My 13-almost-14-week-old pup has been awful in his playpen lately. At first, he whined, but settled pretty quickly for naps so long as I was nearby. Then, he got to where he was upset when I left for errands or class, but by the time I got out of the building and around by the window I could hear that he'd stopped barking. Now, he's just... Not even willing to settle if I'm in the room at all, he rips up his pee pad, he throws toys around (and not in a "i'm having fun" way), he chases his tail and chews on his feet and bites the bars, he barks and barks and cries and wails and fights sleep like it's the last thing he'll do. I could leave him alone entirely, but it's not a huge apartment and my computer's in the room his pen's in. I've got... a lot of homework that's built up while settling him in and tending to my horrible dog wounds (not really... but kind of.) I'd like him to get used to sleeping with other people around again.

I thought maybe it was because he was still getting overstimulated by being in the open playpen, and decided to set up the crate I'd bought and give that a shot. It's a long story as to why we didn't already - essentially he lived with a relative of mine for the first few weeks so he had someone to take him out hourly while at that young age, which wouldn't work with my schedule at that time, and when I wasn't there she did precisely none of the things I asked her to re: crating, so I thought it would be better to ease him into playpen from having essentially free reign of her bed and room with someone always with him rather than try and move straight into the crate.

Imagine my surprise - Yesterday was the first day of crate training, and he happily went right on in to get treats, and then started retreating there with his toys to chew on them and hide them from us. I shut the door a couple of times and he was relatively unbothered, though whined a little bit and bounded out eagerly when it opened (only during quiet periods, of course). Today, when it was naptime, I thought I'd give it a shot. I put his favorite blanket over the top with the front still uncovered and settled him in there with a frozen kong (easy treat, kibble, and blueberries, ooo) and shut the door while he was distracted.

It took him a good 5 minutes to realize he was even closed in. He whined off and on for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, and now he's snoozling away.

...what the fuck, dog. I was so worried about crating him and now he's comfier there than he was in his playpen! Alright, I guess?! Has anyone else tried to move from playpen naps to crate naps? Does anyone have any advice as to how I can... not mess this up? I feel like I got super lucky here.

He'll have someone home with him for another week, but week after next we'll both be back to work and he'll have a visitor at lunch (4 hours alone at a stretch is the most). The plan is to have his playpen and crate together, with the door open, and a pee pad at the far end of the playpen. Does this sound okay? Is this going to fuck up the progress we've made here, or...? Any advice would be really appreciated.