2.       Your Goldendoodle may whine, cry or bark after you place him or her in their crate.  This is normal.  So long as you know that your Goldendoodle has been fed, had enough water to drink  and has already used the bathroom,  let them whine, bark or cry.  If you cater to the noise   that your Goldendoodle is making simply to get your attention,   this will reinforce the behavior  that its acceptable to do these things in order to get you to pay attention to him or her.

3.       Some Goldendoodles are not crate trained or need to be re-trained for crate training.  Start slowly.  This means to allow your Goldendoodle to stay in his or her new crate for a short amount of time in the beginning.  I never recommend using a crate as a way to house any dog for hours upon hours.  This is not what a crate is for.  Crating your Goldendoodle or new doggie should only happen if you are leaving home for an hour or two and you do not have a fenced in yard or secure area where your Goldendoodle can be safe when you are away from home;  a safe place for your Goldendoodle to sleep at night;  a safe place to spend time when he or she  can  not  be supervised when you are busy.  A crate is NOT a place for your Goldendoodle to spend every single day, for hours on end.  This can lead to serious health problems including damage to your Goldendoodles’ joints and bones.  As time goes by,  you can increase the time that your Goldendoodle can spend inside of the crate and eventually, you can just leave the door open and your Goldendoodle will go into the crate automatically on his or her own. 

What type of crate should you use?   Goldendoodles and most social dogs can become claustrophobic if they are housed in a plastic crate with few openings to see out of.  The best type of crate to use is a powder coated metal crate where your Goldendoodle can see all the way around.  Most Goldendoodles will whine or cry less if they can see you.   Make sure to place your Goldendoodle’s   bedding in the far back of the crate and put newspapers to the front.   Do NOT use a divider inside of the crate to create a smaller space inside of the crate.  It is NOT true that a dog will be less likely to use the bathroom inside of a crate if their area is smaller.  What will happen is that your Goldendoodle will use the bathroom if an accident happens and they will not  have  any  where  to move out of the way.  This will cause your Goldendoodle to step or sit in urine or feces and you’ll be doing a lot of bathing.  Give your Goldendoodle as much room inside of his or her crate as is available.  I always tell my doodle customers to buy an extra large crate and let the Goldendoodle puppy grow into it.  If you buy a small crate just because your doodle is small at the time….you will be buying a new crate in a short amount of time.  Crates can become expensive if you do this and you can save yourself unnecessary expenses by just buying an extra large crate right from the start!