Crate Training

Should I crate train my puppy?

I am a big fan of crate training (training being the key word!). Some of the benefits of crate training a puppy (or an adult dog) are:

• It helps with errorless toilet training – for those short periods when you cannot watch your puppy, having them content and resting in the crate really helps.

• It gives your puppy a portable "safe place" you can take anywhere: try staying with a teething puppy in a hotel room, in a tent, or at the in-laws (where every piece of furniture is antique or has sentimental value).

• Getting your puppy or dog used to the crate means that if they ever have to stay at the vets, they will be less stressed, as they'll be resting in a kennel there.

• If your dog has to be on rest following an operation or veterinary procedure, it makes their life – and yours – a lot less stressful.

  
  

So what is crate training?

Crate training is gradually getting your puppy (or dog) used to spending more time in the crate by creating positive associations with it. You work at your puppy's pace, not yours, so some will take longer than others.

Crate training is not shutting your puppy in a crate and letting them "cry it out" – if your puppy is unhappy in the crate, you're moving too fast.

Why it's worth doing early: a real-life example

People sometimes ask me if a crate is cruel, and I understand why - shut a dog in a cage and of course that feels wrong.

But that’s not what crate training is, and I learned that the hard way. My first dog, Nika, came to us back in 2009, before crates were really a thing here - we never crate trained her.

Then at nine months old she needed hip surgery, and afterwards she had to be on strict crate rest, then a playpen, while she healed.

She’d never been confined in her life. She thrashed. She threw herself at the sides trying to get out. It was heartbreaking to watch, and worse than that, it was genuinely bad for her hip and her recovery - the exact thing that was meant to be helping her was making her frantic.

That experience changed everything for me. When we got Monty seven years later, I crate trained him from the start - not because I wanted somewhere to shut him away, but because I never wanted another dog of mine to face confinement for the first time while injured and frightened.

A crate taught kindly, before you ever need it, isn’t a punishment. It’s the safe place your dog already knows and trusts - so that on the day they really need it, it’s one less thing to be scared of.

Here's the thing about crate training – you're not really doing it for now. You're doing it for the day years down the line when you'll be so glad you did.

Monty is nine and a half now, and he hadn't set foot in a crate for about eight of those years. No need to. Then, out of nowhere, he had to have an operation, and the vet wanted him on strict crate rest while he recovered.

And this is what happened. He walked in, settled down, and was absolutely fine – all because of the crate training we'd done when he was a puppy, the better part of a decade earlier. It went in, and it stayed in.

That's what early crate training buys you. Not a dog who tolerates the crate today, but a dog who, when life throws a surgery or an emergency at you, has one less thing to be frightened of.

If you need help with crate training, or any other training or behaviour issue, please get in touch: info@dogsbedogs.co.uk