I think this is down to personal preferance, rather than what is more successful, I crate trained both of mine, but that is due to my breed being very destructive if left on their own! I found this to be safer for the pups aswell as my own home

Plus being a large breed the damage would be a bit more significant than say a toy breed

Just stick with it if it is what you want to do and I promise things will be alot better by this time next week, mine howled for 3 days with the time getting less and less. Now I wouldn't be without the crates and nor would they, Blade goes to pieces if I collapse his to take away with us as he doesn't know what to do, he will just run round in circles till we get in the car

if your crate is to big then the puppy will tend to use it as a toilet. We have brought our puppy the 48 in cage for when he is bigger, but we have also got a devider so that we can make it smaller for when he is little, hopefully stopping him from using it as a toilet

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Out of 7 pups i have 1 who seems to be going to poo at the entrance of whelping box, not near the bed part but its still a nightmare. He will do wee's on paper at end of puppy run so dont understand why he's doing it

just a thought...have you tried leaving the door to the crate open during the day so that your pup can use it as his bed, this is what i've done with my two toy poodles..they know now thats where they sleep and i've just started leaving the door open at night so they can roam the kitchen which is where their crate is...

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Lots of good advise. I hope you get it all sorted!!

Hi again, Thanks to everyone who has helped and given advice, I have decided tonight I will try him in the kitchen (which is lino). I have a bed and will put paper down by the back door, as he seems to know he goes out there for his business. Im hoping having a bit more room will help him settle a little. If that fails will follow the tips of crate traning and go from there. Again anyu advice is welcome.

You could also try having the radio on low and a night light, he is just a baby and may be lonely and scared on his own.
When we got our pup she was in a crate at night in our bedroom for the first 6 weeks until she knew her home and that we where only upstairs, we then moved her to the kitchen and she also took to that really well. She is now 8 months and we have now given her the run of the kitchen and the hall at night (beds in both with night lights on) and she is great - no problems at any time and no accidents in crates ever. Maybe being on his own is causing him anxiety and thats when he poos - I don,t know.

Hope you get it sorted soon, and he settles
Puppy Love

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Irish Setter bitch - Tilly 4 yrs
Irish Setter bitch - Eva 15 mths

I leave the door open, i have water, toys and his bed in it. He is 5mths, we had the whining and howling ect, but we carried on. Just keep going if thats where you want him to sleep. I also fited an old paddling pool in the bottom for any mishaps. Once mine was trained to go outside, i found he will whin in the night if he needs to go. Still only puppies, it will stop . I tried the tv, but it didnt work, i did put a teddy in with him, he liked that so much, he nearly has as many as my 7 yr old

do any of you do no error house training? I have done it since my first dog, did it by accident then it works really well he pups catch on quicker and seem to learn to go through the night quicker

Sorry, maybe me not understanding, what do you mean by "no error hpuse training"?