Crate Training Puppies - A Dog Whisperer's Perspective

As a dog trainer, dog whisperer, and the "mom" to 7 dogs, I love crate training.

And I love it for three basic reasons...

1. It's a great place to keep your dog or puppy when you can't keep your eyes on them.

2. The dog feels safe in the crate. And when you put his favorite toys inside and a bed and other things that make them comfortable, they'll enjoy being in their crate.

If you pay attention to dogs, you'll notice they never just curl up in the middle of the room, but they will go under a table or under an end table or even under your bed.

Why? Because dogs like the coziness of a den, which is what a crate becomes for them if you crate train them properly.

3. When you want to house train a dog or puppy, crate training speeds up the whole process -- dramatically!

The reason is that when you can't watch your puppy, you can put him in the crate where an accident is much less likely to happen.

Now, the catch is that you can't put your puppy in the crate for two hours at a time. Puppies just can't hold it that long, and crates were never meant to have dogs confined to them for eight hours a day.

But as a temporary measure when you can't watch your dog, or when you take your dog outside and he hasn't tinkled or pooped, you can put them in the crate, leave him there for 10 minutes, and take him back outside.

It speeds up house training, and it's wonderful!

Teaching crate training really isn't hard at all. The first, very basic rule is that the crate must be the right size for your dog. You want something big enough so that the dog can walk in and turn around comfortably, but not so big that the dog can go to the bathroom in one end of the crate, and then move to the other end to avoid the mess.

That defeats the purpose.

One of the easiest ways that I know to teach crate training is to feed the dog their meals in the crate every day. It's fast, simple, and it's fun...especially for the dog!

Talk about a super reward! When you feed your dog his meals inside his crate, he'll start to associate his crate with the best thing in the world -- food and eating!

When you approach crate training this way, it works not because you tell at the dog or forced the dog into the crate, but because he knows he gets fed his meals in his crate every day.

It's a simple trick, but you'll be surprised just how well it works.

I have an entire list of things you can do to make crate training fast, easy, and fun. Right now, head over to this crate training puppies entry on my blog, where you can watch crate training video demonstrations, and get my entire crate training course for free. (Details on the blog!)

I also made this crate training puppies video for you on posted it on YouTube. Enjoy!

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