Like Amber said, placing a blanket over the crate REALLY helps…also one thing that also helped with my pit (just turned 1 on 11/6) is having a good thick dog pillow. we originally had one of the ones that have a lip on them but she chewed on that so we just got her one of the oversized dog pillows as a bed to encourage her not to mess in the kennel…
Also, like you said about having no problem with it after she was at doggie daycare…exercising her good before bedtime will do WONDERS…we take Nina on a mile walk every night when we get home form work and her hyper level has dropped signifiacantly which makes it easier to get her to go to bed
our pit actually changed the veiwpoint our landlord had on pits because once she saw how well behaved our nina was & that she was crate trained she had no issue with her being a pit.
