Leave the door open and put fun stuff in there, so he goes in voluntarily during the day. Put a treat in there, his food, water, etc. Set a treat in there and let him go get it. Repeat but close the door for a few seconds. If he cries wait until he is quiet for a few seconds. Praise him for being quiet and let him out. Keep working on this until the crate is a good thing!
A 9 week old is going to have a lot of accidents. Try crate training, but don't be surprised if you have less accidents if you wait a few weeks to start doing it. For now, just let him get use to the crate. It's OK to let him sleep in it, just put it near you. We had a crate in the bedroom that we used until Loki was mostly housetrained - then we closed the door so he couldn't have access to the whole house and he learned to scratch at the bedroom door at night when he needed to pee. Soon we put up bells so he could run downstairs and ring them and I'm a light sleeper so I will wake up and go let him out.
Oh, and make sure the space is small enough. They should have JUST enough room to lie down. Use a cardboard box or something to fill the extra space. |