Here are some of the ways that crate training is useful:

• In a multi-dog household, there are times when you may want to give one of the dogs a timeout from being with the other, or you may want to feed a dog in the crate, to not have to supervise if one might go for another’s food.

• If you ever have to leave the dog at a veterinarian’s, the dog will be far less stressed if used to being crated.

• Travel goes well with the dog in a crate, if you happen to have a vehicle large enough for the crate. When we came back to US after living in Mexico, Lola traveled in her crate in our motorhome. (Our LarryDog, who detested crates when we got him as a rescue and still does, was tied near Lola where he couldn’t end up in the driver’s seat.)

• If you have guests over, you can protect the dog from them, as we did recently when a family with three lively preschoolers came for dinner. Or you can protect your guests from the dog, as I did when a group of friends came for lunch and it turned out that one of them was afraid of Lola. I could have told her that Lola was a creampuff till I was blue in the face, but the crate solved the problem more effectively. (It was midwinter and blustery outside, so kicking the dogs out wasn’t a choice. LarryDog ended up in the bedroom.)

By the way, the dog crate can become part of a room pretty easily. In the picture here, we have the crate in a corner. The TV table is in front of it, not showing in the photo. In the winter, we often keep firewood for our woodstove on top of the crate, and our Christmas tree went there during the holidays. That’s a wooden-slat bookcase in the corner on top of the crate too.

Crate Training: A Lifelong Convenience is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

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.

Some other good points: well made with sturdy latches, easy to put up or down (well under a minute, reviewers say), free shipping, and more. You will need some sort of bedding. It can be a dog bed (I’m going to try a Big Silky myself) or a folded blanket. Also, while they sell these things according to dog weights, you may also want to think about the size of your dog compared to the size of the crate. I found this good photo on Amazon which I *think* is the same thing. Of course, the crate comes in a variety of sizes. To find out more at Amazon, here is the link: Midwest Life Stages Double-Door Folding Metal Dog Crate

The Midwest Life Stages Double-Door Folding Metal Dog Crate is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

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

Crate Training is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

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!

They point out – as I could have said myself – that "most dogs like their creates if they’ve just been allowed time to gradually grow accustomed to them." It’s when people force their young puppies, or dogs of any age for that matter, into a crate and lock them in that dogs become resistant to ever using a crate.

So how do they suggest you use a clicker for crate training? By using targeting. Never heard of it, or not sure what it is? It’s very simple, the third thing they teach you to do in  Clickertraining. In a nutshell, targeting is getting your dog to touch a target stick, or post-it note, or whatever, by clicking when he touches it and then giving him a treat. As the dog gets the point, you can move the stick around and he’ll think it’s a great game.

Here’s one example of how easy targeting can be to teach: I did one session several years ago with my LarryDog, the dog in the logo at the top of this page. I was clicking and treating, and using a ruler in my right hand as my stick. (Dog training supply places sell nicer sticks. I’ve got one now but I didn’t then.) Then something came up at the library where I worked and I had to put in some extra hours. I didn’t get around to doing any more dog training for quite a while, but LarryDog thought the target "game" (as he saw it) was so much fun that he started following my right hand just in case I would give him a treat. So I did sometimes. To this day, with no more planned training on my part, LarryDog follows my hand sometimes!

Bit I digress. Back to the crate training process. Well, once you have a target-trained dog, it’s just a matter of putting the target just outside the crate and clicking and treating. Next, you go a bit inside the crate… and click and treat. You get the picture. Before long, the dog is entirely in the crate. And then it’s not hard to extend the time, gradually, with attention on how long the dog seems content inside.

To find out more about clicker training from this useful, enjoyable, and comprehensive ebook, click on the book to see its website. I’m learning something  from just about every page.

Crate Training with Clicker Training is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

** 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

Crate Training Puppies and Dogs is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

We just recently got a new puppy and are trying to crate train it. We put him to bed (in his crate) when we go to bed, and then let him out in the morning to do his thing and run around a bit. Then when we leave for work we put him back into his crate where he stays until the kids get home from school and let him out again.

My problem is that i am constantly (twice a day) having to change his bedding as he both poops and pees in his crate. I thought that maybe putting an exercise pen up for him during the day would be better but several friends have told us NO!

What would be the best solution for this as we don’t want him to think of his crate as a “bad” place?

Well, it’s always risky to guess about a situation without knowing all the details, but to me it seems that it’s time to think outside the box… um, crate. Here are some thoughts…

Many problems of this sort can be handled by paying a lot more attention to the puppy’s bathroom needs. You are clearly already being very conscientious but if you take your attention to an even more intense level for a few days or weeks, you may be able to solve the problem completely.

On the weekends and during the night, you can get an idea of just how long the puppy can hold it. Different breeds mature at different rates, and individual dogs will vary too. We once had an Australian Shepherd pup who could hold it all night from the first night we got him, at 9 weeks (gloat), but that is unusual.

Say you discover that your little pup can go about 4 hours. (Review my potty training puppies page here for a suggested routine.) That means you’ll do best if someone can come in once during the time all your family is gone. This would be nice for the puppy anyway, since he is likely pretty lonely. A trusted neighbor, a paid pet-sitter or dog walker, or one of those friends who is telling you not to use an X-pen are all possibilities. They would take him out for a chance to pee or poop, play with him for a few minutes or longer, and perhaps take a pre-stuffed Kong out of your freezer to coax him back into his crate before they leave.

This also means that a middle of the night potty stop outing should take place. Set an alarm clock if you are heavy sleepers.

Seems to me that what you want is to break the habit of using the crate for a bathroom as quickly as you can. I personally would consider combining the crate with an X-Pen, and putting newspapers down in the pen. If the dog is tiny relative to the crate, maybe you can define two spaces in it, but I am guessing this is not the case from your description. Or if you happen to have a mudroom or other small and totally puppy-proof space (or can invent one somewhere in your home), you could put papers down in it and have the crate in there with the door open.

If you begin to think this is going on longer than it should (of course, it already feels like that!), then be sure to consult your veterinarian. It all sounds pretty normal so far, though.

So in a nutshell, I’m suggesting closer management and experimenting more with the size of his space. Best wishes!

When Crate Training Isn’t Working is a post from: Training Dogs Blog