept the crate. So many of the stressors I have with her are exacerbated by her hating her crate. She doesn’t sleep well and so she gets overtired quickly and becomes a velociraptor with zoomies. She’s not sleeping more than 2 hours at a time overnight, so the sleep deprivation is”

“I’m having a bit of trouble with my 16 month old mountain cur/terrier mix. I adopted her in January and I can probably count on one hand the amount of times she’s slept outside of her crate. She sleeps in her crate in a room alone at night or when unsupervised. She struggles to settle outside of her crate even though I’ve taught her place (she’ll even choose her place if she catches herself getting too excited), we do the relaxation protocol, and we do enrichment games. I will say, her general e”

“Hi there! My wife and I are LOSING OUR MINDS. Our brittany-spaniel-lab mix puppy, Tulip, has been totally fine in her crate (for the most part) for the better part of two years. She'll be two in October. Over the last week or so, there have been issues where she's working herself up at night, and we're not sure what's happening. Any blankets we use to cover have been ripped to shreds. She has a box fan for air circulation (in addition to AC - it's very comfortable in there),”

“TL;DR crate training is emotionally stressful. Support or commiserating welcome. I brought my 3mos Aussie/Pyr mix rescue home on Saturday. She has slept in the crate two nights now and it hasn't been awful, but it hasn't been easy. We spent all day yesterday playing crate games, and she eats her meals in the (open door) crate. Today is the first day trying to set up a daytime schedule and crate napping. And y'all, I have been humbled. I am an infant/toddler nanny and I am very very g”

“We’ve had our puppy for about a month and a half. He’s a 6-month-old, 55lb Great Pyrenees mix and, overall, while he needs some work, he‘s a relatively chill dude, until crate time. A few things about his relationship with the crate: He sleeps perfectly fine in it at night and actually puts himself to bed. He also gets high-value treats in the crate, and he knows it. He’ll rush inside and pop in and out excitedly until I get there with his treat. Sometimes I leave the door open, and sometimes I”

“Two weeks ago I finally got my 12 week old boxer lab cross boy! His training has been ok he knows sit, down and sort of leave it. He pretty much knows trick = treat and that works getting him into his crate alongside regular feedings in his crate. He eats breakfast lunch and dinner in there in a slow feeder sometimes with the door all the way shut sometimes a little just to get him used to it and normally he ignores it which is great. We have a regular schedule of wake up, outside to potty, 5min”

“Hey guys, I’ve been lurking in the sub for a few weeks since we adopted a 21 month old Labrador who didn’t succeed in a service dog program due to excitability. We’ve had him for 6 weeks this weekend. He gets every meal in the crate, he gets kongs, carrots, cucumber treats etc all in the crate. We throw kibble in the folds of his blanket in there throughout the day so he has a surprise of finding kibble in there a few times a day. Recently he’s become crate avoidant and my partner and I cannot f”

“Hi there! Looking for some advice regarding the crate. My puppy is almost 14 weeks old and she’s been with us for 2 weeks now. She’s been doing great with training and sleeps in her crate happily all night for 7 hours without whining. Her crate is beside my bed and she settles right in. The issue is with her naps during the day. I have tried playing games in the crate, feeding in the crate, I have for the past two weeks done very short crate naps with me still in the house. I have tried closing”

“11 week old toller puppy is so distressed in the crate that he won't take treats or eat meals in it, even if I'm sitting right next to the crate with him. He sleeps calmly in the crate at night without issue, just hates it during the day. Should I just sit with him while he screams/cries and just keep offering reassurance and treats, or let him out and work on approximating going into/sitting in the crate. He will not go in voluntarily during the day, so we need to work up to that. Multi”

“We’re on week 2 of crate training our 12 week old puppy and I feel like we’re making no progress. Before you suggest feeding meals/treats in the crate, playing games with the crate, rewarding him for being calm in the crate, and practicing short absences…we’ve tried all of the above. Right now he basically will only sleep in the crate at night which is next to our bed and up on a surface level with the bed so he can see us and we can try to calm him when he whines. He usually wakes up every 2-3”

“Hi all, We have a 9 week old springer spaniel puppy. We picked him up exactly a week ago. His crate training is going really well, he would whine for a minute or two before falling asleep but never sounded too panicked. Just this evening as we were doing his usual bedtime routine he has decided he dislikes his crate lol. He was doing his regular whining but it lasted closer to 10 minutes than his usual 2 minutes. Then he suddenly did a very panicked cry along with some panting which made me and”

“Portuguese Water Dog, 10 weeks old, we’ve had him for 2 weeks. I’m writing this for anyone who is struggling with crate training. We have had our wonderful puppy (PWD) for 2 weeks now. And everything has gone well (in no little part, thanks to this sub), with the exception of crate training. Every time we moved him into his crate, he’d exit. We tried putting meals and games in there. We put lots of toys, and soft bedding. It didn’t work. He even leaves if we moved him in there sleeping. After 5”

“I have a 4-month old Terrier Mix who is the biggest ball of personality. She responds incredibly well to obedience commands and is seriously a gift. However, we’ve been crate training since the day we brought her home (almost two months ago) and she responds well to going in the crate at night with no issue and sleeps the entire night. The issue is that during the day when my partner and I are home, she has a much harder time settling. Some days she’ll mildly whine before falling asleep and othe”

“Hi all! I have a 12 week old mixed husky puppy, and I have been struggling with crate/confinement training. She can be in certain rooms alone just fine, but other rooms she does not want to be confined to. I have a crate for the morning while I’m at work, and she is normally in there for 3-4 hours until my cousin is home to spend the afternoon with her. She does not go into the crate willingly in the morning, but she seems to settle fairly quickly and falls asleep. I have a camera, and by the ti”

“My 5 month old english lab recently re-developed a problem where he poops in the crate consistently. This was an issue when he was 2-3 months old, but was resolved However, now that this problem has resurfaced, the methods that solved the issue are not working anymore. Issue: Despite going outside 10+ times a day, and having 3-4 solid poops outside, he will have diarrhea/soft poop in the crate. This has been happening overnight, but last night he did in the evening as well. Timeline of last nigh”

“We have 12 week old German shepherd lab mix who’s generally been great and progressing well. Since we brought him home at 8 weeks the crate training has gone mostly well. He’ll go in and lie down. Sometimes he does it without a peep, but other times, especially at night when it’s time for bed, he really puts up a fuss. He whines and barks for 5-10 minutes but eventually settles and relaxes or sleeps. We’ve been making an effort to keep thing as normal as possible around the house so he’s desensi”

“I have a 16 week old English cocker spaniel puppy. He struggled with being alone in the crate from day one. He has no problem being in the crate at night when we go to sleep. He was making great progress in the crate during the day, would usually wake at the 2.5 hour mark, fuss for 20 mins, then go back to sleep for maybe 30 more mins. However over this past week he has regressed significantly in the crate and I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m back at square one where I can’t leave him in”

“We have a 5 month old golden retriever puppy. She has a crate which is in a play pen, she sleeps well in the crate overnight and mostly has her naps there in the day. However the rest of the time, if we leave the room and she is in her play pen, she will go ape shit barking. We've tried to let her bark it out, this isnt very successful. Other times we sit where she can see us, and she tends to calm down. But my goodness....we need to leave the house and not have her bark the place down! Plea”

“11 week old English Setter we’ve had him for just over a week now. Since day one we’ve been trying to introduce his crate to him, give him treats and praise for being in the crate. We feed all meals in the crate and play games going in and out of the crate with high value treats. We’ve also done trainings with the door closed where we walk away from the crate, and even as far as going out of his sight for a brief minute and then coming back and rewarding him if he stays calm. We saw something ab”

“Hello I have a Dachshund who’s 13 weeks roughly and has been in our family for 4 weeks basically. He was a gift for my older brother who has been struggling to crate train him. I have my own dog who’s 7 years old and gives me zero trouble even when she was younger. Thing is our new family member is land shark who imo bites me way harder than my brother and doesn’t let me sleep whenever i come home from work. When i come home is when my brother goes to work and he asks me to watch him so his whin”

“So until last week our puppy was sleeping great in his crate, and suddenly he hates it at night. He barks for two hours, then falls asleep for one hour and then keeps barking for another two hours or three. Doesn’t seem to settle. My wife took him out from the crate 3 days ago and he sleeps great in our room by the bed, but I’m having problems with this as we may lose our intimacy. I’ve suggested soaking with my neighbor regarding night noise and try Friday night and Saturday night without givin”

“So i unexpectedly acquired a 9month old small terrier mix about a month ago. She came to me with absolutely 0 training. I have gotten her house broken and I thought she was successfully crate trained. She has a history of crate anxiety because her previous owner used it as a punishment. Since she has a history of chewing the plastic tray i have her in a bare crate with a heavy duty pee pad underneath for friction. I have a ruffland crate coming but will probably take a month to arrive. So for no”

“Ive got a 12 week old puppy she is a lab x german shepherd mix and we are unsure wether to crate train or not. She is a very well behaved puppy so far she doesn’t chew on things she shouldn’t (i know this may change as she gets older and more confident and starts teething), shes house trained and is a very smart girl for her age. the only issue we are having is she doesn’t like being left alone at all. if i go upstairs to get changed or go do something within 20 seconds shes crying and howling.”

“Ive got a 12 week old puppy she is a lab x german shepherd mix and we are unsure wether to crate train or not. She is a very well behaved puppy so far she doesn’t chew on things she shouldn’t (i know this may change as she gets older and more confident and starts teething), shes house trained and is a very smart girl for her age. the only issue we are having is she doesn’t like being left alone at all. if i go upstairs to get changed or go do something within 20 seconds shes crying and howling.”

“My fiance has a 2yo male heeler-kelpie mix that is in a really bad habit of peeing and pooping in his crate upwards of 4-5 times per day. He's previously gone 12 hours or more without needing to go, so I'm not sure why this is an issue all of a sudden. I can't do anything myself right now since I'm on a deployment with the Army, but she's tried rewards, discipline, giving him a bed, taking said bed away, keeping him on a consistent schedule, etc. His crate is definitely too b”

“I have a 12 week old puppy and she has done amazing in the crate. Only two nights where we had to give up and let her sleep out of the crate and she’s only been sleeping in it a week and she’s already barely crying when she does. The only problem I’m concerned about is when she’s going off on one and is hyper, I’m putting her in the crate. When she’s really hyper to the point of not listening to any of us. I resort to putting her in the crate for not even 5 minutes. The most I have was 2. I’m ju”

“Puppy, Australian Labradoodle, is now 12 weeks old. We got her at 8 weeks, and the first few nights in the crate were unbearable. Of course we took her out, calmed her, ended up sleeping on the floor with her (we don't do the dogs in our bed thing). She wasn't afraid of the crate, would eat and play in the crate but when you locked the door, she melted down. We set up a corral around the crate, opened the door and she was fine sleeping on the floor next to the open crate, within the corr”

“My husband and I adopted a now 14 week old miniature American shepherd a week ago. He is a very sweet boy and has been doing pretty good with crate naps during the day. The issue lies with nighttime and mid night potty breaks. He will bark and bark and bark at night and we have tried the letting him just work through it and settle for several days now but we live in an apartment and letting him go for 20+ minutes several times is just not fair to our neighbors. It’s not just whining it is a very”

“my puppy is now 7mo, and generally she’s amazing. But I’m having one problem which is transitioning her from crated to house privileges overnight. Started with her in my bedroom with the door shut, which was fine. But once I let her have more of a run of the house I noticed she started peeing on the doormat. I know she peed on it occasionally as a puppy, so thought scent was lingering despite enzymatic cleaner so took it up and didn’t have any issues for a few weeks. But now she’s started peeing”

“(Edit: that should say “loving”) 5 month old puppy - is pretty well crate trained for naps during the day and has been great at night in her crate for the most part. Suddenly, this past week she has not been able to settle in her crate. Whining, crying, scratching at the door, etc. After one night on the couch with her, she slept in the bed - didn’t get up at all, just settled and slept the whole night. Last night, she did ok from 9:30pm - 1am. Out for a quick pee break (this is also new, she ha”

“Hi all. My puppy is 6 months old and crate trained. She is great at napping and sleeping through the night in her crate, but now that she’s getting older and can have mostly awake time during the day, I’m struggling. I used to be able to get stuff don’t while she was down for a nap in her crate but now, I need to be doing chores while she’s awake. We have a big play pen with all her toys in it, and she HATES it. Even if I’m upstairs or in the other room doing stuff, she just freaks out the whole”

“My 9 month old lab/pit mix has been great at going in the crate since we got her at 2.5 months. Always slept in there at night and went in there when we left the house, no problem. Over the past probably 2 months, she has started to aggressively bark/lunge when locking the crate door. But once she is in there and I walk away, she settles within a couple of minutes and goes to sleep and is fine for the rest of the time that she's in there. It has made me scared to close the crate door, which”

“Hey all. I have a 4 month Patterdale cross Cocker Spaniel. I am moving to a shared living situation in a month and crate training for puppy is NOT going well. When he’s in there he screams and cries and howls, it’s all very dramatic and I need to know tips and tricks to get him to like it in there. I give him high value treats every time he goes in but he still brings the drama sigh. I have also tried the leaving periodically method, where you leave for a couple seconds then return and do that u”

“This is my 3rd pit puppy. He’s almost 14 weeks. The first few weeks was brutal. No sleep. He was getting good at potty training. He would happily go in the crate next to my bed every night but he would wake me up several times a night to go out. I was happy he was waking me up. Started restricting water after 9 pm and suddenly I was getting 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep and it was glorious. I’m 58 years old and not trying to have a heart attack from lack of sleep. Well it all changed 3 day”

“I have a pit/chihuahua (not 100% sure what the dad is but looks like a chi) puppy who is nearly 9 weeks old (bday June 6th) and I'm having some trouble with crate training. At first, he did pretty good in the crate over night. He's only ever had one accident in the house, and that was because I was in the bath and was unable to let him out in time, so I started letting him sleep in bed with me at night. I genuinely don't mind if my animals sleep in bed with me as long as I can trust”

“Hey I crate trained my dog and never he was always fine with it. He didn’t mind sleeping in it, eating in it or on the rare occasion hanging out in it while I’m at my work desk. I trusted him around 8 months to not need to be crated when I go out and that’s still the case. It was nice to have during potty, sleep, and general training but now that he is 14 months, very well behaved and generally only lays in it if I’m in the same room as it (and even then he alternates between the floor, dog bed”

“Age: 10 weeks Breed: Australian shepherd mix. We have had him one week. He has been fine in his crate at night for a week, up until last night. He’d whine for a few minutes, but always settled. The crate is at the foot of our bed. We don’t have room for it anywhere else, and can not safely raise it up. I have tried: putting a blanket over it- he chewed it. he chews everything fabric, so he only has a kong teething toy in the crate. Sleeping by him- he cries louder. White noise did not help. Last”

“Hi there! My puppy Molly is 17 weeks old and we have been hard at work trying to crate train her. We know it’s a valuable skill for so many reasons and we want to make sure it’s something we master. Since the day we brought her home, we have been crating her at night and for enforced naps. She sleeps the recommended amount and, if she’s tired, she will usually go in without a fight for nap or bedtime. The girl literally runs to her crate excited when we give the command. The problem we have is t”

“We've had her for 3 months and, with a lot of training, we're getting there. However, this is something that it's NOT improving. She sleeps in her crate inside a playpen with water and a patch of fake grass so she can potty without a problem. This playpen is in the landing that connects all rooms in our house, so outside our room but close enough to know if something wrong happens. It cannot be 100% dark but we close all doors so it's darker (can't put a blanket right now bec”

“I really need help. Me and my boyfriend adopted a now 7/8 month old boxer mix at the beginning of the summer (3 months). We are still working on crate training. I go back to work in two weeks so I need to be able to leave him alone for a few hours while my boyfriend has left for work until I get home, as we work staggered schedule. He loves his crate. He will eat it. He will actively go down and lay in it, even when we don’t tell him to.He will go laying in it at night. He prefers to go in his c”

“So my puppy has a crate in her pen, and I’ve had her for a 6 weeks. Throughout these 6 weeks at night she’d be in her pen, and just swap back and forth sleeping in her crate and pen (she chose where to sleep in the pen), but in the day time, I’d put her in the crate specifically cause she would not sleep on her own! 2 nights ago, suddenly, she hates the pen. I put her in at night and she started screaming non stop. I kept taking her to the bathroom, but she screamed from 8 pm to 1 am. I checked”

“I have a mini Aussie puppy currently 10 weeks old. Since we got him, he has adapted fairly well. Sleeps in crate at night but does tend to cry for the first 5-10 minutes. I normally let him free roam the living room during the day when I’m working. In the evening 4 days a week, I am working away and he stays in his play pen connected to his crate. Normally he does pretty good. He has gotten big enough he can reach some side tables and coffee tables and into more stuff he shouldn’t. He eats every”

“Just wondering - so i understand enforced naps in the crate forces your puppy to settle and have a sleep but what about if their self settling? my husky puppy is 10 weeks old. i’ve got a sleeping crate upstairs and she sleeps in there overnight next to my bed no problem. then i have a bigger crate down in the kitchen. my goal for this first week is feeding her in there, treats in there, her mothers blanket is in there etc to get her ok with the crate downstairs. i have tried a few times to put h”

“We have a 7 week old goldador. We’ve been crate training for 2 weeks and it’s been going well with the exception of the past 3 nights. She won’t settle. Whines for more than 5 minutes, pants after that. And has been waking more often. She has become more aware of her surroundings and more comfortable in our home, so I’m thinking that’s why. My question is, is it really necessary? If we stop, where is she supposed to sleep at night? What do we do to keep her safe while we’re at work? submit”

“I adopted a two year old pitt terrier (mix) about 3 weeks ago. It’s been up and down and recently, a house trained dog has been having accidents inside. During the day, she lays next to me while I work from home, and she tends to dislike it when I leave the room but she has been acclimating. She was supposedly crate trained and was in a few fosters but the last one was in the suburbs (backyard) and allowed her to sleep in the bed. Initially I had her sleeping in the crate in the living but notic”

“My dog is a 7mo old pitty mix who we adopted 10 days ago. We are working really hard on crate training. He is able to go in it no problem and can spend some time in there (has done over an hour with me in the house and out of sight), but leaving the house is another issue. We have worked up to 1-2 minutes outside the door with a little bark and whine here and there. Today I tried it again and he immediately began barking and whining and did not settle for 3 minutes, at which point I went back in”

“We have a 6 month old female maltipoo. The last four nights she has started pooing in her crate at night and burying it under her blanket. We have tried going back to basics she didnt go toilet after her 6pm dinner.. i walked her for 30 minutes at 9pm and then put her down at 9.30pm. Went down to give another toilet break at 11.45pm and she had already soiled in her crate... we was thinking it was happening in the early hours. It feels like she is holding it in until she goes into her crate for”