why did the vet say no to meat? that makes no sense to me. Did the chicken have bones? Cooked bones are very bad for dogs (cooked ones can splinter in the stomach and tear up the dog's gut but raw bones are OK, generally) but meat? Any dog old enough to be away from its Mother ought to be OK eating small bits of meat.
I have shown Newfs and currently have a Bernese Mountain Dog. Dogs are very smart and understand us much better than we understand them; if whining and crying works then they will manipulate you with that. S/he is not being tortured to spend time in his crate. If you don't hang tough now, while your puppy is little, it will only get harder until it really is nearly impossible to crate train. Just be sure that the crate does not become where you send the dog when you are correcting him / he is in trouble. You don't want him/her to think the crate equates anything negative.
When he/she is crying in these early stages its probably because he/she misses you.They are pack animals and from birth are used to being surrounded by others. At first, just make sure the crate is someplace the dog can see you, speak soothingly to him/her as you go about your daily business. Periodically put him her into it for a few minutes, speak soothingly, then let him/her out and cuddle hime/her for a minute. A few days later, do the same process but start slowly moving it a little further away but to where you can still be heard. Eventually the crate can creep to wherever you really want to permanently locate it, but puppy has had enough transition time to not be afraid of having been abandoned.
Think of it as helping him/her be a more successful adult dog --- a crate becomes their "safe spot" for the rest of their lives (when young people come over that stress out my boy his crate is the place he puts himself to hang out in peace and quiet. Or ,when he is depressed because I am out of town, he goes to his crate and stays there of his own accord. Its his comfort spot.)
Also look at it as an immunization of sorts from a lot of getting into trouble. Our boy doesn't roam around the house when no one is home. If he's home alone (which admittedly isn't often), he's in his roomy, comfy cozy crate with his chew antlers, which keeps him from eating the sofa, poo-ing on the floor, and generally getting into mischief and causing problems like he would if left with total freedom and no supervision. Also, I feel much better about him being in his crate when no one is home instead of in the fenced in yard because I know in his crate in the house he is safe from other animals, neighborhood kids who might open the fence gate and let him out to get lost, or worst case, dog nappers.
