INFORMATION HOW TO CRATE TRAIN YOUR DOG

Firstly you must ensure the crate is a safe and pleasant environment for your puppy or dog and must NEVER be used as a form of punishment or prison. Your K9 companion will grow to love this area and it is great for when your dog requires a little 'me time'

The crate can help immensely when you are toilet training a puppy as it helps both you the owner and the pup to get into a routine. Initially your puppy will only be able to last a couple of hours between trips to the toilet, this may vary depending on the age you acquired the pup and could be as short as 1 hour. Please note that young pups will be unable to go the whole night without a trip to the toilet so a late night visit and very early morning trip will be required for a little while.

First things first, what crate to purchase ?. There are lotson the market with a variety of colours and sizes, the crate you purchase should be large enough for the dog when fully grown taking into consideration they should be able to lay down, stand up and turn around in comfort. It is highly recommended that a divider or separator is installed into the crate initially to reduce its size and ill explain why in the following paragraph.

Puppies will from time to time have an 'accident' in the crate, this will be encouraged if the crate is too large. The puppy will be happy to mess in one corner and sleep in the other !, to avoid this a divider is installed to make it large enough for puppy to lay, sit and turn around. The crate should be comfy so bedding will be needed and a few toys to keep pup amused, possibly look at blankets for bedding initially so if pup does have washed and dried without to much fuss, if the bed is a dark colour or has lots of filling it maybe difficult to see if pup has had an accident.

The pup will soon show you signs of when they are about to go by sniffing or circling. Don't dismay if pup does not go when you are in the garden, simply take pup back to the crate and then try again in 10 or 15 minutes. When the pup does go to the toilet in the correct location really praise the dog with a high pitch tone and lots of excitement. Eventually pup will associate the garden with toilet time and be able to last longer in between trips.

Now there are some basic points to consider when house training a puppy, they will need to go to the toilet after playtimes, feeding, early morning and last thing at night. Don't let the pup drink lots of water late at night so maybe after the last feed pick a time for a last drink and stick to this routine.

Pups need to learn bladder and bowel control and this could be some time so please be patient with your new addition and slowly increase the time the pup is left in the crate and with time and patience you will successfully house train your puppy.

Can i also add that its extremely important that pups/dogs collar is removed whilst in the crate as i no personally a 12 week old pup that has hung herself in her crate over night while everyone was in bed and no of a fair few other incidents that have happened simillar to this!!!

PLEASE REMOVE DOGS COLLAR WHILST IN CRATE!!!!

blaze666 wrote:Can i also add that its extremely important that pups/dogs collar is removed whilst in the crate as i no personally a 12 week old pup that has hung herself in her crate over night while everyone was in bed and no of a fair few other incidents that have happened simillar to this!!!

PLEASE REMOVE DOGS COLLAR WHILST IN CRATE!!!!

This is a good point. Last Christmas a champion Bull Terrier was put into his crate because he was being a nuisance while the owner was preparing the turkey. She only left him for 10 minutes but when she got back he'd managed to scratch his collar off & had eaten it. Although he passed some of it, the buckle got stuck & by the time they realised something was wrong with him it was too late. The vets operated, but couldn't save him.

Caryll wrote:

blaze666 wrote:Can i also add that its extremely important that pups/dogs collar is removed whilst in the crate as i no personally a 12 week old pup that has hung herself in her crate over night while everyone was in bed and no of a fair few other incidents that have happened simillar to this!!!

PLEASE REMOVE DOGS COLLAR WHILST IN CRATE!!!!

This is a good point. Last Christmas a champion Bull Terrier was put into his crate because he was being a nuisance while the owner was preparing the turkey. She only left him for 10 minutes but when she got back he'd managed to scratch his collar off & had eaten it. Although he passed some of it, the buckle got stuck & by the time they realised something was wrong with him it was too late. The vets operated, but couldn't save him.

ow what a shame but you said it caryll bullys arnt smart anough to relise it going to couse probs

we have had casper for 4 weeks he has a crate but we never have locked him in he jst sleeps in it because he was crying when we lock him in - now he is getting a bit bigger and mischievious is it to late to start again and lock him in when we are out

Its never too late but it'll be a slow process. He'll whine and howl at first but you must be consistent. Make sure the crate is a positive happy place for him, NEVER physically force him in there cos that will just make it an unhappy place for him.

ok thanks i will give it a try i think he does like it in there cause he takes all his toys and everything else he can sneak in there when we aint looking lol... it just the closure he dnt like

Thats normal. He'll just have to get used to it. As long as you're patient and consistent, he'll soon get the hang of it.

Just do it a couple of minutes at a time. If he whines etc just ignore it, and walk about the room as if nothing's different. Once he's quiet open the door. It won't take long before he realisese he's ok in there & the door shutting is no big thing!

We actually stopped using Molly's crate a few months back, I'm beginning to wonder if we should re-introduce it. She has her bed in the hallway, and she knows this is somewhere safe, it's under the stairs, so kinda enclosed, she also has the bed from her crate, where her crate used to be, and she'll happily settle onto that.

The main reason I'm considering re-introducing it is to help with fireworks. She is horrified by them, I've read that letting a dog have a 'den' is a good way to help them feel safer. Obviously ultimately I want to get her so she isn't scared of them, but in the meantime do people think getting the crate back out would be a good idea?

I'm not sure you can ever get a dog over being scared of fireworks. All you can do is make her feel safe so that she knows she can get away from them.

Our Bandit was such a brave, outgoing dog, nothing evr fazed him except fireworks & every year was a terrible ordeal for him. In the end we had to use a mild tranquiliser every year so that he didn't give himself a heart attack.

I think if she's comfortable under the stairs & feels safe there, then that would be all she needs. You could always get the crate out & put it somewhere that she could get to just in case she feels the need, but I think she'd probably be just as happy where she is from a fireowrk point of view.

Thanks, I remember my old dog used to have to be tranquillised, he was petrified of them too.

It's odd, because we live in the country, there's a lot of guns going off, they barely bother her, she'll jump a little and look after, the same with thunder. And if the fireworks are silent, she'll watch the bright lights, but as soon as the sound starts, that's it, she's shaking, panting, just generally looking scared.

What do you think to the CDs you can get, the ones that play loud noises?

I don't know, I've never tried them & don't know anyone who has. I know that New World Music do relaxation cd's for dogs, but I don't know what they're like.

I think the reason she doesn't react to gunshots is that the sound is so different - fireworks often have that 'whhoosh' or a whistle as they're going up, and I think that's what spooks the dogs. Then add a bang at the end, and it just proves to them that there's something bad there.

I can honestly say using a crate has made a HUGE difference in my puppy compaired to the past dogs we have had..
in just 2 weeks.. she is toilet trained 90%, she has NEVER chewed anything other than her toys, and she sleeps thru the night..
the first 2 nights were horrid... but after that she happily goes to bed..
I just uploaded a video of Holly in her "happy place".. she crashes in there at night when she has had enough, and she sleeps in there during the day while i am working or out of the house..
it is a dream system for Puppy owners to value their house lol

So during the night you lock them up in there with some toys but what about during the day, I'm away from 5 in the morning till 8 at night some days and my partner works 9 till 5, what do we do with Laila during the day?

If you're away for that long & you can't get a dog walker/sitter, then I really wouldn't get a dog. I know that's harsh, but it's far too long to leave a dog - especially a pup.

Caryll wrote:If you're away for that long & you can't get a dog walker/sitter, then I really wouldn't get a dog. I know that's harsh, but it's far too long to leave a dog - especially a pup.

Completley agree. does your other half work everyday as well? You defo could not leave the dog in a crate that amount of time or even the house to be honest. Maybe you could work something out where u walk the dog before u go to work, come home at lunch time and walk the dog or get a dog walker in, then make sure he gets a good run at the end of the day.

My 8 month old (dog obviously lol) Is crated in the day when i go out but its for like 2/3 hours max! x