Crate Training 102

This is part of an article that has been broken into 2 sections for ease of reading. If you have not read Crate Training 101, please do so now.

Now here are some basic tips to set up your puppy crate for crate training such as toys, water bowls, and bedding. You will need to get several toys that are special to your puppy and safe for the crate. Safe means they don’t have pieces or parts the puppy could destroy and consume and they need to be adequately sized so the puppy can’t swallow them. This is because some puppies will eat toys either accidently or on purpose and that will cause impaction issues that might need medical treatment or cause death. Depending on your puppy that means toys like Nylabones, rubber Kongs, invincible chains, and toys like these options. Kongs make great toys and work as treats too as you can fill Kongs with a variety of edible safe foods and they can provide lots of entertainment for the puppy. Wise Dog Blog has written an article called Wise Kongs 101 for ideas on how to fill Kongs for dogs and puppies to enjoy. You can also check out recipes here at their website http://www.kongcompany.com/worlds_best.html .

As far as water goes there are two good options for crates. You can buy water buckets that clasp onto the crate. These flat sided buckets are sold and designed specifically for this purpose and can be found on the Internet, at most pet supply stores, and dog shows. Be sure and secure the water buckets with a clasp like a double P clip to make extra sure puppies won’t dump the water easily. Another option would be the dog water bottles that can also be found on the Internet and most pet supply stores. Simply type in www.google.com dog water bottle crate and you will find what you are looking for quickly.

Now as far as bedding goes that will depend on the puppy. There are all sorts of crate mats, crate pads, and crate beds for the comfort of your puppy. You can also put normal dog beds in the crate and that will work just fine. Fuzzy fleece blankets also work well depending on the temperature in your home. Some puppies will never destroy their bedding and will use it as intended during puppyhood and beyond. Some puppies, especially during teething, will tear apart their bedding, which means don’t buy that brand new expensive dog bed just yet and maybe try towels or old blankets for a while instead. Some puppies go a bit further and actually consume their bedding and that can cause obstructions so they will need something that isn’t easy to tear up, such as a crate mats like rubber mats or Primo Pads http://www.primopads.com/. Primo Pads come in a variety of colors and sizes and they are also guaranteed and come with great customer service. Kurandad pet beds also are good for chewers http://www.kuranda.com/catalog/index.php.

Also you must take into account the temperature of your home when putting bedding into the crate. For instance, if it is colder inside your home and they don’t consume their bedding they will need more blankets added or you will need to turn the temperature in your house higher. A good general rule of thumb especially with short-coated dogs is that if you are cold, your puppy probably is too, so make sure they are comfortable.

So now that you have your crate, found the best place to put your crate, have safe toys, have water, proper bedding, and good temperatures in your home, how do you go about crate training your puppy and acclimating them to their very own crate? Toss a treat or two or three inside the crate and give a command, like “kennel up” or “go to crate” and let the puppy go inside after the treats and praise them. Do not shut the door. Do this several times during the day. Always keep the crate open and accessible. Maybe put some peanut butter on the sides of the crate. During the day randomly put special treats in there to encourage your puppy to check it out as the puppy never knows what goodies they might find in the crate.

After awhile of this you can continue to toss treats in the crate with your command and sometimes close the door and sometimes don’t. Sometimes they stay in for a bit; more often than not they do not stay in the crate long at all and get let out immediately. These are just short training sessions. They get a treat for being quiet and learn what behaviors get rewards and what behaviors get ignored quickly. If you bought your puppy from a responsible breeder, your puppy has most likely already exposed the puppy to a crate so your job is easier.

During the learning phase crate your puppy while you are home with puppy several short times during the day. This will help a lot with getting the puppy comfortable with the crate. Don’t only use the crate when you are gone from the house for long periods of time, work your way up to that by training at home while you are there, then while you are there but not directly in sight, then for a short time when you leave the house (say 2 minutes to get the mail) and work your way up depending on your dog. Make sure before you put your puppy in the crate for crate training sessions that they have used the bathroom shortly before hand and it would be good if you took them on good walk before hand so they have had some exercise. Go ahead and put a special Kong in there and just let the puppy hang out and chill in the crate. They might even take a short nap with you nearby.

However, some puppies are noisy. If your puppy yells, ignore your puppy. NEVER get the puppy out of the crate while they are yelling. Dogs are super smart and are learning all the time. They will connect the dots fast that protesting loudly in the crate gets you to let them out they will do it every single time. You do not want them making that association and getting rewarded for yelling. You are not hurting the puppy by confining them for a short while. Should your puppy yell loudly do not get mad and never yell at the puppy, simply ignore the behavior and wait it out. This is not a big deal. Only let your puppy out of the crate when the puppy is being quiet. This will reward good behavior. If your puppy yells keep in mind they won’t do this forever and this is only a stage. They will outgrow this quickly and calm down in the crate soon enough as long as you do not reward their yelling. For most puppies this is not an issue as most like their crates. It is important to note, a crate is a dogs special place, do not use the crate for punishment or time out. The crate is a happy good place all their own.

Now that puppy is inside the comfortable crate it is important to note do not leave your puppy in the crate for too long. They are puppies and do not have the ability to hold it for very long. Puppies also are growing and need to be physical and need to have mental stimulation. We humans use the bathroom several times per day and puppies need to use the bathroom more often than usual as well. Regardless of age, no dog should be crated for over 4 hours on a regular basis no matter how big the crate. Some people keep their dogs in the crate while they work all day. They don’t mean any harm, they just do not know any better. I feel it is inhumane to leave dogs in the crate during the day for longer than 4 hours as they need to run around, use the bathroom, and have the day broken up for them mentally and physically. To leave a puppy or a dog in a crate, even if the crate is very large, for a whole workday is abuse of the crates intended purpose and unfair and cruel to the dog in my opinion.

I highly suggest if one wants to crate train a puppy and work full time all day they have someone come to their house in the middle of the day during lunchtime to let the puppy or dog out for a good amount of time. Think about it, a full time day is a lot of time for a puppy to spend alone. Someone should come home at lunch and take care of the dog or puppy, if there are two owners you both can arrange to have your schedule overlap with another adult in the household so the puppy won’t be left alone for longer than 4 hours at a time, or you can ask work to take a longer lunch break and come in earlier or stay later to make up the time. Basically brain storm and communicate to discover what works best for you and your personal situation in order not to leave the puppy alone for excess amounts of time. Some other ideas include asking to bring your puppy to work with you, hiring a pet sitter, dog walker, or asking a family member, friend, or neighbor to come in during lunch to relieve the puppy, or putting the puppy in a good doggie daycare. There are many options to make it work for you and your puppy.

Now I want to add a special section to help pin pointing any problems. Say your puppy is using the bathroom in their crate even though they weren’t kept in there too long and were exercised and eliminated before they were crated. There could be several reasons for this behavior.
First, visit your veterinarian to check for any problems, like urinary track infection problems or worms or any host of other issues. Perhaps you are feeding your puppy too much food. Make sure you are feeding a high quality food and an appropriate amount. If a vet check comes back without any problems and you are not leaving your puppy in the crate for excessive amounts of time you might look into your crate size. Sometimes if the crate is too big during the potty training phase the dog will use the bathroom on one side and sleep on the other. Simply using your crate divider will solve this issue if you have a wire crate. If you have a plastic crate then you will have to get inventive with making it a big smaller only for the short amount of time you will be potty training the puppy. Don’t make it too small, they still need room to turn around and move without any problems. Remember; never place two dogs in the same crate. The crate is for one dog’s special place only. If you have multiple dogs provide them with their very own special crates.

A special note about if you are having trouble and got your puppy from a pet store. Puppies bought from pet stores will have a hard time with housebreaking and crate training since they were forced to urinate and poop in the same place they eat and drink from a very young age. This is another important reason to NEVER buy your puppy from a pet store and NEVER support the business of stores selling puppies.

In conclusion I hope you found this article useful. Please remember the crate when used responsibly is a training tool and not meant to be used for long periods of time. The goal with crate training is for them to enjoy their crate as their very own special place and the crate can also be used in puppies to keep them safe and sound. After they are reliably house trained you can leave the door to the crate open and they will go in and out at their own leisure. It is just a short time in the puppy’s life to be in their crate, especially with a closed door. But as you read in the first part of the article, crate training is important in today’s society and it will be an asset to your dog to have his or her very own safe and comfortable den. Good luck and best wishes with your training and thank you for visiting.

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