Crate Training 101

[Rosiepug]

Crate Training 101

Teaching your puppy or dog to accept being confined to a Crate will be beneficial to you both in the long run. Your goal is to teach the dog to accept the crate as its own personal space. How long it takes will depend on your dog’s age, temperament and past experience. Two objectives to keep in mind to ensure success are firstly, the crate must always be associated with happy, positive experiences and secondly, don’t rush, take small increments.

Now we consider the size of the crate. Buy one that will be the correct size for your dog at adulthood. The full grown dog will need to be able to stand with a few inches clear above his head and must be able to turn around easily. When you put a puppy in this crate, be sure to partition off part of the crate so it’s just big enough for the puppy to turn around, otherwise you’ll find the pup eliminating in one end and sleeping in the other. As the pup grows, the partition is moved giving the extra space as necessary. This could be weekly or monthly depending whether you have a small or large breed dog.

To introduce the puppy to the crate, place it in the room you most frequent, could be the kitchen or the family room. Leave the crate door open and frequently toss in a few treats and toys. Let the puppy run in and out, retrieving the treats without closing the door and confining the puppy. At the moment he’s just gaining confidence being in and around the crate.

Feed the pup his meals just inside the crate with the door open, so he can actually have his body outside and head in. If he’s already comfortable he may go right inside, still leave the door open. Again he’s gaining confidence that good things happen in the crate.

Once you feel he’s happy to enter the crate and eat his meals you can close the door while he does so. As soon as he’s finished open the door and let him out. Each subsequent time, leave the door closed for a few minutes longer. If he starts to whine, you may have lengthened the time too quickly. Wait for a moment where he’s quiet and release him. Next time, shorten the overall length of time he waits in the crate after eating.

Now begin to crate the puppy while you’re home. Put him in the crate with a treat and then sit for 10 minutes in the same room, don’t pay him any attention. Next go and sit in another room for 10 minutes, then return to the room where the puppy’s crated. Again don’t make a fuss. If he’s settled down and is sleeping leave him well alone. If he’s fussing it is imperative not to release him until he’s quiet. To release him when he’s whining, will teach him that whining long and hard, gets him out of the crate eventually.

By now you should be able to leave the pup crated for short periods of time while you leave the home. In your normal manner, crate him 5 or 10 minutes before you leave.
When it’s time for you to depart, do so in a calm, matter of fact manner, pick up your keys and leave.

When you return home, don’t be tempted to reward the puppy for over excited behaviour by responding in an excited and enthusiastic manner. Keep arrivals low key to avoid increasing his anxiety. Go inside, put your shopping away and just open the crate. Say hello but don’t make a fuss because he’s been a good dog, you expect him to be a good dog.

At night it’s a good idea to crate your puppy in the bedroom or nearby hallway, when he’s very young, he will need to get up and eliminate in the night. Being close by, you’ll hear him stir or whine and will be able to take him out to his potty area so he doesn’t soil his crate.

Older dogs too, should be initially kept close by, so that they don’t associate the crate with social isolation. Once the older dog has become accustomed to sleeping well in the crate or the puppy no longer needs to get up in the night to eliminate, you can move the crate to your preferred sleeping location but keep in mind having your dog close by while you both sleep, certainly strengthens the bond between you.

The pitfalls … On no account release a whining dog/ puppy from the crate unless he has woken in the middle of the night because he needs to relieve himself. When this happens take him to his potty area and give him the opportunity to eliminate. Once he has done this, take him straight back to the crate and lights out, it definitely isn’t play time.

Don’t frequently leave your dog in the crate for long periods of time, he may become frustrated or depressed. Remember Puppies can only go for 3 or 4 hours before they need to relieve themselves. It’s your responsibility not to set him up for failure by demanding he stay in the crate too long, which will result in the puppy soiling the crate.

[Harley&RoxysMommy]

Great Job, I've been crating my dogs for quite a while but really good advice!

[Spud-baby]

Hiya,

I've begun crate training Spud the last few days and he has been doing great.... however I came home today to find him whining as he had pooped and peed in his crate.

I let him out and cleaned it up and he was fine.

My question is will he do it again or can I continue to crate train him... I don't think he wanted to mess in it but that it was probabaly my fault as even though he had toileted ok when we got up I didn't have time to make sure he had gone again after breakfast (Spud uses an indoor potty so I don't leash him).

Thanks

[Rosiepug]

Hiya,

I've begun crate training Spud the last few days and he has been doing great.... however I came home today to find him whining as he had pooped and peed in his crate.

I let him out and cleaned it up and he was fine.

My question is will he do it again or can I continue to crate train him... I don't think he wanted to mess in it but that it was probabaly my fault as even though he had toileted ok when we got up I didn't have time to make sure he had gone again after breakfast (Spud uses an indoor potty so I don't leash him).

Thanks

I think not pottying after breakfast was probably the reason for him eliminating in the crate. If you can, walk him for 10 or 15 minutes on the leash after a meal to give himself chance to relieve himself. Omitting to do this sets him up for failure.
How long did you leave him in there?
Are you sure the crate isn't too big?

You've done the right thing by cleaning it up and tomorrow's a new day and a new opportunity to teach him to accept the crate and be clean!

[Spud-baby]

Hiya,

His crate is a fair size probably about the same as in your picture at the top of this sticky but I also bought him quite a big teddy (which he loves!... to hump!) for company which takes up about half the crate.

I had to go to uni so left him from about 8am - 1.30 yesterday which I thought would be ok as he can go all night without messing or whining to get out to eliminate. I would have been back about 15 mins earlier but had to pop to the post office and from the freshness of the mess I believe if I had come straight home first he might have just made it.

This morning I woke up to find a poo (which again he wasn't happy about) but no pee (yeah) - which I think is because he peed before being crated last night but wouldn't poo. I tried to wait for him to have done both and didn't get to bed until 12.40! but couldn't wait any longer (have to be up at 6am).

He's had a pee and poo this morning and I have uni again so fingers crossed.

Thanks

[OllieButton]

Our puppy has been with us for 4 days now (he's 11 weeks old), and is taking to the crate quite well, he seems happy to sleep in it and be in it (provided we are close by) and to receive treats there and in general will check it out once in a while during the day. He sleeps through the night and one of us gets up halfway through to let him use the bathroom and then put him right back in. But The breeder we got him from (in Thailand, we're in Pakistan) used to let him relieve himself in the crate, and we think for that reason he still has no problem relieving himself in there from time to time (though we don't have any problems if we give him frequent trips to visit the "bathroom"). What bother us is that he will go right on his sleeping blanket, which in our research is supposed to be very counter intuitive for him? He also eats in the crate quite happily.

Any thoughts on how to break him of this cycle? Will he stop with constant training on our part? Should we vocally discipline him beyond expressing disapproval? Also, how well should we clean the crate everytime he has an accident? We wash out the blanket and wipe down the crate floor, but do we need to bleach it as well?

Sorry for all the questions and appreciating any suggestions!

Ollie's Dad.

[Rosiepug]

Welcome to the village

Is Ollie in his crate for many hours a day or infrequently?

If a puppy isn't given the opportunity to be clean i.e. he's being kept in enclosed quarters (his crate) then he doesn't have the choice to be clean, he has to eliminate on his blanket. It could be that his breeder left him in a crate and he had no other option than to soil his blanket.

Whatever the case, start from scratch with viralmd's housebreaking rules. /
Alice's (ViralMD) Rules of Housetraining - PugVillage.com Pug Forums

Be consistent, keep his crate clean. Don't scold him for soiling his crate, ignore his mistakes.
Clean up any mess with an enzyme cleaner like Simple Solution, Natures Miracle or Urine off. You can buy those online if you can't find them in Pakistan.

If you're home with him, you should be paper training him or taking him outside for frequent potty trips. Sometime in the next month he should be able to hold his urine all night.
With my own pug puppy I bought a crate large enough to have a sleeping area in one half the crate and an absorbant potty pad in the other half. I noticed at about 4 months of age she had stopped wetting it during the night. At that point I transfered her to a smaller crate just large enough for her to stand up turn around and lay down stretched out.

Good luck, let us know how you get along.

By the way, are there many pugs in Pakistan?
What are the Vets like?

[OllieButton]

Hi Rosie's Mom!

Thank you so very much for replying to our queries. Just to fill you in, Ollie is not in his crate much at all, only for a half hour here and there when we absolutely need to be looking else where. He sleeps in his crate about 6 hours at a stretch and has so far never had an accident in that time frame ( we keep waking up to see if he needs to go, but he seems to be a pretty good sleeper).

The two times the peeing in the crate incident had happened, once he had just peed so it seems unlikely he really had to go and the second time was just after a meal ( we feed him in the crate to get him to like it more) so that may have been just us slow on the draw. The first time the crate was rather large, but what worries us is that he didn't eliminate on the non bed side, just peed right where he was standing on his blankie.


We are paper training him at the moment as we live in an apartment on the 5th floor with no elevators- he's done really well for a little guy, we have been home with him consistently for the past four days and as long as we take him to the designated area every 2 hours, he's a champ about it.

Thanks for the reference, we will reveiw the link- so far we were using the crate training guidelines on the ASPCA's website.

As for your other questions, nope not many pugs in this neck of the woods, just a few that we know of. Vets are problematic, we haven't been thrilled with ours but have very limited options-so increased dependancy on the net and forums like this to help us through!

Open to any advice! Thanks for the help.

[Rosiepug]

Your avatar's very cute.

Sounds to me like your doing everything right and he just needs to settle into your family.
Enjoy, they're not puppies for long.

This is just me... I wouldn't wake him to pee in the night, it might become an unnecessary habit. If he wimpers or stirs, circling, then yes see if he needs to relieve himself otherwise he might make it right through the night.

If you have any more questions ask away.

[OllieButton]

Hello again and thank you! Yes we do have a handsome little man if we say so ourselves!
Unfortunately Ollie had a poop incident in the crate over night. Woke up at 3 am and took him to pee as usual which he did and then put him back to "bed". Then woke up at 6 to take him out again and there was a poop in the crate :( Again on his blankie.This is really sad because so far it has only been pee pee accidents so this is a set back. Not sure what we're doing wrong, I assume he didn't have to go at 3 but did somewhere before the 6 o clock run?

I would love to not take him out at 3 am but since he a) has apparently no issues doing the deed in his crate ( on TOP of blankie!) and so far has no way of telling me he would like to go, I'm pretty sure he will just pee and poop in there during the night if need be.

I understand that he is only a puppy and probably won't be able to really control his muscles till much later-I just want to know what we can do to be consistent to make this as easy on him as possible.

I reviewed the link you had sent, I guess the quality of toilet training treats could definitely improve- he loves anything bread, apples etc but he seems to adore cheese. I just worry about what too many treats will do to his health and weight.

Otherwise we are really enjoying having him, he has a very definitive personality and is very loving- he will find a way to be in physical contact with one of us as much as he can.

Due to the poop in the night incident, should we reassess the bathroom visits? We both work so I'm not sure how much sleep deprivation we can handle but we don't want him to think it's ok to go in his bed.

Today is Ollie's first day at work with his Dad. My husband is self employed so we are fortunate enough for Ollie not to be by himself for any significant period of time, but there is always an hour or so, errands etc, where we can't take him with us so the crate part is really important! Would it be better to cordon an area with paper on one end while we are away?

Many thanks for all your help and Rosie is a gorgeous girl! I'd love to see more pics

Zo, Ollie's Mom