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Doesn't want to go in her crate at night


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Quick request for thoughts: our 1 year old is fine with her crate. During the day and in the evening, part of our training includes "go to your crate" and she happily runs and gets in her crate. Even when we are leaving for a few hours, we can simply say "crate" and she runs and gets in, no problem. At night, however, when we are going to bed she absolutely refuses to go to her crate. We have tried enticing her with treats, waiting her out, etc., but she goes into my bedroom and lays next to the bed, refusing to get up. 

Thoughts? 

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29 minutes ago, jami74 said:

Does she have to go in her crate at night?

Our boy now sleeps very well on a mat at the end of my bed :)

She was allowed to roam in our bedroom and the adjacent one and did great for several weeks, then one night chewed up a few things so she was put back in the crate. 

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If you have given in to her when she refuses to go into her crate at night, and let her stay when she ran into the bedroom instead,  you have taught her that she can get away with not going into her crate. If you really don't want her in the bedroom loose, how about crating her in the bedroom? If that is not practical, get her into the crate at night and ignore her when she kicks up a fuss. Eventually she will accept it.

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I think she's telling you that, like any pack animal, she doesn't want to be separated from her family at night.

As D'Elle suggests, if you could either move the crate into the bedroom at night or maybe find a second one on Craigslist or similar to put into the bedroom for a while till she doesn't need it anymore, I suspect she'd be happier and more settled.

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Mine's doing that as well! Except his crate is in our bedroom next to our bed. When I say bedtime, he flops down and refuses to move (but is happy to go in his crate any other time of day). I never let him get away with it, though, and more or less have to physically drag him to his crate. On top of that, he always gets a tasty treat for going to bed, so it's not like he's not being rewarded for going into his crate. He's been doing this for a few weeks now, but I think we're turning a corner. It used to be that I'd have to drag him all the way into his crate. Now after a few seconds of dragging him he gets up and walks into his crate. Tonight we're going to try letting him sleep outside of his crate, though. Wish I had advice, but I really don't! Just wanted to let you know I know how you feel (and really am looking for tips, too)!

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  • 5 weeks later...

This is really interesting. Our 7 month old used to sleep with us in our bedroom when he was little as he just used to bark too much in the kitchen and it would have been too noisy for the neighbours. We’ve moved house since. 

 

A few weeks before we left the old house he started becoming incredibly unhappy in his crate in the bedroom. He just wouldn’t settle and would thrash about constantly, trying to get our attention and sometimes even barking. So I put him in the kitchen in his crate, he was good as gold down there! Didn’t make a sound. 

 

So eventually I left the crate door open. He still chooses to sleep in his crate, but his door is never closed. Don’t hear a sound from him. At weekends he happily sleeps in too! 

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