The Essentials of Crate Training Your Dog

If you’re about to bring a new dog into your house, you might be wondering whether crating is right for you.  Or maybe you have a dog that’s been getting into trouble lately and you’re looking for a management solution. Whatever your reason for considering crating your dog, this article will help you decide and teach you how to go about crate training.

Bella in her crate.
Bella in her crate.

Table of Contents


Why Should You Use a Crate?

With the right introduction, most dogs do very well with a crate (after an adjustment period) because they like having a small, den-like area for sleeping. It is usually beneficial to place a cover over the crate to block out visual stimuli once the puppy is comfortable being shut in the crate with you out of sight. 

Bella relaxing in her crate 2
Bella choosing to nap in her crate

Crates are great tools for housebreaking because dogs naturally hold their bladder/bowels longer when they are in a confined, den-like space. Speeding up the housebreaking process is reason enough for many puppy owners to use a crate, at least while the puppy is young. 

Bella destruction
Bella destruction

Crates are also a convenient way to keep your dog out of trouble when unsupervised. When your dog is confined to a crate in your absence, you’ll never come home to find the stuffing of your couch strewn all over the living room floor. If you were to come home to such a disaster, not only would you have to pay to replace the damaged property, but now you have a dog who knows how much fun it is to rip up furniture. Destructive habits, once established, are often tricky to eradicate.

Bella destruction

Destruction of furniture, while unfortunate, is still not the worst result of an unsupervised dog having the run of the house. I have an acquaintance who came home to find that her dog had suffocated on a plastic bag while she was out of the house. A crate would have prevented such a tragedy. I’m not saying this is a likely event, but it is worth mentioning.

Crates can help some dogs feel more secure when you leave the house. My dog, Bella, gets a little anxious when I step outside to get the mail and leave her in the house outside of her crate. I see her apprehensive face peering out the window, watching me closely. If I walk out of sight for more than a few seconds, I sometimes hear her whine or yelp in distress. But when I gather up my stuff to go out, Bella goes into her crate automatically and exhibits no anxiety as I shut her inside and leave the house.

Bella looking out of the window
Bella looking out of the window

What is "Crate Training' and Why is It Important?

Crate training is the process of encouraging your dog to form positive associations with her crate so that she will tolerate and hopefully even enjoy being in her crate. Crate training also involves creating a cue for the dog to go into the crate on her own, so that you never have to subject her to the scary experience of being forced inside. I crate trained Bella when she was a puppy, and now she happily runs into her crate on cue and stays calm and quiet until released.

Dog stressed in crate
Dog stressed in crate

To encourage a positive relationship between your puppy and the crate, you’ll want to do some crate training as early as possible, and avoid creating negative associations with the crate. Without crate training, most dogs will whine and cry while shut inside the crate, which is both heartbreaking and irritating.

Even if you don’t plan on using a crate for the majority of your dog’s life, you have some very good reasons to crate train your puppy anyway. As I have already mentioned, it helps tremendously with the housebreaking process and prevents the formation of bad habits. Additionally, there will likely be a time in your dog’s life when it is necessary for her to be placed in a crate. If she needs to be left at a grooming facility or at a veterinary office for a procedure, she will be put in a crate during part of her stay. If your dog has never been shut in a crate before and suddenly gets left in a new place with strangers who force her into one, she will likely have a very difficult time.

Avoiding Unwanted Associations

Along with encouraging the formation of positive associations, you should also avoid accidentally causing your puppy to form negative associations with the crate. Don’t physically force the puppy into the crate, because that can be scary. Instead use a lure such as a treat or toy (and later a cue word).

Don’t put the puppy in the crate as punishment (although it’s okay to put the puppy in the crate for practical purposes like when you need to clean up an elimination in the house). Whenever you do put her in the crate, you should use a calm voice and avoid yelling at her while she’s in the crate.

Bella lying down in crate
Bella lying down in crate

Avoid teaching your puppy that whining in the crate results in her being released. If you go through the crate training process at the correct pace, crying in the crate shouldn’t be much of an issue. But if your puppy does begin to whine in the crate, try to wait for a break in the noise to release her.

Make sure your puppy eliminates right before going in the crate and never leave her in the crate for longer than she can hold her bladder/bowels. For a young puppy, that’s only a couple hours. This is important, because although dogs naturally avoid eliminating in small, confined spaces, this natural inhibition can be overridden with repeated crate eliminations made necessary by owner neglect.

If your dog has already formed negative associations with being confined in tight spaces, she may never be able to tolerate a crate. In that case, you will need to try other options such as a dog-proof room to keep her in while you are away.

Crate Training Steps

During the crate training process, it is important to progress through the steps at a rate that fits the puppy’s comfort level to avoid scaring her. An unpleasant experience with the crate can cause major set backs in the crate training process longterm.

Start by putting treats near the entrance to the crate and letting the puppy discover them on her own. Praise her when she goes near the crate to eat them. Next, put the treats just inside the crate, and once again praise her when she finds them. Slowly move the treats farther back in the crate. When the puppy goes in the crate to get the treats, praise her and throw a few more treats into the crate.

Crate training using treats

Train your puppy to respond to a cue like the word “crate” so that you can get her into the crate without using a lure. Bella knows the cue “crate” as well as “night night time,” which I taught her because I think it’s cute. Start saying “crate,” or whatever word or phrase you choose, right before luring the dog into the crate. Praise her and throw her another treat after she walks into the crate. Once you have completed many repetitions of this training, pause after you say the cue word to see if your puppy responds to it. If not, lure her into the crate like before.

Once the puppy is comfortable being in the crate, start closing the door for only a few seconds. Feed the puppy treats through the bars of the crate, or put a food stuffed toy in the crate so that the puppy is happily occupied while she gets shut inside. Gradually increase the amount of time you close the door as the puppy gets comfortable with it.

Once the puppy is comfortable in the crate for a few minutes with the door closed, begin leaving the room for a few seconds with the puppy closed in the crate. It’s best if, in the early stages of training, the puppy is happily occupied with a food stuffed toy or an edible chew during your departure. Gradually increase the amount of time the puppy is in the crate with you out of the room.

Crate training using a food stuffed toy

If at any point during the crate training process the puppy begins to whine or otherwise show signs of distress, you’ve probably progressed too quickly and should go back to an earlier step. The other possibility is that she needs to go out to eliminate. Always keep in mind how long your puppy can hold her bladder/bowels and never push past that limit.

I would advise starting this process immediately upon bringing the puppy home, and preferably early in the day so you have plenty of crate training time before it’s time for bed. You’ll probably want to put the puppy in the crate at night, and this will work better if you’ve already gotten the puppy used to being in the crate with the door closed.

It often helps to have the crate in the room you are sleeping in for the first few nights at least to reduce stress on your puppy during the adjustment period. You may want to reach through the bars of the crate to comfort your puppy. In many cases this is the first time your puppy is sleeping away from her litter mates, so she will likely take some time to adjust. Don’t scold your puppy for whining or barking in her crate. As always, keep in mind how long your puppy can hold her bladder/bowels. Young puppies will need trips outside once or twice during the night. Face it, you probably aren’t going to get much sleep right after bringing a puppy home.

Be aware that, even after your puppy is crate trained and has matured enough to hold her bladder/bowels for longer periods of time, leaving her in the crate (or even home alone outside of a crate) all day while you’re at work will result in a dog that needs a lot of physical and mental stimulation before and after you’re gone.

Choosing A Crate

Bella sitting in her crate.
Bella's crate is big enough for her to sit in comfortably
Bella sitting in her crate.
Bella's crate is big enough for her to sit in comfortably

The crate you choose should be big enough for your dog to stand up and turn around inside it when she is full grown. Most crates come with internal barriers that are removable and adjustable so the crate can be kept the proper size for your puppy as she grows. You don’t want the crate to be any larger than necessary, because puppies naturally hold their bladders/bowels when they are confined to a space just large enough for them to lie down.

Bella sitting in her crate.
Bella's crate is big enough for her to sit in comfortably

You might be wondering whether you should put a bed or towel in the crate to make it more comfortable. While some dogs are resistant to lying down on a hard surface, they’re in the minority. Most dogs are perfectly happy to lay down without a cushion, my dog, Bella, included. See how comfortable she looks lying down on the plastic floor of her crate? 

Bella super relaxed in crate
Bella super relaxed in crate
Dog in crate with padding
Dog in crate with padding

While I think it’s perfectly acceptable to give an adult, housebroken dog a bed in her crate, giving one to a puppy is asking for trouble. One of the great things about crates is how they cause the dog to hold her bladder. If she can pee in her crate on something absorbent, you are not getting the full benefit of the crate and worse, you’ll cause a bad habit to form. Plus, puppies are likely to chew a bed or towel when left alone with it for an extended period of time. Not only would you lose the item, but once again you’ll be encouraging the formation of a bad habit.

Dog in crate with padding

Conclusion

Once you’ve convinced your dog to happily accept the crate, crating your dog is a humane and effective way to manage her problem behaviors and keep her safe when you aren’t around. An unsupervised dog can form bad habits and get into all kinds of trouble. For example, my dog, Bella, bullies my cat, Ana, if I leave her un-crated. At least, I’m guessing that’s what happens based on the noises I hear when I leave the room for a while. When I’m there to redirect her to a game of tug, Bella’s bad habits don’t get worse and Ana gets left alone.

Do you have an example of a problem behavior that is easily managed by a crate? If so, leave a comment below.

Much of this information can be found in:

I’ll Be Home Soon! by Patricia McConnell