Hi everyone! A week ago I brought home a black english lab! He just hit 9 weeks and my boyfriend and I wanted to start doing some training in the crate where he stays alone. For context, he has never been alone in the apartment without us being there, I WFH and my boyfriend is doing his masters, so he’s frequently home too.
For the past week we’ve been crate training him and he’s done so well, all his meals are in there, I put treats in the crate before he goes in, he has a blanket that smells like us and one that smells like his family, and a stuffed toy and a chew. I think we’re at the point where he’s comfortable in his crate and going to sleep, I’m trying to work up to him voluntarily going into his crate, but he’s still just a puppy and doesn’t know when he needs a nap, so that’s a WIP.
To the title though, we want to start training him to do well in the crate when we’re not here. This is mainly so we get a bit of time to go out and go grocery shopping, run other errands, or feel like we have a life outside the 4 walls of our living room, so less than 3-4 hours for sure. What did you do to acclimate your dog to this change, any tips for us, or any videos or articles I could look at? Thank you for any help!
submitted by /u/privateee456
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