Crating Your New Puppy

Everybody knows that a new puppy brought into the home is going to be as inquisitive and nosy as your mother-in-law, and it is this character trait that we can take full advantage of when introducing him/her to their crate for the first time. Remember, we ourselves are similar in this retrospect to our four-legged companions. Let me explain:
If I walk down a street and pass a bakery, and if that bakery is omitting the smell of home made bread, you better believe that I will go in there to investigate the free sample rack! Now when training your dog to “crate” you can use the same philosophy.

Make it worth your pup’s while to go in there, at least for the first few times until he associates you putting him/her in it with a good outcome. Treats or toys, placed inside the crate but hidden from the dog’s view will serve you best. What you should also be doing is word associating every time your pup goes to enter his crate. Once in the crate, praise, then leave alone. The crate time is your dog’s quiet time so as little fussing over him/her once in the crate the better. What you will find is that once your dog is familiarized with the crate he/she will look to go in there anytime he feels like being apart from you. Sleeping or just lying down are good examples of this. You must understand that the crate is your dog’s and your dog will come to know this, and know that it is the one spot of solitude that he/she has that is totally their own.

Start your dog off with small increments of time in the crate. Being a new puppy, your dog will not like being left in there for long periods of time especially when he/she can see things happening around him. In instances where you dog starts incessant crate barking, you can either:

- Ignore the behavior until it stops
– Create an uncomfortable stimuli for the dog in order for the barking to stop. (example, – wrapping on the crate while uttering a firm “knock it off” or whatever term you choose) By doing this you are also beginning to teach your dog that you are the leader, and whatever term you do end up using, you can start using for any unruly behavior to come to an end.
– Do not let your dog out of the crate just to stop him/her barking. If done, your pup will associate very quickly the act of freedom upon being disruptive. This is a really bad habit to get into.

Keep these points in mind if you do decide to purchase a new puppy, as they will serve you quite well. Having a crate for your dog is a great idea and should be one that all new dog owners invest in. Look at it this way? We as humans need to have timeouts now and again. Dogs have needs to.

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