How to Crate Train Your Dog

Ava laying in her cage

If you have a dog, especially a “house dog” you should considered crate training her. Both of my dogs are crate trained, and it wasn’t half as hard as many people make it out to be. It’s quite easy to be honest, just take a look at The House Dog way to crate train your dog.

Rule #1: Introduce your new puppy to its crate immediately

When you bring your new puppy home make sure you have a crate ready, lined with wee-wee pads, a small blanket or shirt with your scent on it, a small ticking clock, and a soft teddy bear. You will want to create a comfortable space that belongs to your puppy, and this is where the crate comes into play. The wee-wee pads will cover any accidents that may happen, the small blanket or t-shirt will provide your scent to help ease the puppys’ worries, the small ticking clock will substitute as the beating heart of a puppys’ mother, and can be inserted into the teddy bear or under the blanket.

Once this is all in place you want to introduce your puppy to its new home. Leave the crate door open and put her water and food inside. For the first few months, I recommended buying a water dispenser that’s used for ferrets and hamsters. Puppies can be clumsy, so if you put a bowl in the crate expect to be cleaning it up frequently.  If you have a large breed puppy make sure you buy a big enough dispenser.

Rule #2: Leave your puppy in the crate frequently

When you bring a puppy home it’s important to interact with her and build trust, discipline and rules from day one. Everyone wants to play with their puppy on the first day and show them around. That’s fine and dandy but make sure you incorporate some crate time during those activities. Usually a dog can only hold its bowels in equivalence to its age in months. So if your puppy is only one month, then it can only hold its bowels for 1 hour. Puppies have to use the bathroom frequently, usually 15 – 20 minutes after eating, drinking water, playing and even taking a nap. So a good rule of thumb is to crate your dog while eating and drinking, give them 15- 20 minutes to digest the food, take them outside to relieve themselves, play with them for 20 minutes, then back to the crate for a 30 minute to an hour nap.

Rule #3: Do not give into your dog whining

Some dogs will whine and howl if you put them in a cage. That is normal. They are not used to being in a crate and need to get accustomed to it. Sometimes the error is in an owner purchasing a crate that is not big enough. Make sure your dog is able to stand on all fours and make a full circle in the crate without getting stuck.  You also need to make sure that you are not putting a dog in their crate after spanking them or yelling at them. They can become fearful of the crate and associate it with bad behavior. Whining can also mean that your puppy needs to relieve itself, so keep an eye out on how long you are leaving them in the crate.

Rule #4: Don’t let your puppy sleep in the bed with you.

When you first bring your puppy home it’s so tempting to cuddle in bed with her. But trust me, it’s not a good idea. First of all your little baby is not house trained and that means your big soft mattress = potty. Your dog will also think that your bed is their bed and they might become defensive over it. I don’t think your significant other would want to cuddle between you and your puppy anyways. I know I know you love your little puppy and you want to cuddle. That’s completely fine, I do it all the time but not at night, and if you can help it not on the bed. Babies sleep in their cribs and puppies sleep in their crate.

Rule #5: Enjoy the benefits of a crate trained dog!

Take it from me not crate training your puppy from day one can turn into chaos. Well that’s if your dog is anything like Chavez. We (my boyfriend and I) did everything wrong when it came to crate training him and he has crate anxiety now and is an escape artists. We can only leave him in a crate while we are in the same room with him and have to constantly practice positive reinforcement.  Don’t want a Chavez? Then crate train your little darling and sleep soundly at night, go to school or work with no worries of coming home to your couch being destroyed or maybe your favorite pair of heels shredded to pieces.

Don’t have the time, you say? Make some! Bringing home a puppy is serious business make sure you dedicate time to proper crate training from the beginning so you don’t have to worry about the drama later.

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Tagged as: Cage Training, Crate Training, Dog Training, How To, How To Crate Train Your Dog