I faced a sort of similar situation a couple of weeks ago and got some great advice from the people in this forum. Here's the link to that thread: http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/ubb...true#Post732143
Few things that worked for me:
1) crating during the daytime: the ignore advice
2) crating at night: having the crate next to my bed, lying down on the floor next to the crate with my pillow until Wolfie dozed off a bit, afterwards when I am in bed whenever he whimpered I just put my fingers inside the crate so that he could sniff them (he usually settled down after that)
Another thing I tried to get him used to the crate during the daytime was having the crate door open, say kennel up, gently put him inside, treat him, have him come out immediately, treat him again. I think I did that over and over for almost an hour it seems. He did need to be physically put inside though most of the time during that exercise.
Wolfie gets a treat every single time he gets into his crate. I buy the Nutro Max Puppy biscuits. He seems to really like those and the only time he gets them is when he has to go inside his crate.
Regarding the ignore advice, the yowling was just horrifying and I'm sorry, I couldn't just stay in the house and ignore it. So during the daytime, what I did was this: crated him, gave him his biscuit, put a toy and a rawhide in it (he LOVES rawhide) and left the house for an hour. I could hear him hollering as I pulled out of the garage. When I pulled into the garage, I could still hear him (much less noise this time). The minute my key touched the door though he was quiet, so I let him out. Over the next few days, whenever he was crated, I realized he was keeping quieter and quieter (I would sneak back to the side of the house to snoop). He would start whining whenever he heard the garage door open on my way back but keep quiet when the key touched the door. Now, he stays quietly in his crate all throughout.
Hope this helps! And best of luck with the crating!
Few things that worked for me:
1) crating during the daytime: the ignore advice
2) crating at night: having the crate next to my bed, lying down on the floor next to the crate with my pillow until Wolfie dozed off a bit, afterwards when I am in bed whenever he whimpered I just put my fingers inside the crate so that he could sniff them (he usually settled down after that)
Another thing I tried to get him used to the crate during the daytime was having the crate door open, say kennel up, gently put him inside, treat him, have him come out immediately, treat him again. I think I did that over and over for almost an hour it seems. He did need to be physically put inside though most of the time during that exercise.
Wolfie gets a treat every single time he gets into his crate. I buy the Nutro Max Puppy biscuits. He seems to really like those and the only time he gets them is when he has to go inside his crate.
Regarding the ignore advice, the yowling was just horrifying and I'm sorry, I couldn't just stay in the house and ignore it. So during the daytime, what I did was this: crated him, gave him his biscuit, put a toy and a rawhide in it (he LOVES rawhide) and left the house for an hour. I could hear him hollering as I pulled out of the garage. When I pulled into the garage, I could still hear him (much less noise this time). The minute my key touched the door though he was quiet, so I let him out. Over the next few days, whenever he was crated, I realized he was keeping quieter and quieter (I would sneak back to the side of the house to snoop). He would start whining whenever he heard the garage door open on my way back but keep quiet when the key touched the door. Now, he stays quietly in his crate all throughout.
Hope this helps! And best of luck with the crating!