Maybe not there yet but I need help. We got a crate for him. He's 2 yrs old so the days I did the happy place thing to get him into the crate and seem to work. He's doing the sorry not going in. So this morning I had to corral hom which probably not a good idea. I must have messed up the training some how. I need help to correct whatever I did wrong.
I guess I have to ask, why are you crating a 2 yr old. Is he house broken? Is it just at night? We crated for a few months, and used a puppy pen beyond that when we could not watch either Tilly or Cooper. Once they were house trained, and pretty good about not chewing up inappropriate things, they had the run of the house. Personally I see crate training mostly as a house breaking tool. The puppy pen was more to keep the pup out of mischief if we weren't watching. I am somewhat amazed at how good all of our dogs have been in learning that their toys were theirs and our clothes and knickknacks were ours. It took some time but it happened. Perfect example is seeing Cooper curled up on the couch beside a stuffed polar bear. It is not hers, and she does not chew it up. We did have Coopers crate set up in the kitchen, and she used it sometimes, but we never closed the door. She thought it was a quite place sometimes.
I used crate training from the beginning (monster size mostly as she was alone for a hour in the mornings and as she would eat anything (with a special taste for underwear!). She was always good going in but when she turned about one she would not really like it that much. So I covered the crate with a blanket to make it nice and dark for her. This turned the trick, she still loves to hideout in there at two years (I leave the door open all the time now).
I also would want to know why you are crating him. There might be good reasons (destructiveness, toileting indoors etc) but then, in a 2yo dog rather than a puppy, there are going to be reasons behind those issues (boredom, lack of physical or mental exercise, separation anxiety etc) which will need addressing directly before we get onto how to crate train him...
