So you’ve got yourself a young puppy and you now have yourself a handful. Most puppies are very active and look for things to get into when not “engaged” with their humans. One of the very first lessons I give any new dog coming into my home is crate training. Dogs are by design, “den” animals. This is part of their instinct. Training them to use their crate will make living with your dog much easier of the life of the dog.
The first thing to remember is the crate is never a punishment. The puppies crate should be a place of safety. That’s not to say don’t put them in there when they misbehave, it how you put them in there. A good example is, one of our puppies was out and got onto the dining room table and had taken some items off then shredded them. The house looked like a blizzard of shredded paper. Instead of grabbing her and showing how upset I was I grabbed her toy and lured her into her crate like we were about to play. I then was able to clean up the mess without her “help”. When she was let back out she was still the happy little girl she was earlier.
To start make sure you have a crate the right size for your dog. Too big for a young dog will allow them room to potty, to small and they will be too cramped. They should be able to stand up and move comfortably. I recommend also keeping their water bucket in the crate, that way they always have a good thing in the crate. I also feed them in their crate. This builds on their sense of “Home”.
When beginning the training start by just putting them in at mealtimes. When they are done eating keep them in there for a short time then let them out and take them out to potty. By repeating this action they get used to going outside to potty when they are let out of their crate. This will pay dividends as they spend more time crated. Try not to let them out when they are fussy. If you let the dog out due to them being fussy they will learn that’s how to get released, then they will have trained YOU. If they get fussy or upset be near or next to the crate and be ready. If they are calm for even a moment, then you can let them out. try not to engage or encourage them, they must calm down on their own. If you have taught them “Manding” this is what you would look for, them to “Mand”, then click and release. If you click train that would be a click, open, treat. You will find that they will want to spend their time in their crate. One of my older German Shepherds sleeps in the crate with the doors open. In fact, she will go into any of the dog’s crates just to sleep. One other feature of crate training is that if you feed in their crate, and have multiple dogs you never have to worry about them fighting over food, or one dog taking the food of another.
Puppy Sleeping in the crate
If you get your dog well crate trained it will make traveling much easier and safer too. Traveling with your dog in a crate is the best and safest way to travel with them, but that’s for another article. Dogs are social creatures, so yes they will want to be with you, but their having a safe spot to go that they know nothing bad will happen will allow you to have peace also.
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