Tips for Crate Training Your New Puppy or Dog

We just added another member to our pack.  She is a 10 week old German Shepherd Puppy we named Indy short for Independence. (She was born on Flag Day, which is also my fiancé’s birthday.) We drove about 4 hours to go pick her up Sunday before last and 4 hours back.  This gave us enough time to feed her and play with her just a little before it was time for us to go to bed so we could function on Monday.  A silver lining to this CoVid-19 pandemic is I’m working remotely from home every other week for now.  This was a great thing considering the first night with a new puppy is always the hardest.  She was introduced to her crate this very first night.

I believe a crate is one of the most important tools for training your new puppy (or even mature dogs that are new to your home). It provides the puppy with her own personal space.  It keeps your puppy out of trouble when you can’t watch her.  Perhaps you weren’t that fond of that rug she chewed up, but you will be devastated if she chews into an electrical wire and ends up like the cat on Christmas Vacation.  If you use a crate, you know she is safe in a space where she can’t get to anything that could hurt her.   It will also save your shoes, furniture and walls.

…you will be devastated if she chews into an electrical wire and ends up like the cat on Christmas Vacation. 

A crate can also make house breaking a much easier task.  Dogs would prefer to not eliminate in their space, where they sleep.  This is the beauty of having the right sized crate for your dog.  The crate will encourage the puppy to hold it while they are in their space.  This can help you set a schedule to take your puppy outside immediately after being let out if the crate.  Establishing a routine like this is a great first step in house breaking.  If your young puppy has been in the crate for 30 minutes or more, you can pretty much bet they will need to potty once they are let out. 

I’m going to tell you something many people won’t – The first night with a puppy is almost always going to be hard, in fact for some the first week might be really hard.  That puppy is going to cry and whine and, in some cases, turn into a screaming banshee.  If you are not prepared, you may think ‘what in the world have I gotten myself into?’.  Hang in there and be strong!  I know you don’t want to hear your new adorable fluff ball cry but trust me let her cry and don’t open that door.  Keep in mind that she will probably not be able to hold it all night long if she’s 8 weeks old so she will probably cry or whimper in the middle of the night.  Try not to open the crate door unless she is silent and not crashing against the door even if it is just a moment. Take her outside to potty, and then put her back in the crate.  She might very well turn into that banshee again, but just hold on friend.  She will cry and wail herself back to sleep.  I have mentioned this in other places on this site – Dogs have a reward-based mindset. If I do this, then I get this.  It is this mentality that makes them so easy to train, but also allows them to learn very bad habits if we aren’t careful.  Think about it from your puppy’s perspective. ‘I’m in this box and I don’t want to be.  I cry and howl and claw at this cage.  Oh, look my new friend is here to save me. She is letting me out. Hooray!’  It won’t take very many repetitions of this sequence for your puppy to make the association that if she cries, you will let her out.  So, hold fast y’all, it is going to be a noisy ride, but it will be worth it in the long run.   A really good scenario might be you deal with screaming for 3-4 nights.  A rougher scenario might be dealing with it for 2-3 weeks.  The more steadfast you are that you will not open the door if she is acting like she’s dying or trying to fight your way out, the faster this process goes. 

You want to make positive associations with the crate throughout the day as well.  If you are able to move the crate into the area you spend the most time in throughout the day or afternoon, do so.  At your puppy’s mealtime, you can place the food dish in the crate  and allow them to go in to eat but leave the door wide open, so they can go in and out as they wish while eating.  If you have a puppy with a high toy play drive, throw the toy into the crate occasionally while playing.  You might even wait until your puppy has completely tuckered herself out and curled up on the floor, gently scoop her up and place her in the crate with the door open.  Many time puppies will just stay asleep right there in the crate for a while.  (Word of caution:  If you put your puppy into the crate to sleep with the door open, pay very close attention.  When they wake up and come out of the crate, they will likely need to potty and if you aren’t paying attention, those silent puppy feet will take them right over to your favorite rug to pop a squat on.)  Positive associations like those above will have your puppy recognizing the crate as their own little space before you know it.  Indy walked into her crate and laid down to take a nap with the door open on day 4 of having her I believe.  She also was for the most part not crying in her box at that point.  Ruger our 2-year-old German Shepherd was a whole other story.  I thought we had gotten a demon possessed puppy from the sounds he made in his crate.  He cried for at least a week and then we went a few days that we thought he’d gotten it. Then he let all hell unleash for a couple more nights.  I am pretty sure, at one point, I pushed his crate to the other end of the house in the middle of the night.  Not my proudest fur momma moment, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Shortly after that, it was all good.  That saying that sometimes it gets worse before it gets better is so true. 

I hope this was helpful to you to see the benefits of crate training your new puppy.  Have you had any experiences with crate training?  What worked well for you?  Tell me your tips or or worries with crate training.