This article will provide all the information you need for crate training a puppy. Puppies always like finding hiding places where they can be able to snuggle in and feel safe. They usually prefer to stay in hideouts in order to avoid too much scrutiny and interference.
You can use this to your advantage by training your puppy to use a crate. This can become a special space for it where it feels safe.
Crate training usually requires a lot of patience on the part of the owner of the dog but once. It helps or assists to train your puppy or dog about all the other house rules. For instance you can train your puppy not to eliminate anything or anywhere in the house. You can take advantage of a crate to take your puppy to places where they are not allowed to freely run. When the puppy is confined to the crate, ensure that you supply it with enough water.
Choosing a crate
When you are in the process of choosing a crate, ensure that you opt for metal or plastic dog kennels. Collapsible kennels may also be available. Before you begin the process of crate training a puppy, you should be aware that this kennel should be placed in a place where the puppy will constantly feel the presence of you and your family members near it. Ensure that you link crate training to good things like lots of praises and dog treats. Moreover, since this process is a slow one, ensure that you go step by step during crate training.
Introduce your puppy to the crate
Start off with only a small crate to avoid much room. The last thing you need is your puppy using part of the crate as a bathroom. Make sure you encourage your puppy to use the crate all the time with no exceptions. Once in there, leave the puppy for an hour or so – even two at most.
Each time you remove your puppy out of the crate, ensure that you give it a chance to be able to sample out the outside environment. This will assist him to learn that he must always go outside and not just any place. Crating your puppy may assist housebreak it at a faster rate than making it to roam freely inside the house. They will start to learn the pattern of rushing outside and do their businesses thus ensuring that they leave their crate clean.
In whatever of the room you are in, ensure that you have the crate with you. This will enable the dog to feel as if it is part of the family and also it will feel that it has not been ignored.
Be consistent
At night when you go to bed, ensure that you take this crate inside your bedroom. If the puppy begins to fuss, try to calm him down while he is still inside the crate. He must be able to learn that the crate is his only bed and thus after some times he will start feeling safe in it. Ensure that you feed him early enough in the evening and just before bed, take him outside. After several days he will begin going without the assistance of anybody.
If you happen to leave your puppy in a different room all night and expect that he will stay inside the crate the whole night, be assured that you will have to clean some mess in the morning. This may also teach your puppy some bad habits that may appear difficult to break.
By sleeping with your puppy in the same room, you will be in a position to hear him any time he wakes up and when he needs to go outside. He will also be able to learn your sleeping routine and thus when he gets older; he will be in a position to follow the same routine.
Crate training a puppy will save you many problems because your puppy will have a place where it can feel safe. This will also be the place that you can keep him well and teach him how to be obedient and trustworthy.
