Hello

I just adopted my dog odie from a shelter where he has been in a kennel for the past 6 months. He does really well in the house only one accident, but he HATES his crate, treats do not even work he will stick his face in enough to grab the treat and come right out. I hate forcing him in there because I feel like I am not training him to feel as if the crate is a safe place. He also has had 3 accidents while he was left in his crate. I thought that dogs where not supposed to go potty in their crate because it is like their "den" I am not sure if this behavior is because he was in a kennel for so long or what.. Any suggestions???

Just curious, why are you crate training? I know some people swear by it, I know it did wonders for my dog, but it's not always necessary
Is Odie distructive? If not, I'd recommend buying a 'babygate' and confining him to just one room instead of a small crate.

This reason I am trying to crate train is because my apartment is wide open there is no place to put a baby gate because the kitchen is connected to the living room

Your puppy must be in his crate WHENEVER he is not eating, drinking, relieving himself, or being actively played with and supervised. Here's a sample crate-training schedule: puppy goes in the crate for a couple of hours (he'll sleep during most of this time), then out for a toilet session, a meal, and a playtime of one or two hours. Then it's time for another toilet call, and back in the crate for another sleep (should last about two to four hours).
Dog Crate Training - Puppy Crate Training

Any progress with Odie?
Since you've decide to go with crate training, I can share some of my experience with our dog. She was VERY destructive and not housetrained when we got her, so a crate was really our only option. She also peed in there, and didn't seem to care at all. The only solution was to proceed with normal housetraining (ie, give her food/water, take her outside about 10 minutes later and wait, then PRAISE when she did her buisness out there). It can be a slow, frustrating process, but they will have a breakthrough moment where they seem to suddenly realize what they need to do.

As for getting him to go in the crate. Have you tried just leaving the door open and trying to get him to go in, without barring him in? This worked for us. We'd hide really great treats in her blanket inside her crate and leave her to find them. Eventually she'd enthusiastically go in there. Once that was done, we established a 'happy' routine where we'd tell her we were 'going to the store' :P then put a treat in her crate, and she'd go in. Once she was in there were no emotional good byes or anything like that, we simply left her and she usually settled down quickly.

PS, we did not put Molly in there all the time. We put her in when she was unsupervised, but we'd also let her out but on a leash so we could control her. That way she didn't dread going in the crate, I think she kind of viewed it as her 'downtime' and came to learn to relax in there.

yeah he only goes in when we are not home. I put treats in there all the time, but he doesnt care lol... I think it will just take time. I just will just keep feeding him and giving him treats in there and hopefully with time he will realize I will not leave him in there forever so he can enough it

Maybe you SHOULD start putting him in there whie you are home. That way he'll come to think that the crate isn't always associated with being left alone. We did this with our dog. We'd crate her in the rec room, then go do the dishes or just watch tv. I think that could be a big help, even if it's just for ten minutes.

Sometimes, out of spite, a pup/dog will go potty in their crate. Max, our Sheltie pup (17 months old now, was 5 months when we adopted him), has and will do it to get even:mrgreen:. We only put him in the crate if we're going to be out for several hours, although lately we've been entrusting him to have free run of the house while we're gone and he's been very good.

All in all, each dog reacts to different situations; Sparky, our 7 year old adopted Sheltie will not hesitate to enter a crate, but with Max (another shelter pup), we have to put him on leash and walk him to the crate.

Also, what's Odie's history? Was he abused and left inside a cramped, filthy crate? Taylor, our dearly departed Sheltie was abused and left in a crate for days on end before he was rescued. Naturally, he did not like crates and was distrustful of us until we proved other.

I know you feel frustrated and your patience is hard to come by. You might try getting a larger crate where Odie will have plenty of room to go potty and lay down.

If I think of anything else, I'll surely post it.

Hello,

We had a rescue pup that we had to work with for a while to get her to like the crate. In the end the food and treat lure worked, but we had to get far more creative with the treats. We put her food dish in the crate at the back and ensured the door was open so she could come and go. We also hid great treats randomly (hot dogs, kong stuffed with cream cheese, a jar of baby food (chicken veg.) with lid removed). Dog treats just would not get her to willingly go in. After a week or so she was hanging out in there for fun, and waiting to see what would be brought in! Unless she was unsupervised we left the door open, and the crate was on the main floor of the house...still in the middle of all the action.