Crate Training
You know what I keep thinking I have but actually don’t? A post about how to crate train your dog or puppy. So here it goes!
Set aside an evening or weekday to get this done. It takes me 2-3 hours to get a puppy or dog crate trained, and during that time I’m not doing much else. Throw on a movie you’ve seen before or a show you enjoy, put your crate by your couch, and settle in.
How to crate train your dog:
First, toss some treats into the back of the crate. When your dog (or puppy, but I’m going to stop adding that!) goes in, do nothing. They’ll come right back out. Repeat this until they’re trotting right in to get the treats.
Once they’re trotting right in to get the treats, close the door. Just hold it closed. Open it as soon as they turn around and notice it’s closed. Eventually, they’ll keep eating instead of turning around to see what’s up. When they do turn around, give them a second or two with it closed. Long enough to drop another treat through the bars. Then open the door. Repeat this 3 or 4 times.
Next, latch the door closed. Wait until they paw at it, whine, or otherwise fuss. When they do, tap the top of the crate and say something like, “No no, we don’t fuss.” They’ll quiet down because, well, that tapping is odd. It disrupts their getting-upset path. When they’re quiet for a beat, let them out.
At this point they’ll probably hesitate before going back in. That’s okay; toss treats in the back and let them go in and out freely until they’re going in easily again. Then close the door, wait for a tiny fuss, tap the crate, and let them out when they’re quiet. If they stay quiet, drop treats in. At first I drop treats in every few seconds, then after half a dozen treats it’s every few minutes, then it’s… well, longer than that. It becomes occasional pretty quickly.
Keep them in for a few minutes, then let them out again.
Repeat until that “few minutes” is up to 20 minutes. I start by thinking, “Okay, they can stay in for a minute or so. Now I’ll ask them to stay in for this commercial break, then I’ll let them out.” Then it’s between the commercial breaks. Then it’s for the length of the half hour show. Once your dog can stay chilling in the crate beside you for the length of a half hour show, they can stay chilling in the crate beside you all night. A half hour vs several hours isn’t really much different to them, from what we can tell based on their behavior.
Now it’s time to get up and leave the room. Go get yourself a glass of water or go use the bathroom. If they start fussing while you’re gone, call back, “No, no, we don’t fuss.” They’ll probably quiet down because they recognize that as the thing that disrupts the fussing. If they don’t quiet down, enter the room and take your seat as if you’re totally unaware that they’re fussing. You can tap the crate, but don’t look at them or talk to them. Be chill about it. If they keep fussing, you can sit in front of the crate with your back to it and ignore them. (This lets them know that they haven’t been abandoned, but also that you aren’t going to engage with them when they’re acting up.) When they calm down for a few minutes, let them out.
Keep super calm, like this is all routine, throughout the process. If the tapping isn’t working, tap a little harder. If it doesn’t alarm your dog, you can even rock the crate a little bit to disrupt the fussing behavior. (Fussing becomes stress which becomes anxiety which becomes panic; we want to disrupt this behavior!) The trick is not to do anything that will alarm them in their crate; if the whites of their eyes start showing, stop all tapping or rocking or anything. It’s too much; they’re telling you they’re stressed. We want to disrupt, not alarm or scare.
Troubleshooting:
Tapping and rocking doesn’t work.
Try blowing in their face with quick, firm puffs, or making a strange noise, or leaving the room, or making a loud noise, or anything else that will catch their attention. Don’t give them a treat; you don’t want to train them to fuss in their crate for a treat!
If nothing else works, sit near the crate while totally ignoring and not even looking at your dog. They will calm down, and learn that fussing doesn’t work. This takes a little longer to get them crate trained, but it’ll still work.
They panic.
Sit in front of the crate with your back to it and wait. The panicking will stop. Don’t panic yourself. Stay calm, play on your phone, take deep breaths. Wait for quiet, and then let them out.
They won’t go into the crate.
Are they white eyed, panting heavily, or have their ears pinched against their head? If any of these stress signs are present, go slower. Instead of trying to get them into the crate, just work on getting them near the crate.
If none of those signs are present, take their collar and encourage them to go in. Any movement should result in less pressure on the collar, even if that movement is away from the crate. Release the pressure, then apply again. Release as soon as you have any movement. (If the movement is big movement, put a leash on them so you don’t end up letting go.) Eventually they’ll try forward movement; you’ll release and give them treats, making sure there are also treats inside the crate. When they go in, throw a puppy party with lots of treats raining down inside the crate. Continue going in and out like this until it’s easy.
They go partway into the crate and then stop.
Give them a little scoot the rest of the way in. If this startles them so they come out, just laugh it off, give them pets and treats, and start again. Eventually it won’t startle them.
I don’t have a crate, I have an exercise pen, and my dog jumps on it/knocks it over/climbs out.
Okay, stand beside the pen, holding the railing. When you dog goes to put their front paws on it, push it towards them far enough to knock them off balance, so they have to drop to all fours to catch their balance. Repeat. They’ll quickly learn that it isn’t safe to put their paws on it, which will stop all of the above behaviors.
They get snappy.
Don’t panic, but stop and call a professional; something is going seriously sideways.
Ready? Excellent! Off you go to crate train your puppy!
Jenna
