Crate Training Your Dog - Step by Step Instructions

A crate does three very important things. First, it will make the housebreaking process go a little more smoothly by teaching the puppy where to go to relieve himself. By using its own natural instincts the puppy will not urinate or defecate where it sleeps, provided you do your part. Secondly, it will relieve the stress of being alone while you are away at work. Third, it will get you through the teething stage when your puppy will want to chew on every thing.

A puppy comes into this world not knowing what we as humans expect of it. Right or wrong we teach them everything they learn, let's make it positive!!

There is no magic to house breaking it’s really only common sense and an understanding of your dog. House breaking consists of a few very important rules which are:

1. Putting your puppy on a daily schedule when you feed and water it. The following is my schedule that I would use for myself.

7:00 A.M. While you are crate training your puppy, it needs to sleep in the crate. Get up and take the puppy outside to go to the bathroom. Bring the puppy in and put its food and water down for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the food and water are taken away.

7:45 A.M. Take the puppy outside again.

While I am getting ready, I cannot watch my puppy, so he is in his crate. I will take the puppy out at least three times before I leave the house for the day so he can empty his system.

9:00 A.M. Put the puppy in its crate and leave. I leave no food or water in the crate while I am gone. Remember what goes in must come out, so if you leave food and water in the crate you are making it harder for your puppy to learn the rules of house breaking.

When you come home from work, immediately take your puppy outside to go to the bathroom and follow the same schedule you did in the morning.

I never feed past 6:30 P.M.. Between 6:30 and the time I go to bed I will take the puppy out several times so when I crate my puppy it can sleep all night with out having to go to the bathroom.

Remember Food + Water = GOT TO GO!!!

2. Know the key times your puppy needs to go outside. Which are 20 to 30 minutes after you feed it, every time it wakes up and any time you are playing. Remember activity stimulates going to the bathroom. If you are watching your puppy while it is outside the crate and it starts to sniff the floor while walking around in a small circle simply pick it up and take it outside. This is a sign I would really pay attention to. If your puppy has an accident in the house it is YOUR fault as you where not doing your part.

3. Puppies urinate a lot so if you take him outside and he gets distracted or is involved in playing and does not go, bring him back inside and put him in the crate for about 20 minutes and then take him back outside again. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

4. When I take the puppy outside I will take it to the same spot every time. I will also praise the puppy after it goes to the bathroom. By doing both of these it will help him understand what is expected of him.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you can’t physically keep your eyes on your puppy he should be in the crate. I am sure if you have had children, you used a play pen when you could not watch them.

5. Do not put his crate where he is isolated from you. Dogs are pack animals and you are his pack. Even though he is in the crate if he can see and hear you it makes it much easier on him.

6. Remove any type of collar or harness while your puppy is crated for safety reasons.

7. Never use a crate as punishment, this is your dogs room so it is always a positive place.

8. When you first crate your puppy more than likely it will cry, bark and howl on the hopes of you letting him out. DON'T DO IT!! This is typical puppy behavior. If you go to comfort him all you are doing is making it harder for him to get use to the new situation. All of this behavior will go away in a few days once he gets the hang of things. When I am home with the puppy I will still crating him. By this I mean an one hour in and one hour out so he sees the crate as a positive place and not just a place where he goes when your not at home. As he gets older he can have more time out. Most people make the mistake of leaving a puppy out of the crate to soon. This causes problems so be patient.

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