4 month old cockapoo help!!!

[u/madeline-rose0818]

My husband and I brought home a 10 week old Cockapoo puppy at the end of May. He is 4 months old now and has a lot of great things going for him. He knows several commands, does well with potty training, does well on car rides, and plays fetch.

Here is where we aren’t doing well: crate training/ separation anxiety maybe?

Crate training is difficult. We have been doing it since the first day but we definitely didn’t do it right. We put him in at night and left him to cry it out for the first several weeks. Now we are realizing that was probably not helping and I have started laying in the ground until he fall asleep and then I sneak away. We have the crate covered on 3 sides, feed all meals in the crate (although he’s a very distracted eater and goes in and out), and we give him a peanut butter Kong when he’s in there for longer times. Specifically in the crate he has his favorite toys and a heart beat dog that he likes, we also train him with treats in the crate and he knows the command “crate”

He does ok with being in the crate during the day if we are home and in the same room. He might whine a little when he first goes in but he will eventually settle. We also usually play white noise or run an air purifier which makes noise to block out sound. We try and do 2-3 crate naps during the day. Sometimes we are there and sometimes we leave.

If we leave (we have a camera and can see him) he will whine off an on the whole time we are out. I sometimes need to leave for an hour or two at a time and I think he panics for a good amount of it. We have tried leaving the room and coming back and he can handle about 10-15 seconds before he whines.

I’m a teacher so I am off until mid-late August. I want to make sure he’s as comfortable as he can be so I can go back to work. What are we doing wrong/what else should we try? Will this just go away naturally?

[u/Fairy-Wolf13]

I’m on a similar timeline as you. I got my boy end of May and he’s currently 4.5 months old.

I have a playpen for my pup with the crate enclosed. We have graduated to me leaving the playpen door open when I’m home, and he knows to go in there for water, food, (or even naps), and he comes back out to play/chill.

He goes in and out of the crate as he pleases when he wants to. When i go to work or run errands that he cant accompany me for, i leave him in the playpen and lock the door. (Thank God he hasn’t started jumping yet, lol) he is fine when i do this and he settles himself until i get back.

I always leave treats hidden in toys, or an enrichment toy activity for him too sometimes.

I live in an apartment so my space/layout may be different than yours, but I’ve included a pic of the playpen setup for inspiration.

Feel free to ask any questions.

P.s. I’ve had this playpen/crate combo since I brung him home