Dog Talk BlogTraining and Behavior Insights by Barb Gordon

CRATE TRAINING

I learned  how to raise up a pup from my parents. They weren’t very good at it, though I will give my father credit for getting a little training book and helping me learn how to teach our pup to walk on leash, sit, and come.
Cinder, a German Shepherd Dog, was our one and only family dog when I was growing up. My parents certainly didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into. She was cute for all of three hours. Then she became a chore. The first week was all about her screaming, most of the night and day for attention, and pooping and peeing over every square inch of that porch. My mother was not happy.
Cinder started out on the back porch, then lived a year tied to a dog house out back, before my parents got tired of the destruction and found her a new home.
My husband Jack and I had a couple dogs before we had children. We didn’t do any better of a job than my parents did. We put the pups on a back porch where they screamed all night for a week, and drove us crazy mad. We put papers down and were met in the morning hours with poop and pee all over the place, along with ripped up papers, and a few chucks of plaster knawel off the walls.  This is what our parents did, so we thought this was the way you got the job of being quiet and house breaking done. It wasn’t easy. It was a lot of hard work. We didn’t get much sleep for a week, and we were pretty grumpy. Our poor pups were met in the mornings, of those first days, with less than a cheerful greeting.
Years later I learned about crate training.  My first thought was, “What’s a crate?” I had visions of the thing oranges came in. My second thought was, “Sure wish I would have known about this a few years ago.” Raising pups got a whole lot easier.  Life for me and my dogs has been a pleasant experience ever since. Now when I greet the new pups in the morning, I’m a lot more cheerful.
Hands down crate training is the easiest way to house break dogs and keep track of them. Many problems can be avoided with this simple approach to rearing dogs. The two top ones are housebreaking and destruction.

THE DOG IS A DEN ANIMAL

One of the biggest obstacles to crate training is the human doing the training.
Views vary but it is a common emotional belief that a crate is a prison a dog should resent. People feel sad that they have to “lock” the dog up. This belief is further confirmed by the fact that a pup cries at first when he is put in one. The truth is no matter where you put a pup, accept in bed with you, he is going to cry. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a crate, dog bed, exercise pen, or back porch.
Since dogs are den animals they do not resent den like environments and in fact feel very safe and secure in close quarters. Your pup’s mother kept the litter in a very small space, so they could keep the area they lived in warm with their own body heat. To love a dog is to treat him like one. If you are very worried about your pup’s happiness, perhaps leaving him with his mother and litter mates would have been a better decision. He is not happy being removed from them and everything he has known for the last eight weeks. He’s lonely and scared. He liked being with his mom and littermates. You took him from a good life as a dog, to a strange new world.
Dogs are not meant to be alone, since they are pack animals, so they aren’t all that happy when it happens to them for the first time. Fortunately dogs are great at adapting to things, so it won’t take long for them to adjust to this new situation and accept it as the way things are.  Believe it or not the hot water bottle still works well to this day. It gives the pup something warm to cuddle up against. If you are going to do this make sure it’s not too hot and is wrapped in a towel.
Since this dog will not be spending every minute with you, it’s important for him to learn that being alone is not a bad thing. While putting them in bed with you solves the crying problem for the moment, you are not being kind to your dog in the long run. Separation anxiety is a man made mental illness in dogs.  It does not exist at all in packs of dogs. The sooner the pup learns to sleep by himself in his own bed/den, and in turn learn that being alone is okay, the better it is for his mental well being. If you want the best for your pup, teach him being alone is not a problem.
FIRST CRATE FIRST NIGHT

I find that the easiest way to crate train pups is to put them next to your bed. This is because he is not totally alone. He can hear you and feel you near by. Also if a pup is very noisy I can rap on the top of the crate to let him know I disagree with the noise. Once he is crate trained, I move the crate to the place it will be for the rest of his life. You may decide to put a dog bed in your room and that is where he will sleep once he is reliably housebroken ands knows what he can chew on. Some people just leave the dog crate open and the dog will go in there to sleep on his own.
The first crate for your pup will be small. If it’s too big he will sleep in one corner of it and pee in the farthest corner. This is not what you want. Once again humans tend to like the idea of big areas, so if they do have to put the pup in a “cage” it should be roomy. The crate should have just enough room for the pup to stand up, turn in a circle, and lie down comfortably. Your pup will sleep in his crate at night and off and on for nap times during the day, or if you need to leave for short periods of time. No dog should ever live in a crate. If you have no other option but to leave your pup in a crate, make arrangements for someone to come in and give him a potty break, and to play and run about for a half hour. To go to work for eight hours or more and crate a pup day after day is beyond cruel. Pups should have a nice roomy pen or kennel run during the daytime. Fresh air, water, and a place to eliminate. He should also have a couple things to chew on.
The first few nights (depending on the size of the pup’s bladder) you will be getting up one to three times to take him out to go. When he whimpers, this is a good time to take him out. He is learning to tell you when he has to go. No dog has to go right after you put him in a crate, so you have to learn to ignore tantrums and only let the pup out when he whimpers. It’s a very different sound. One is screaming and one is telling you they need to go pee. You will get to know the difference.
This may seem like a nuisance at first, but I will tell you most dogs will adjust to sleeping though the night in a week’s time, while cleaning up dog messes all over the house, or in a small room will go on for weeks, even months. A rule of thump is not to feed a pup or let him have a drink close to bed time. Take him out for one last potty break just before bed. This can greatly reduced the times he needs to go out during the night.

TEACHING THE COMMAND TO “GO CRATE”

It’s best if a dog gets exercise before being put in his crate. If you have to leave for work and he is going to spend a few hours in his crate, you should take him for a good long walk, do a bit of playing or any energy burning things, so he is tired.

To teach him to go to his crate on command;

• Take a yummy treat like chicken. Show it to the pup and let him sniff it.

• Toss it into the crate. Let the pup go get it and let him back out on his own. Now throw another treat into the crate. Once he goes in throw in a couple more.

• Finally add the command as you toss the treat into the crate; “Go crate.” Throw a few treats in, then close the door. Leave him in there for a few minutes, then give him permission to come out.

Leave the crate open when you are home so the pup can go in and out when he likes. It often surprises owners when they see the pup in his crate sleeping. Note the Min Pin pups in the picture above. After playing they all went back to the crate to sleep. To them it is a safe and preferable place to be.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Some pups will just plain not go into a crate, even with food as an offer. For these pups, I simply pick them up and put them in the crate. It’s not a matter of choice. Every time I tell the pup to go to his crate I will insist he do it. If you think a pup will see you as the bad guy think about this; His mother disciplined him for many offences as he was growing up and he still loved and respected her. He also learned not to disobey her. In a sense you are now the mother dog. Don’t be less than the best mother dog you can be. What you say goes. Your pup will love and respect you for it. Repetition and consistency will soon win out and he will be going into his crate on command and doing it joyfully.
Never let a dog barge out of a crate. They must wait for permission. Never let a dog out of a crate that is barking or screaming. If you approach crate and a dog is whining or scratching turn and walk away. Whenever you let a dog out of crate block them from coming out with a gentle tap on the chest. Only when he is waiting calmly can he come out.

RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERSHIP

I am often surprised by how unprepared people are to have a dog. The calls I get are often a result of folks going out and getting a dog, then stumbling through the learning process.  It’s been a terrible ordeal for them because they didn’t have the education they needed, the time, or the right equipment. Before anyone brings a dog into their lives, I feel they need to have a crate, a good secure fenced area for the dog to be in during the day, and daily exercise and training. Not to provide a dog with these basic needs is cruel.
Try not to let emotions rule your decisions. It’s far better to come home to a house that is just the way you left it and the good pup you are happy to see, then the dog you are angry with. Your time and a lot of patience is require to get a great start with a pup. Give your time to your pup, and do the best job you can. You will be rewarded with a well adjusted and good dog for many years.

Barbara Gordon
Owner/trainer/teacher
West Plains Canine School
Spokane Washington