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training a puppy to use a dog bed

19 11:35:54

Question
We have a 13 week puppy, mixed breed, spayed smart as a whip already trained to command of sit, come, let's go, no, her name (gypsy). she is our 4thdog. We would love to get her trained to a dog bed (she is currently crate trained) so when she gets older and we travel we can take the bed and she will know exactly where to sleep. How do you do it?

Answer
It is hard to train a a dog to do anything when you aren't there.  When I am home and the dogs are loose, they choose a variety of places to sleep, sometimes choosing the wooden floor over several dog beds available.  A couple of them have even chosen the stone fireplace hearth.  

I would stick with the crate.  They work very well for travel.  We mostly use a 36'' plastic crate.  We nest the halves and put our suitcase and other things in it.  I even have a piece of plywood with castors to set it on to roll into a hotel saving trying to find a baggage cart.  Some crates come with wheels.