Next Step in Crate Training

Hi everyone –

We have a 8.5-week old golden female retriever that we brought home 4 days ago. I'm asking a question about crate training because we're not sure what our next step would be in this case. Sorry if it comes across as a repeat question!

She is doing pretty well with the crate. Most of the time with the crate door open, she is happy to go and eat her food, lie down to nap, etc. However, when we want her to self-soothe to calm down and nap, she will sit there for a bit but start whining, wanting to get out. I don't think she's stressed. I think she's just bored and wants to play with us.

We have toys and food, and we take her out before we try to put her in the crate—lot of the times, we can successfully get her to walk in by herself. If we put a collagen stick in with her, she can stay calm very consistently, but I am not sure if we should always rely on that. Currently, we only do that when she becomes way overstimulated.

In this situation, what should be our next step? We don't want to let her whine and turn the crate into a negative place, but we also want her to be able to self-soothe in the crate, but I am not sure what the best next step would be in this scenario. Most posts and videos talk about how to create the initial positive associations or treat severe crying and barking. I feel like we are in a bit of a middle ground.

I'm not impatient about this, but we simply just don't know what the next step to do would be. Thank you so much for your advice!