Crate Training a Puppy

Crate train your puppy

Crate training a puppy is never an easy thing to do. It takes time, patience and being able to ignore your little puppy crying. However, crate training your puppy has so many benefits. These include:

Having a safe place for your puppy to go

Allowing your puppy to fulfill his denning instinct

Making travelling in a car safer and cleaner

Helping with toilet training

All of these give you peace of mind which is priceless!

The crate should never be used as a punishment. That’s not to say if your puppy is being a little pain, you can’t ask him to go in there and play with his toys, but he should never be put in there as a reprimand for bad behaviour. The goal of crate training our puppies is to give them a safe, secure place to go.

Puppies should never be left in a crate for longer than they will need to go to the toilet. Dogs and puppies will naturally want to leave the area where they sleep and eat to go to the toilet. The last thing you want to do is create stress by leaving your puppy in a crate when he needs to go potty.

Dogs should never be left in a crate for more than 4 hours at a time.

Here are the steps to crate train your puppy or dog. Sadly, there is no magic wand I can waive to make this easier, but once you have done it, you will have peace of mind. The mantra here is slowly, slowly, catchy monkey. Please understand that patience and slow steps are the key to successfully teaching crate training.

Step 1 – Day 1 for about 20 treats or 2 minutes

With the crate door open, throw a treat in to the back corner of the crate, when he enters and eats it – CLICK your clicker. His reward was eating the treat. Do this a few times so he is willingly going in and out of the crate. After about 20 repetitions you can add “Bed” or” Kennel” or “Crate” every time he pops in

Step 2 – Day 2 for about 20 treats or 2 minutes

With the crate door open, throw a treat in to the back corner of the crate, when he enters and eats it – CLICK your clicker and say the word you have used for crate. Ask puppy to wait before you let him out, however, at this point, the door is still open.

Step 3 – Day 3 for about 20 treats or 2 minutes

With the crate door open, throw a treat in to the back corner of the crate, when he enters and eats it – CLICK your clicker and say the word you have used for crate. Close the door behind him. Wait a couple of seconds and open the door. Ask puppy to wait before you let him out.

Step 4 – Day 4 for about 20 treats

With the crate door open, throw a treat in to the back corner of the crate, when he enters and eats it – CLICK your clicker and say the word you have used for crate. Close the door behind him. Here, extend the time by 5 seconds per day before you open the door. Ask puppy to wait before you let him out. See if you can work up to 60 seconds without puppy crying or having a meltdown.

Step 5 – Day 5 for about 20 treats

With the crate door open, throw a treat in to the back corner of the crate, when he enters and eats it – CLICK your clicker and say the word you have used for crate. Close the door behind him. Now start to walk away from the crate and do things around the house. Again, extend the time by 5 seconds per day before you open the door. Ask puppy to wait before you let him out.

If at any point in this process he cries, you CAN NOT let your puppy out as this teaches the puppy that if he cries, he will be let out of his crate. He must be quiet before he is let out. That is the hard bit!

To have him happy when you leave him in his crate when you leave the house.

Do not attempt this until he is happily in the crate when you are in the house.

This time at step 5 leave the house, close the front door and then come back in. On day 2, walk maybe two doors down and come back. Slowly extend this time as you did on steps 1-5 until he is a happy puppy in his crate when you leave the house.

This is the way I crate train a puppy. There are some trainers that may implement something in different ways, but they all basically follow this process.

Top Tips for Crate Training

1. The crate should at LEAST be big enough for the dog or puppy to stand up turn around and lie down in. A size bigger for his breed may provide extra comfort. Don’t get a crate that is way bigger than the puppy. The crate should make the puppy feel safe and secure.
2. Don’t leave his food in the crate all day. You can however feed puppy in the crate and remove the bowl when he is finished. Water can be left, but it can get knocked over so you may wish to use a bowl that attaches to the crate or use a large rabbit bottle. You CAN leave lots of interesting toys in the crate with him.
3. Any bedding left in the crate should not be easily shredded by the puppy. The crate should be comfy with a sturdy bedding option.
4. Do not leave your puppy or dog so long in the crate that he goes to the toilet in it. This will cause immense distress.
5. Never use the crate as a punishment.

Let me know how you get on in the comments below and feel free to send pictures of your puppies in their crates.