flyinion

Well, we started a week ago when he was 8 weeks. Seems like it's 1 step forward and 2 back. He does ok at night (just a little whining or howling for a few). We found out today if he's napping we can pick him up and put him in there (he'll wake up a bit and knows what's going on) and he'll nap in it with the door open. Try to get him to go in there when he's awake during the day though and it seems like it's getting really bad. He's gone from the normal whining/barking to chewing/licking the bars to tonight he randomly went into a coughing/hacking fit and we had to let him out. Now he's back in it napping (door open and then we shut it and left the room)

I'm completely stressed over what's going to happen when everyone has to leave the house at once and nobody is home. If anyone has any tips for our situation I'd really appreciate it. I seriously feel like I'm doing something really wrong somewhere and I've done so much reading on how to crate train I don't know what I'm doing wrong. We tried the tossing treats and toys in today (took the divider out for a bit to get him all the way in it) and he'd run in and eat the treats and run out or run in and grab the toy and run out with it. If we put something like a nylabone in it (not tossed like play just placed) he'll again grab it and walk out. We've tried these techniques earlier in the week with the same result, he just had to go farther into the crate today with the divider taken out. It's wire crate and we've tried covered and uncovered, it also has an old worn shirt with my smell on it.

Jodiejo

Dixie hated her crate when we first tried crate training her. But when we stepped back and looked she was spending most of her day and her night in there. With some advice from some really nice people on here we decided to not make her sleep in it and she would sleep with my son. Things started going a bit better but she still hated her crate. I would put her in there and give her treats on top of treats and she would scream so loud, I could here from outside the house. but over time it's gotten better. We are able to come home though and let her out during the day which makes me feel better, I can't stand her staying in there all day like that. But it gets better. She goes in on her own now. I have her peanut butter kong and a couple of chewy sticks and tell her to go get in her house and she trots over there with no incidents. much better than how we started out. Don't give up!!

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s&s

I think every dog is different. When I started crate training Suki, it sounded like to dogs fighting to the death. It was so awful, I closed her in the laundry room when I went to work instead of making her go in her crate. One day she got herself tangled up in the ironing board cord and nearly strangled herself. After that, we both just had to suck it up and deal with it. She was so much safer in her crate it was no long an option. I had to wait out the crying for awhile. She eventually got used to it and would even go in on her own. Samson, was a breeze. He cried 15 min the first night and that was pretty much it. We're still working on the "go to your crate" command, it's not exactly his favorite place!
Boxers really like to be near their family, so you may want to move the crate. Also, he's still so new and new to your house, he may just need a little more time to adjust. Samson was day and night different in a matter of a couple of weeks (especially with how vocal he is).

flyinion

Yeah the crate is always either in the living room about 1 foot from one chair or about 3 feet from the couch or we haul it upstairs at night (that's fun, 42" wire crate). So he's definitely near us. The chewing at the bars and the coughing/hacking incident is just really concerning me. He's also out of the crate except at night and except for an attempt to maybe put him in for a couple hours mid day and a couple hours around our dinner so we can eat without having to hover over him. I suspect more exercise would help but that's very hard without shots to be able to walk him yet.

flyinion

So, looks like working with the crate this weekend turned out pretty good. We solved the bar chewing (after I noticed him do it out of the crate too) by spraying some bitter apple on them. Doesn't seem to have affected his opinion of the crate either way. We put him in there this morning because we had to leave for a couple hours and I remembered just before we pulled out of the driveway that leaving the radio on might help. So I went back in through a different entrance and everything was totally quiet and he was just laying there. Got back 2 hours later and he was just fine.

Today every time he decided to nap, we scooped him up and put him in with the door open. We also fed him in there for lunch and dinner after first locking his food bowl in there with him outside. (he really wanted in then) He'd go in and eat and we'd let him out the instant he was done before any complaining could occur. The human dinner crate time went well. Put him in there with a Kong frozen with peanut butter (which he totally ignored pretty much) and he kind of "grumbled" a bit but laid down anyway.

The best part was bedtime just now. At first he didn't want to go in so I sat on the floor and he instantly "cuddled" up to me. Petted him for a minute or two and then motioned that I wanted him to go in the crate. He went in and laid down and hasn't made a peep. From the looks I get I don't think he's necessarily happy with the crate yet, but he's accepting that the crate is an ok place. I still don't know what caused that hacking/coughing thing last night though, hoping that never happens again.

KarmaDestiny

Congrats on the progress!

It does take some time, but they eventually realize it is their safe place and will go in willingly and when told. We are still working on the when told aspect of the crate training ourselves.

af_wx_wife

Congrats on the progress!!!! I will never have a dog that isn't kennel trained. Makes me not worry when I walk out as to what they could be getting into.

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flyinion

Thanks. We're about to have a test run of a day when both of us are at work. I'm heading home from work for a noon feeding/potty/re-crate in which he'll have to spend 2-3 hours again by himself.