We have had a horrible two weeks with our new puppy willow. She is such a bundle of joy and has really made us laugh alot, except when it comes time for the kennel, we have tried several different tactics to no avail. I know believe she thinks it is a form of punishment. I did expect her to be a little hesitant at first. We can be outside most of the day doing some really short training sessions and mostly playing and letting her be a puppy, she will try to fall asleep while we are outside.we will have to leave and put her in the kennel and she will cry and whine, at night its the same way, she will do it at night for an hour or so. She loves the treats we give her while we are training,I have tried to use those same treats for the kennel and when I return the treat is still in there she does not even touch it.Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, we are willing to try anything to make this work

Thanks in advance

Barry

Thank you for the reply,It is a metal caged kennel we do have it covered,have tried lights on and off, tried music,blankets and t-shirts all she did was potty on them.it is not in our bedroom,I am a extremely light sleeper and the slightest noise wakes me up and i only get 5 to 6 hours sleep at best every night anyway but i guess we can try that,cause at this point like i said we are ready to try anything. i will also look fro that video to try. also the kennel we have is a large size for her to have for down the road as she grows, but we have used the divider to decrease the size, it is now at the point of where she can barley move around much at all so I feel bad about that but we are having to give her a bath almost daily to wash the pee off of her and ocassional poop. the way our schedules are the longest that she is ever in there is about 3 hours tops.  

Hi. Congrats on your new puppy!   I had the same issue with our Chocolate Lab pup for several weeks actually.  We tried a small crate, and kept it in our bed between us.  When she would cry, we would put our fingers inside the crate, but we didn't talk to her.  Also, I agree with Texas Belle, NEVER take her out while she is crying.  This reinforces the behavior.  Wait till she is quiet.

What FINALLY worked, after weeks of nothing else working.... We began taking Abby out for DAILY runs of outdoor fetch in lakes, fields, etc. on long check cords.  She LOVED this activity!  We actually DROVE to these daily activities, and each time we would put her in her crate in the back of the pickup truck.   She would cry everytime we put her in, but soon, like within 3 or 4 days, she began to associate the crate with FUN TIMES!  The car trip in the crate was only 5 minutes away, and then 10, and then 20.  Once we got to the 20 minute drive, she was CURED!    

The sleep...unfortunately, with a young pup, it's sort of like having a baby all over again!   Take turns letting her out of the crate, but she may be crying because she doesn't want to potty in her bed.  The time you spend now will save you loads of time later on when she figures out "potty outside!"  "Crate=sleeptime!"   It will take time, but your consistency will pay off!  Hang in there, they grow fast!  Try the short car trips and the fun games, but the car trips must be in a crate!  If she is driven to fetch or hunt for birds or butterflies, the crate will be a means to her reward!   

I actually had 2 kennels for Zoe as a pup. One, which was a cage, was set up in the kitchen and the other one, a closed in travel carrier, was in my bedroom.  The first few days I tried to keep her in her kennel at night in the kitchen and she would just cry, so I moved her to the kennel in my bedroom and that worked out just fine.  Of course she would whimper for a few minutes but then she would settle down.

The first week I brought her home, I took the week off so we could both adjust.  During the day, anytime I saw her getting tired I would pick her up and put her in her little dog bed that was in her kennel in the kitchen and leave the door open.  I always left the door open when I was home and she caught on really quickly to this and would go on her own and lie down on her bed (and still does @ 20 months).

Since I work full time and did not have the opportunity to come home, I had one of the neighbor kids let her out after school.  I knew this would be a long time for her to hold it so I did not divide her kennel and in the back part of her kennel I took an old cookie sheet and lined it with a pee-pee pad in case she had to go. She would wet the pad but never any poops.

Also, I bought her a stuffed animal and this bean bag type toy that that has a little bag filled with corn husks that you can take out and microwave.  I would heat it every night and put it in her kennel with her to sleep.

http://www.petstages.com/dogs-soothing-menu.php

I also had more than one kennel.  I had one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom and the other in the living room.  My puppy Java did not particularly care for the crate at first.  The suggestion from TexasBelle is right on the Crate Games video.  If you don't want to buy it, just go on youtube and look for videos.  Lots of people have their videos up on that technique.  It helps you teach the dog to love to go in the crate an that is a great start.  Even at age two I practice those games with her.  She loves it.

The one in the kitchen was always used a feeding time and the door remained open.  The one in the living room is where she would get her chew while we settled for the evening and watch a little tv.  But the one in the bedroom, I will admit that I did not last long with her in the crate at night . . . she is spoiled and on the bed.  But for the first year of her life she was crated while I went off to work.  At that time she got the special treat of a Kong filled with goodies.  She was more than happy to run in the crate . . . letting me leave without any guilty feelings of a dog whining.

Hang in there.

Thank you all for the replies and suggestions, i guess we will be on the hut for supplies and crates this weekend.

It is so hard to get frustrated with her since I know she is young and she really cracks us up at times,

I would love to post some pics of her but have not figured it out yet.

Thanks once again

Barry

ok good. she will hopefully be a family pet first then my hunting companion second. since this is my first puppy and first hunting companion I just want to make sure I am doing as much the correct way as I can for her.

texas belle, I did a search for snap and could not find her, by chance would it be snips you were thinking about?

Our puppy is pretty good now at night at 11 - 12 weeks. He stays in the front room with us until about midnight, I let him out for pee pee and lock him in the utility room. He manages to go through until about 7am when we get up. His basket and blanket are in teh utility room. Move the blanket into the front room while we are up.

The first week we had him we had him in the same room as us. We sent a blanket for his mummy to sleep with before we picked him up and used this as a comfort, with a warm bottle (The teddy in the photo)
Then we moved him into the utility room. We had a couple of night s of whining but now, touch wood, he seems to be ok with it.
He doesn't like being left in a room during the day at the moment though.