Our new puppy is crated at night and also when we have to go out during the day.  We have always crated pups in the past and had no problems but this lad seems to have a real aversion to it.  I have started feeding him in the crate to show him that it's not a bad place to be but any other suggestions would be welcomed please.

Will he use it if left open and putting treats in there and try and encourage him to settle with a frozen kong when you leave him.

Put him there when he is tired and sleepy. Give a biscuit, close the door, and start pottering around in the same room - dusting is good or something similar where you are making calm movements, the puppy will start watching you and will fall asleep. Once he is awake, let him out straight away. Next time he is tired, repeat. Might take a few goes, but eventually he will associate the crate as a place of calm. Job done!

I do this with the puppies we breed, once they are about 3 weeks old they go into the crate every time I need to clean their puppy pen. The crate is in the same room, first couple of times they whine a bit and want to get out, then they become interested in the crate and different blanket there, they might play in there a bit, or they watch me clean the pen and fall asleep. Once I finished cleaning, I let them out. By the time they are ready to go to their new homes, they love the crate

Thanks both.  I bought him a couple of bone thingies from Pets at Home and he was happy to go in the crate.  Unfortunately I had to pop out for 10 minutes to collect grandchildren and when I returned he was crying and had peed in the crate.  I'll try what monkeyj suggested over the next couple of days and see if that helps.  He's only about 12 weeks old, not yet house trained and is a real chewer so he does need to be crated at night and when alone.  When someone is in the house and the garden door open he is as good as gold.

You need to be urgently spending time when you are at home, practising crate training by sitting next to the crate whilst he eats Kongs and enjoys being in there.  Then crating him whilst you are cleaning or cooking or whatever, in the same room.  Then whilst he can hear you doing stuff elsewhere in the house, but can't see you. 

If you only shut him in the crate when you are asleep or out, then he will associate it with separation from you and hate it and become afraid of it.

This getting a puppy used to being in a crate can be difficult - you must make sure your pup has been played with and emptied before being crated.   And the tip of shutting him in when you do other things round the house is a good one too.  He has to learn that he's not being abandoned, and that you will be letting him out so he has no need to empty in there.  But a lot of that is because he's getting into a strop!   Did you leave the radio/TV on when you went out?    I remember the first time we left our Whippet crated when we went to the shops.   I was convinced she'd be kicking off when we came back, but she was fast asleep in there!!   I guess we were lucky with her - and am pretty sure her breeder crated the puppies early days too which helps!   There are some puppies who can't be crated, in which case you may be looking at confining your puppy somewhere safe instead,  but the sooner you start, the more likely they will be fine in there.

Do you cover top and sides - this makes a snug little den.

1234 What you say makes perfect sense and I have no idea why I didn't think of this for myself.  (I suppose it's because all our previous dogs have happily adapted to the crate within a day or two.)

Yes, our first ever dog was very difficult to train to be alone so we sort of had to become experts on that one quite fast!

Get the dog ok in the crate with you right next to the crate (and door shut).  Then the crate becomes 'the place I associate with mum/dad/my human sitting next to me'.  Then, when dog is ok with that, get dog ok with you in the same room and dog in crate with door shut.  Then with dog in crate and you elsewhere in the house.  Then you can go out for brief amounts of time and back again. 

The difficulty is that ideally you don't move ahead further than you've trained up to.  So you don't want to shut the dog in there and go out if you're still working on being in the same room - because you can undo all your hard work by reassociating the crate as the unpleasant place of separation.

Just a short update. Puppy is now ok for day times when he has to be left for an hour or two and he only cries at night for about the first 5 minutes. He’s also clean in the crate overnight now.  He’s not yet 15 weeks old and when he outgrows the chewing stage he’ll not need to be crated although it will still be there if he chooses to use it. Thanks for all your help