For a very good guide to all sorts of dog training processes and dog behavior challenges, I use and recommend Clickertraining ...that link goes to the description of this terrific ebook you download immediately, wherever you are! -- Rosana

The Midwest Life Stages Double-Door Folding Metal Dog Crate is the bestselling dog crate at Amazon. I recently learned that when you are in any category there, you can look up at a top menu bar and choose Bestsellers. I just did that and as of today, this crate is not just the #1 dog crate, it’s #1 in pet supplies AND #1 in the entire home and garden category. Okay, I admit to liking odd facts like this! So I got interested and clicked through to read the page about this particular crate. I’m a huge fan of crate training for puppies and dogs both — that link takes you to a long how-to page I wrote. It immediately became evident why this crate is so popular. It has two features that most dog crates don’t have:

1. There are doors in two different spots, very convenient for different places in your home or for use in both home and car. Latches on the top and bottom of each door.
2. There is a divider that can be used when you are potty-training a puppy or adult dog. Since puppies are more apt to hold it in a smaller space, use this for training. ( Of course, if you will be gone all day, be sure the pup has enough room!) They say that this crate cuts housebreaking time in half. Read the rest of this entry

Here’s a talk I recorded on crate training, how to do it, and some alternatives to it.(It isn’t for every dog or every person.)

The recording takes a few seconds to start while it is loading.

This is based on part of a crate training page at the main part of this website. I also have a useful page there on dog crates.

If you would like to download this audio to listen to on an mp3 player, for example, here is the direct link to it. Just right-click or the Mac equivalent to save it to your computer:

http://www.training-dogs.com/sound-files/crate-training.mp3

I’m a big fan of crate training, but not for all dogs. That link takes you to a long page I wrote about the main website about crate training, how to do it, and when not to. But I don’t talk about clicker training there. So as I’ve been reading Clickertraining: the 4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer recently, I noticed that they have a chapter on crate training. It’s near the end of the ebook, and so I thought it might draw on clicker methods that would be pretty advanced. It doesn’t really though.

I was very pleased to see that Morten and Cecilie, the authors of the ebook, take the same view I do that crate training is not something to be rushed!

Read the rest of this entry

If you crate train your dog, you’ll find it useful in a wide variety of situations. For example:

** You can confine the dog if guests come over who are afraid of dogs.
** The dog is at home with being in a small enclosed space, so if he has to stay overnight at veterinarian’s it will be less stressful.
** Ditto any kind of emergency evacuation from your home.
** It’s very useful in potty training, as even young puppies will do their best not to soil their crate, unless they are left in it longer than they can manage.

I think that crate training is one of the best things you can do for your puppy or adult dog when you first get it. While some people have the opinion that crate training a puppy is cruel, it really isn’t if you don’t leave the pup or dog in the crate for long hours at a time. Dogs actually benefit from crate training — my list of examples above could go on and on. It seems to me that typically dogs who are used to their crate find it comforting and homey.

Our year-old Rottweiler, Lola, often needs to be confined in her crate for a while when we have guests over, so we can have a meal without her resting her chin on the table (I’m working on the training bit!) and she is very, very good about it. Specially when we give her a Kong with some peanut butter in it!

FOR MORE CRATE TRAINING TIPS:
See my page, http://training-dogs.com/crate-training.html

It’s got a lot of tips and is the second most popular page on the site. It includes some alternatives to crate training too