[gemy]

We had a rough 7 nights the first week. Or should I say I did, as I slept in the garden room with our Dara 7+ wks old when we got her. And she is a BRT a large breed dog who weighed a hefty and healthy 18lbs. I used every trick in the book, covering her crate - she would settle down - but wake up maybe 2hrs later and start crying, the crying would be so very lovely ascending in waves of crescendos, until I would say hush little girl. Success for 30 seconds - also she needed to potty a lot at night. And then she needed to play.... So that is how it went. Back in crate - covered fall asleep for 2hrs then oops up we are again. Finally it began to work. She and I slept together on the air mattress for 4hrs one night. THat seemed to break the cycle.

She is still not happy about going in her crate. But she is in her crate at various times of the day. Sometimes I do it, and sit and read or watch tv. Sometimes she is the only one in her crate, sometimes all the dogs are in their crates with her. I also feed her in her crate, and at various times during the day, put toys in it, then ask her to find those toys - and she goes into the crate to get the toy and out again. Now she will go to her crate to "safely" play with her toy in her "den".

It is your persistence no matter how hard that is for you, that will pay off in the long run. I truly believe in crate training every dog. It is such a very usefull skill for a dog to have.
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