Beginners Guide For Crate Training New Puppies

Now, it’s essential to keep some things in mind when you are crate training your dog.

What you do want is for your dog to see their kennel training as a fun thing.

Let’s put this in relatable terms.

When you think of children and their rooms, they are really like a big crate. Stick with us; we know it sounds funny and weird, but trust us, and you’ll see.

Now, if you were always forcing them into their rooms, forced them to go in there when they misbehaved, and locked them in there when you left the house, what do you think they would do?

That’s right – they would probably scream and yell to get out and try to break out through that door.

Are you starting to get the picture?

Your dog will bark and yell, and ALSO try to break out.

Let’s flip things here.

What if you allowed your children to gradually get used to going to their rooms, leaving them fun things to do in their rooms?

Closing the door for more extended periods increases the duration over time until they get used to it.

Now, imagine that you did this until they got used to it and didn’t make a big deal or fuss when you left the house, merely closing their door when you left.

Then upon returning to the home, you didn’t make a big deal about seeing them.

Do you think they’d likely stay in their rooms?

Yeah, now you are getting the idea.

How long does crate training a puppy take?

The answer?

It depends.

Some dogs will take easily to the crate, enter and stay there for more extended periods, and adapt to it faster than other dogs.

It honestly depends on how long it will take.

What’s important is that you stay as patient as possible and not force them during this training process. When you get forceful and impatient, what you may find is that your dog will see their crate as a form of punishment.

Once they start to view their crates as a place they go when they are bad, then guess what?

Yeah, they won’t want to go in there and won’t want to stay in there for very long.

You should get a crate that is big enough to accommodate their size.

Your dog should be able to get up, stand up, and turn around easily in the crate.

However, it shouldn’t be too big that you find that they can relieve themselves on one side and then walk over to another side to go to sleep.

They shouldn’t be associating their crate as a place to go to the potty.

If your dog gets bigger, then you will need a larger crate to accommodate them.

Some places will allow you to rent a crate, which will allow you to get a bigger one and trade up as your dog grows.

If your dog is at its full size, then buying your crate will do.

During this phase, you will be introducing your puppy to the crate.

This is a time when you will need to exercise extreme patience. Your puppy will naturally be curious about what this mini structure is.

Place something nice and comfortable at the bottom of the crate for your puppy to lie down on, perhaps his or her favorite blanket.

Also, be sure to leave the door off or open on the crate. You want this open to ensure that your pup sees it as a safe place. You will eventually be closing the door, but for now, all you want to do is get them used to go into the crate.

As we mentioned earlier, you may be one of the lucky ones with a puppy that quickly takes to dog crate training. You just may find that some treats and toys will be enough to lure them into the crate.

If you are at this point, you can move on to the next phase; however, if you are not, you will need to keep introducing them.

Once they can walk in and out of the crate independently, you can start the next phase of introduction that calls for them to “hang out” in their new digs.

When your dog realizes that this kennel training is really to get them used to their new safe, cool, and fun “room,” then they will start to see this as a place they want to relax in for more extended periods.

Now that they have gotten used to going into the crate, what you will do next is ensuring that they see this as a place they can hang out in.

Place one of their meals in the crate and let them start to eat in there so they get even more used to the environment.

If they aren’t going into the crate, you can try another step, which is to start their meal times near the container, so that they begin to realize that this is their pad, that this is their cool room.

When they can get comfortable eating near their crate, you can now place the meals inside the crate.

Don’t force the issue, though.

If you find that they are not going inside to eat, then pull their dish closer to the entrance to the point that they ARE comfortable entering and eating.

Again, be patient. As your pup begins to get more comfortable, start pushing the bowl further and further back into the crate with each meal until your dog is entirely inside of the container and eating.

Now that you have them eating their meals inside the crate, the next thing you need to do is get them used to staying inside the container with the door closed.

You will progressively do this until they begin to get used to eating and having the door shut for longer and longer periods after they finish their meals.

Keep in mind the comfort factor.

If you leave that door closed too long, too quickly, then they may start to whine.

For example, if you just got them used to eating in the crate and opened the door right after they ate their meal, then on the next meal left them in for 15 minutes after they ate, you may have increased the time too quickly.

You will have to start over and reduce the time, then gradually increase it.

Remember that this crate training process is about your puppy’s comfort, not your own.

It’s also important not to teach them behaviors you don’t want, inadvertently. For instance, if they start to bark or whine, don’t let them out right away.

Why?

You shouldn’t because it’s a patterned behavior that you are teaching that says a) if I cry, then b) they will let me out.

Don’t teach them this behavior.

You may want to crate your puppy when you leave the house, but what you don’t want to do is get them into a routine of knowing when leaving.

One of the things you can do to avoid this is to randomly crate them while at home. This ends up not signaling to them that you only crate them when you leave the house.

What you will also want to do is NOT signal when you are returning as well.

It’s a natural reaction to make a big fuss when you come home from work and see your puppy.

Well, if they are in a crate and you excitedly let them out and make a big deal out of seeing them, then you may be setting yourself up for more harm than good.

What happens in this situation is that you will find a puppy that gets anxious when you return and perhaps anxious in general when it comes to crate training.

If you follow these five phases, stay patient, and remember that crate training a puppy is all about their comfort and not yours, then you will be much more successful in this endeavor.

Now before we go, we want to address an area that is very relevant to crate training.

You want a good night’s sleep. Right?

What you don’t want is to have to get up and clean up the mess your dog made from tearing up the furniture or chewing up your shoes.

This is why some dog owners choose to crate their dogs during night hours when they go to bed. There are some things that you will need to keep in mind when you do this.

One of the things is knowing when their cries to be let out are from actually having to use the restroom, OR because they are upset and want to come out.

The other thing you need to take into consideration is your frustration level when this occurs. You may think that yelling at them or hitting the side of the crate with loud commands will work, but honestly, this is just from being frustrated.

As you spent time and patience in training, you will need to do so during this time, though it may be more challenging because you will be getting up from being asleep.

While crate training can be beneficial for many different reasons, it can be trying and a tiresome task. Some things that you will need to remember as you go about this process are things like: