A Simple Guide To Crate Training Your Dog
Here’s a general guide to help with crate training your dog and how you should go about introducing your dog to the crate for the very first time when you bring it home. These suggestions will also be effective when crate training your puppy however there are some slight adjustments you’ll need to make between training a dog and training a puppy.
Firstly and before you even go to the shop to look at the available crates for crate training your dog you need to take an old t-shirt, jumper or blanket and lay this over your dogs existing bed. Choose something which you don’t mind giving to your dog even if they end up chewing it to pieces. What we’re doing here is creating something that you can use when you start your dog crate training to act as the bedding for the crate. By letting your dog sleep on this for a few days to a couple of weeks before you bring the crate home ensures that you’ll have something other than the dogs bed to use inside the crate which has a strong scent of the dog (something he will know and trust).
When selecting your crate for crate training your dog make sure that the crate you buy allows the dog enough room so that he can stand up, lay down and turn a full circle inside quite comfortably without touching the sides of the crate. This makes crate training your dog a lot easier as you’ll be making it as welcoming and comfortable a place as possible for your dog. Remember your dog can be in there for long periods at a time so you’ll want to make sure they are happy being in there.
One of the best pieces of crate training your dog advice I can give you is that when you arrive home with the crate arrange for someone to take the dog for a walk while you set it up and put it in its place within your home. When deciding on where to put the crate make sure that your final decision means that the crate won’t constantly be moved around. This could affect your efforst with crate training your dog later down the road.
Next take the item of clothing or blanket you’ve been using on the dogs bed for the last couple of weeks and place that on top of or over the bedding you bought for the crate. Don’t use their bed straight away as this could cause the dog to become scared of the crate. By using the item of clothing from the old bed means the dog will have a choice between the crate and their bed (with crate training your dog you’ll eventually move their bed into the crate once the dog has accepted it). Also line the inside of the crate with a couple of your dog’s toys.
When your dog arrives home from his walk (which hopefully will be when the crate is finished and ready) leave the crate door open and don’t make a fuss of it You don’t need to show your dog the crate either as his nose will do that for you, just make sure the dog can get to the crate without and obstacles in the way. Let your dog investigate it by themselves if they go inside off the bat then you’re already half way there. If they won’t go near it try putting some treats in the crate and let the dog go in off his own accord to collect them. When he goes in give him lots of praise and attention and a couple more treats.
With crate training your dog you’ll need to be patient, if you force the crate onto your dog you’ll run the risk of scarring them and they’ll never go in and you don’t want to be in that situation. When they are finally used to the crate and they go inside it on their own move their original bed into the crate and enjoy a clean and tidy home.
You can use the same method for crate training puppies that you would use with crate training your dog however the difference between a puppy and a dog is a dog is much older and wiser. With puppy crate training there’s a little more involvement from you as the owner which I’ll discuss further in another article but I hope that you’ve found these puppy and dog house training tips help you out with crate training your dog and I hope that they make the task of getting your dog fully toilet trained easier.
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