Hi everyone! I have a 15 week-old Irish setter that I brought home at 10 weeks old and have been crate training since day 1 of bringing her home.
She does really well when we put her down for naps when she's tired and is getting better at settling faster and staying in her crate for longer even if she wakes up after a nap. She sleeps in it overnight happily too.
A general struggle I'm finding is she doesn't seek out her crate to sleep or nap in herself and will only do so if I put her in there. She knows when she's overstimulated/overtired that we will put her in the crate to nap so will stay as far away from it as possible. I used to be able to lure her in by scattering her food inside and she would very quickly eat it then go to sleep fuss free but now she won't go near the crate with food inside if we are standing nearby.
She stays with my parents during the day two days a week and she would much rather sleep on the hard floor than inside her crate. She has three dog beds within our house that have been gifted to us which she just thinks are big toys but she will sleep in my parents dog's bed just fine if given the option. We've given her one of my parents old dog beds which smells the same and again, she thinks it's a toy.
We have tried to let her settle herself and fall asleep wherever in her own time without us putting her down for a nap but she just gets so feral with biting we can't even distract her off with toys. The only place she will settle herself is on our couch which we don't want her to get in the habit of, we would much rather she seeks out a bed or crate.
Apologies for the word salad but any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!
submitted by /u/CryOfTheRaven
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