Why Crate Train my Puppy?

In the wild, dogs have dens which act as a safe and warm haven that keeps them dry and away from danger. There is a great sense of wellbeing, security, and primal familiarity in a Puppy’s den. It is also a place where the Mother’s teach their young to toilet outside, dogs naturally wish to keep their dens clean and dry. With all these natural instincts behind them, Puppy crate training can be relatively smooth.

Be sure to understand the difference between temporarily confining your puppy to a crate and long term confinement when you are not home. The major purpose of confinement when your are not home is to restrict mistakes to a small protected area. The purpose of crate training is quite the opposite.

Short term confinement to a crate is intended to inhibit your puppy from eliminating when confined, so that she will want to eliminate when released from confinement and taken to an appropriate area. Crate training also helps teach your puppy to have bladder and bowel control. Instead of going whenever she feels like it, she learns to hold it and go at convenient scheduled times.

Do’s and Don’ts of Crate Training

Crate training should not be abused, otherwise the problem will get drastically worse. The crate is not intended as a place to lock up the puppy and forget her for extended periods of time. If your puppy soils her crate because you left her
there too long, the house training process will be set back several weeks.
Your puppy should only be confined to a crate when you are at home. Except at night, give your puppy an opportunity to relieve herself every hour. Each time you let her out, put her on leash and immediately take puppy outside.
Once outside, give her about three to five minutes to produce. If she doesn’t go to the toilet within the allotted time period, simply return her to her crate, and try again later. If she does perform, then immediately reward her with praise, food
treats, affection, play, an extended walk and permission to run around and play in your house for a couple of hours. For young pups, after 30-45 minutes, take her to the toilet area again. Never give your puppy free run of your home
unless you know without a doubt that her bowels and bladder are empty.

During this crate training procedure, keep a diary of when your puppy toilets. If you have Puppy on a regular feeding schedule, she should soon adopt a corresponding toileting schedule. Once you know what time of day she usually needs to toilet, you can begin taking her out only at those times instead of every hour. After she has toileted, she can have free, but supervised, run of your house.

About one hour before she needs to toilet (as calculated by your diary) put her in her crate. This will prevent her from going earlier than you had planned. With your consistency and abundance of rewards and praise for eliminating outside, she will become more reliable about holding it until you take her out. Then the amount of time you confine her before her scheduled outing can be reduced, then eliminated.

Mistakes and Accidents During Training

If you ever find an accident in the house, just clean it up. Do not punish your puppy. All this means is that you have given her unsupervised access to your house too soon. Until she can be trusted, don’t give her unsupervised free run of your house. If mistakes and accidents occur, it is best to go back to the crate training. You need to more accurately predict when puppy needs to eliminate and she needs more time to develop bladder and bowel control.