She can do the crate at night but not during the day

Just wanted to say thank you all, I posted a few days ago about a bad hired trainer and I took everyone’s advice and axed her. I appreciated hearing everyone’s insight and that my gut feeling was valid.

I have a more specific question on crate training. Our puppy does nighttime crate fine. We have a crate next to our bed. She protests a little but eventually falls asleep within 5-10 min. We does wake up once throughout the night but she’s pretty good.

During the day she cannot do the crate. We have a 36” crate with divider so she has enough to lay down. And we’d put a blanket over it. I hear this is pretty normal but I’m not really sure how we break through this. She knows “go to your crate” and we feed all meals and enrichment toys – we don’t even have to say “crate” because she’ll run in there she’s so excited. I’ll close the crate door which she’s fine with since she’s so focused on the meal or treat.

I’ve practiced opening and closing the crate with crate games and getting up and leaving for 5,10,30 seconds. Practiced opening door and she does fine there. But I think she knows it’s just practice. Sometimes opening and closing the front door she will whine but I wait for a break in whines to come back, praise and treat.

I worry she has separation anxiety. More recently we’ve been putting her in there while we eat dinner which we are in eye sight. We try to give her a lick mat or something but once she realizes she’s in there and doors closed, while we’re in the kitchen or eating she just cries. Wails. Scratching and trying to get out of crate. Sometimes she’ll lay down because she’s tired herself but she’s still whining.

We have tried leaving the house and watched on dog cam but she just cried the entire 30 min. Whining, scratching, panting – this might’ve been a little panic..?

Any tips on how to increase my 4 month old puppy confidence in the crate alone? I would like to create structured nap routine since my fiancé and I work from home.

Edit: we allow her on the couch so she often prefers to sleep on the couch with us. She is a light sleeper so I can pick her up and put her in the crate.