We've had and kennel trained our almost 6 month old puppy since he was 6 weeks old. He's always loved his kennel and 99% of the time knocks out immediately after he goes in for a nap/nighttime. He follows a ~1hr (usually longer) up, ~2hr down schedule and sleeps through the night.
Just recently, he started protesting the "kennel" command and will lay down and/or enter a standoff once we make it 5ft from his kennel. If we use a slice of cheese, he will enter the kennel 8/10 times by himself with no protest but with kibble or other treats, he throws a huge fit, lays on back, rolls his eyes etc. Not a huge issue bc it's hilarious to watch it all happen, but obviously I do not want to enforce his protests + "bad" behavior. What do I do in this situation? I have seen lots of conflicting advice from "Repeat the command he doesn't know English/Repeating commands teaches he can ignore when he wants" to "Use cheese every time/don't use cheese ever again"