I have a 4 year old female maltese. She has slept in bed with me now for 4 years and has never been crated at all including night time. I am now in a position where I can't have her sleep in bed with me. I purchased a crate for her that is pleanty big for her size, she is about 5 lbs. I've put blankets, toys, bones, etc. in the crate with her. She hates it, all she does in there is cry. I was told to put her in the crate for 15 min at a time when we are home to get used to it and reward her when I take her out,and we have been doing that for about 3 weeks. I have tried putting the crate outside of the bedroom and inside where she can see us, neither work. She just crys, I feel bad leaving her in there crying so I usually take her out after 30 minutes or so and bring her into bed with me. I have no idea what to do I feel like I have tried everything and nothing works. She also has been going to the bathroom in the house more often, she usually is pretty good about going outside with a few exceptions, but lately she seems to be going inside more. I wonder if it has anything to do with the crating? Please help! Thanks, Jessika

The peeing in the house is due to the crating, she's under stress, she also knows that if she continues crying, you will release her. Try feeding her in her crate, leave the door open so she can go in and out as she pleases when you are at home... sit by the crate door talking to her, at night when you place her in it and close the door, lay in front of it talking to her, let her know you're right there, once she falls asleep then go to your own bed, if she cries through the night, repeat this. She'll eventually get the idea that you won't release her, in the morning take her right outside and praise praise praise when she goes potty.

Beginning crate training at this age along with the fact she's use to sleeping with you at night needs to be a slow process of introducing her to the idea that the crate is a safe haven for her and only her.
Since you've already put her inside and had a negative response it may be a little harder, but not impossible for her to except the crate as her special place.
Start from the beginning...
Visit this website, it goes through everything you need to know about crate training.
http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html
Good luck