Crate Training - What NOT to do
If your puppy (or, your adult dog) is crying / barking / toileting / whining / displaying any other signs of distress in their crate then you are NOT crate training him ....
The emphasis is on the word TRAINING.
Just shutting your dog in a crate overnight for 8 hours and leaving him to "cry it out" is not training .... It's bordering on abuse! Mental, emotional abuse which causes your puppy a great deal of distress and teaches him that firstly, the crate is actually a horrible place to be and secondly, that any time spent apart from their human is traumatic - the exact opposite of what you're trying to teach.
Training takes time and training is an actual "thing" that you need to do. The "training" part of crate-training needs to happen. YOU need to make it happen. Slowly, gradually, over many weeks or months if necessary.
Training should be positive.
Training should never cause harm, distress, fear, or any other negative emotion.
That's not how puppies learn!
You are not crate-training your puppy if you are leaving him to bark in there.
Training rarely happens after just one or two attempts. You'll need to be committed to repeating the process over & over & over again WITHOUT ever causing your puppy distress.
That may mean that your puppy cannot be left in the crate for very long during the beginning of the training process and it may mean that you have to remain close-by to the crate at first .... Yup, you'll need to sleep on the sofa with the crate next to you or, you'll need to bring the crate up I to your bedroom.
"But, I don't want my dog in my bedroom" I hear you scream.
That's OK. You can sleep downstairs for a bit whilst your complete this training process together. A little bit every day. Practice a few times per day. Over & over.
And for goodness sake, put a bed or a blanket in there! Not just the bare, plastic tray .... How is that inviting your puppy to lay down, all snuggly & warm?!!
Your puppy should ALWAYS have access to fresh, clean drinking water so you'll need to put water in the crate.
"But my neighbour said his new puppy cried for the first couple of weeks in the crate and he soon got used to it and he's fine now"
Firstly, your neighbour took a huge gamble and is very lucky that the dog hasn't developed separation anxiety or any other behaviour issues as a knock on effect from the distress caused whilst being separated from his owner and secondly, OK, even if that were true and if the "leave them to cry it out" method worked, well what an absolutely horrendous way for you to "train" your puppy ... What an awful thing for your puppy to have to go through in the name of "training"
If being kind, being there, being close-by, gradually building up time in the crate also works then why wouldn't you choose this option??
Why would you choose the option that causes distress to your puppy over the option that doesn't?!!
If you are crate training your puppy then make sure that you are actually doing the "training" part