Crate
Training Puppies To Housebreak A Dog
Plus More
Crate
Training Puppies
Some people
think that using a crate is cruel since it resembles a cage or a place
of confinement for a dog. However, it is not as crate training
puppies is one of the most effective ways to housebreak a dog.
But in addition to housebreaking, there are more advantages to using
crates.
A dog crate that has a metal gate you can open and close is also
another item highly recommended when I teach new puppy owners to
housebreak a dog, whether they intend to use the traditional outdoor
only method or include indoor litterbox training. My crates are
stuffed with comfortable pillows for my dogs. You can alo use one
of those portable steel fences that form an enclosed area but I prefer
an enclosed plastic crate since it is easier to use and move
around.
If you are going to be getting more than one puppy at a time, you will
need a crate for each dog. In time, they will want their own
crate and space although as you will read on later, you can initially
use just a single crate. However, these puppies will grow and
separate crates will be required. Below is a photo of one of our
dog crates.
Dog Crate With
Pillow
Dog Crate
Training For Travel
By the way, if
you ever intend on flying anywhere with your dog, the airlines usually
require that pets be transported in animal crates. They also do
not allow multiple pets to be transported in any single crate.
Each animal must be in s separate crate so this is another benefit of
crate training puppies.
I had to fly my first two dogs Pepper and Max from Toronto to Winnipeg
as I was relocating for a new job. I arrived at the Toronto
airport with my first two dogs Pepper and Max in one crate and the
airline made me purchase a second crate on the spot (they have them in
stock at the airports). This is how I ended up with two crates in
the first place from my years with my first two dogs. We
used the same two crates again for our flight when we relocated back to
Toronto three years later.
Effective Tool To
Housebreak A Dog
A dog crate
should just be large enough for your puppy to stand up, turn around and
lie down in with soft bedding (cushion or towels). You don’t want
a crate that is too large. Dogs have a natural den mentality
which means that they generally do not want to eliminate where they
sleep. If the crate is just large enough for your dog to sleep
in, it will prefer to hold things in until you let your pet out.
Of course it’s possible that your puppy might make an accident inside
the crate but he/she will not like it and learn quickly from
this. This is why crate training puppies is so effective to
housebreak a dog.
If the crate is too big, your puppy might sleep on one end and
eliminate at the other end. This will defeat the crate’s purpose
of taking advantage of the dog’s natural den mentality and slow down
the training process. So you may have to buy different sizes of
crates as your puppy grows. Some crates do have adjustable
dividers to change the size of the inside space.
There is another way to avoid having to buy multiple sized
crates. I had two medium size crates left over from my years with
my first two dogs. When I first got Chester and Roxie, they were
so small that they really only needed half the size of these
crates. So I used a bunch of rolled up towels to stuff the back
end of these crates so that the inside spaces were effectively reduced
to half. This worked perfectly. Then as my puppies grew
larger, I simply removed the towels as needed.
The video below demonstrates crate training puppies in more detail as I
show you one of the crates my dogs use. Of course, the use of a
crate is only one aspect to housebreak a dog. For more
information on the overall progression particularly in housetraining
with a dog litter box, click on the orange graphic just below the video.
Crate Training Puppies
Demonstrated
Crate
Training Puppies Evolves Into Sleeping Quarters
After crate
training as part of the overall process to housebreak a dog, the actual
crate can evolve into something that your dog can use for life.
In our case, my two dogs now use their crates as sleeping
quarters. They also sometimes go into their crates during the
daytime for naps or just to relax as they view this location as a nice
comfortable and safe place. The metal doors are always left open
now as they come and go as they please. So crate training puppies
is definitely not cruel at all. My dogs see their crates as a
good place.
Free Basic Dog Obedience Training Video On Essential
Commands As The Minimum Standards To Teach Your
Dog With Complete Progressions Fully Demonstrated
In this
video, we
demonstrate;
Essential commands including
sit, down, and stand (plus why stand is useful) More challenging commands like come (recall) and stay The minimum standards that all dogs should be taught Daily training
drills to keep skills sharp for your puppy All puppy
obedience
training
progressions
are fully demonstrated Indoor and
outdoor recalls for different environments
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Essential commands including
sit, down, and stand (plus why stand is useful)