Crate Training Your Puppy: Essential Steps

If you want to get your puppy to move homes with you or come to the vet, you are going to need them to calmly enter and stay within a cage or crate. Crate training is an essential part of dog behavior training. Here are some of the essential steps that you need to take in order to acclimatize your dog to a crate.

Acquire An Appropriate Crate

All puppies are built differently. It is essential that you purchase a dog cage that is an appropriate size when figuring out how to crate train your puppy. Figuring out the size of your puppy should not be too difficult – just take a good long look at them! Some dogs, however, grow faster than others. Be sure to take the immediate future growth of your puppy into account when purchasing a crate.

Size is not the only variable when it comes to selecting a suitable dog crate. Every dog has individual characteristics that may influence how it interacts with an enclosed space. Rescue greyhounds, for instance, prefer small spaces when resting due to their ancestral history of enclosure. Dogs that prefer sleeping in the dark suit enclosed plastic crates, while more adaptable dogs tend to prefer open wire crates that they can see out of.

Work With Your Dog’s Desires

Simple animal psychology should ensure that your dog has a positive relationship with a crate or cage. Begin placing chew toys and treats inside the crate in order to encourage a good association with it. Ultimately, you want your puppy to associate their crate with positive outcomes. Lure your dog inside their crate with food, toys and blankets. Don’t stop after the first time they enter of their own accord: keep perpetrating a positive response with all the tools that you have available to you.

Place your dog’s crate in a place they usually find comforting: near their bed, near their food or in the garden. Let the crate become a place firmly associated with comfort, fun and fulfillment.

Mealtime Is Crate Time

Go one step further by feeding your puppy every meal inside the crate. This will help your young pup to associate safety and fulfillment with the enclosure. Feeding your dog every single meal inside a crate is, of course, not a sustainable option. Instead, you should feed your pup inside the crate for as long as it takes to gain trust and comfort.

When it comes to dog food, make sure you get the best quality you can, and always check out the ingredients used – it can make a huge difference to the health of your dog, so it’s definitely worth doing.

Ease In Enclosure

One of the biggest challenges you will face in the crate training of a puppy is the act of closing the door. All animals naturally fear complete enclosure. Once your puppy has become used to eating meals within their crate, experiment by closing the door every time a meal is served.

Develop A Crate Command

Once your dog has become comfortable being in their crate, it is time to start ensuring that thy will go into the crate when ordered. Develop a crate command using positive reinforcement – much in the same way you would develop a sit or beg command.