Crate training is widely agreed by dog owners to be the best technique to house train a puppy. You certainly need a crate for puppy crate training. The crate is used to limit your puppy’s activity to a designated area when you’re unable to keep watch on her. Your puppy should be in that crate at all times unless she’s eating, going for a potty break outside with you, or playing under supervision.
The crate serves as your puppy’s den, which is a place where your puppy feels safe and secure, and enjoying spending time in, whether she’s sleeping, napping, or simply needs to be alone. Dogs naturally like to keep their sleeping or resting area clean, so your puppy will not like to soil her den. She will try to keep her pee and poop in until you let her out of her crate.
Choosing a crate
Picking the right size of crate for your puppy is crucial. If the crate is too large, your puppy will comfortably use one end as her sleeping area, and the other end as her toilet. This then beats the entire purpose of crate training your puppy, and will delay the house training for several weeks!
With regard to choosing the crate, choose one crate that’s large enough for your puppy to comfortably stand up, turn around, and lie down. Don’t worry, though, as you don’t have to keep getting new crates to fit the size of your growing puppy. You can save cost if you buy one crate that can serve as your puppy’s den until she grows up.
Buy an adult-size wire crate and partition the inside space with dividers while your dog is a puppy. You can use boards or wire grilles as dividers. As and when your puppy requires a larger area to move around as she grows, you can remove the dividers to give more space to her. Alternatively, you can build a crate yourself and replace it with a larger model as your puppy grows.
Making the crate welcoming
You can make the crate a welcoming and inviting place for your puppy to go. Try laying a couple of thick blankets or towels inside the crate, and place some toys and a chew inside. The crate entrance should be invitingly open at all times, but should be securely closed when your puppy is inside.
Remember: before your puppy is fully house broken, you wouldn’t want to give her total freedom in the house to avoid soiling incidence. If you let her to move around in every corner of the house before she’s completely house trained, you’re actually encouraging her to eliminate wherever she likes. Each time she does this, it’ll be easier for her to repeat her action.
Where to place the crate?
During crate training, you would want to keep your puppy’s crate close you. The most suitable place to put the crate is where the family members gather, for example the kitchen. With your puppy in the crate close to you, you’ll find that the house breaking your puppy process is easier, as you can keep tabs of your puppy every moment. In addition, it helps foster the connection between you and your pooch. Being new to the environment, it’s important that you make your puppy feel that she’s not alone, and that she’s now a part of your family.
Tags: crate train a puppy, Crate training your puppy, puppy crate training
