“Puppy Crate Training Starts With A Cozy Crate”

 

There is nothing easier in house training puppies than crate training.

 

You will find it quite easy to train the puppy if you are systematic in your crate training. It will not help if you just push your puppy in the crate and try all sorts of methods without any particular plan.

 

Crate training an adult dog is a Himalayan task, believe me. But it is different with a puppy. If you place it in a crate when you bring it home and keep it there, the crate will be ‘home’ for the puppy and you will have no difficulty crate training it.

 

The use of rewards is a well-tested and successful method in training dogs. This method is not only effective in house training puppies but it also works well for crate training them as well,

 

Let us look at each step involved in crate training your cute little puppy. Here is a list of them:

 

1. Buy a crate that will be comfortable and snug for the puppy. You must have the crate at home, ready to receive the puppy when you bring it home. When you eventually bring the puppy to your house, put it near the crate and not in it. Give the puppy time to explore all around the crate and the crate itself.

 

2. If the puppy shows no inclination to enter the crate through the gate, do not feel concerned about it. What you must do now is to place some food near the gate and give the puppy a tiny little push to get it closer to the gate of the crate. Do this every day and get the puppy closer and closer to the gate.

 

Once you have got the puppy to become used to eating close to the gate, put the food right inside the crate. After the puppy had gone in and made itself comfortable in the crate, close the gate

 

3. Make sure that the crate you have for the puppy is not too small and cramped for it. The puppy should be able to move around in it comfortably. The crate should be cozy without being restraining.

 

4.Get into the habit of picking up your puppy and putting it in the crate whenever you find that it is about to doze off

 

Soon the puppy will realize that the crate is where he goes to sleep. When he has got this into him, he will make a beeline to the crate when he wants to sleep or just curl up and relax.

 

5) Once your puppy has identified the crate as his home, you can teach him the command of ‘go to crate’ or ‘go sleep’ to make sure he gets into his crate easily when you have to stay away from home for some time

 

You must keep in mind that your puppy is still too young and small and will not be able to keep still in the crate for a long time.

 

When you have this in mind, you can start training your puppy by keeping it in its crate for short periods of time, to begin with. Start with stretches of twenty minutes and gradually increase this period.