Crate training is a valuable skill, especially for puppies. A safe, secure, and properly sized puppy crate is the safest place for your puppy when you are not home, cannot supervise him, or the house is dangerously hectic (puppy might escape!). All my puppies were acquainted with a crate. Additionally, sometimes, such as in a natural disaster, a crate-trained dog can mean the difference between being able to take your dog with you to a safe space or not.
All responsible rescue groups as well as responsible breeders start the crate-training process before you even bring your puppy home. So, hopefully, your puppy won’t be a stranger to a crate. My puppy, who just turned 1 year old, was crate-trained before he came to me, but that did not mean that he embraced being crated in my home initially. We worked hard at this process.
Make Crate-Training Positive for Your Dog
Creating positive associations with the crate is a vital first step before leaving your puppy in a crate when home alone. Puppies sleeping in the crate in the same room that you sleep in helps create a conditioned response of safety. It’s also easy bonding. The family sleeping together in the same space helps a puppy sleep better. Crate training a puppy at night is the best start on this path.
You can make positive associations with a crate by tossing tiny high value treats into the crate so that your puppy goes in on his own. If you have additional dogs, prevent them from taking the puppy’s treats during this process, although the puppy will notice adult dogs easily going into the crate as a good example.
Soft verbal reinforcement when entering the crate is important. This should be done randomly at different times of the day if possible. Place food-dispensing toys inside. Don’t lure your puppy inside. Allow him to choose to go in and then reward him. He may remove the toys initially to enjoy them but, with repetition, he will lay inside and enjoy them instead.
Having the crate in a room where you regularly spend time with your puppy makes this practice part of the regular routine. When the puppy chooses to go inside the crate, you can randomly close the door very briefly. I stagger this, meaning sometimes I close it and sometimes I don’t. Not moving forward each time creates less anxiety about the protocol. If you are doing these repetitions frequently enough, it will become normal to use a time frame that your puppy may already be tired so that at some point, you can close the crate door and leave the room briefly (or not). “Or not” depends on what you hear when you do.
If crate training results in a crying puppy, you may have rushed things a bit. Returning for crying or whining is a bad idea. If you have done your due diligence, there should not be any crying or whining. Start crate training slowly. The exception is overnight sleeping, with the caveat that if your puppy cries to go potty in the middle of the night, please listen to them.
Puppy-Crate Safety
I have learned from experience that puppies can and will shred bedding and stuffed toys when home alone in a crate. This may create an issue of physical safety. I do not wish to come home to the possibility of an intestinal blockage—or worse—from a swallowed blanket, so I only provide safe-to-chew items in a crate when alone. Examples of these include Kong products designed for this, some Toppl products, Nylabones, and Benebones.
Toys and chews need to be appropriate for the puppy’s size and age. My own preference for a crate-safe enrichment includes smearable food on/in the chewing type toys. For the original Kong toy shaped like a snowman, please don’t jump straight to jamming hard treats or kibble inside and then freezing it with some liquid poured in or with added peanut butter to keep everything even more stuck. Here’s why: That is what I call a PhD-level Kong. You should start with a kindergarten-level Kong before you get to the PhD level. Also, a dog capable of emptying such a Kong when home with you there, may not have the same relaxed mental state to do the same in a crate when alone. Work your way up to that, if at all.
How I use Kongs like those is to cut a bunch of high-value treats such as boiled chicken or single-source meat hot dogs into tiny little pieces and show my puppy how to go about emptying it when I am home first. I make them loose and easy to get out initially. As the puppy grows more confident with this process, I might fill it a bit more so that the puppy must work a little harder. But I never get to the “pack it in and make it all stuck together” point.
I also like the Kong Goodie Ribbon as a potentially less frustrating option. Four holes on each side. Very visible, very difficult to ignore if you are using something high value, which is always important. I have strung boiled chicken through from one side to the other as well as turkey bacon. I also squirt some squeeze cheese on top as well as some whipped cream, alternating like I am decorating a cookie.
Note: Some professionals suggest feeding a puppy inside the crate, but I am not among them. I like to have my dogs eat meals when I do the same and the crate isn’t part of that equation.
You can also use an ex-pen (exercise pen), alternately known as a puppy pen, if room for a crate is an issue. Just make sure that the puppy cannot jump over it, climb up it, or move it. Some ex-pens have tops available to stop puppy climbing.
Safe Dog-Crating Tips
Some important points to note for crate and ex-pen usage:
- Remove collars when crating. This eliminates the possibility of a tag catching on a crate spot and injuring the puppy.
- Be mindful of how long your puppy will be crated when home alone. A common rule of thumb is 1 hour for every month of age. But that could then mean 8 hours for an 8-month-old dog, and I would strongly disagree. My own guideline is 4 to 5 hours, depending again on the puppy’s age, time of day, and what kind of enrichment and exercise they may have had prior to crating.
- Your puppy’s crate should be in a room that you regularly spend time with him in. Basements or a room that is only used for the crate are not a good idea.
- Do not use the crate for punishment such as a time out, etc. That will create the opposite of a positive association.
- Size the crate appropriately. Most wire crates now come with a divider that can be moved or removed completely according to your puppy’s size. Wire crates are better options than closed in airline type crates.
