How To Crate Train Your Dog Or Puppy - Step By Step

Here’s the step-by-step plan you should use to crate train your puppy:

* First thing to do before you start: Place soft bedding, a bowl of water, and an interesting toy (use his favorite if he has one) inside his crate. Leave the door open at first, so he’s free to leave whenever he feels like it.

* Next step: Use a tasty food reward, combined with the command “Go to your crate”, to attract your puppy into his crate.

* Make sure the door of the crate stays open so your puppy can leave the crate whenever he wants to.

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* When your puppy has got used to his crate, he will soon use it all the time without you needing to encourage him.

* When your puppy is happily playing away and safely distracted, close the crate door for a few minutes. It would be a clever idea to keep the crate in a busy place while you’re doing this (just a place where people are), so the dog feels more secure and is less aware of anything different going on.

A Few Quick Notes:
Even when your puppy is fully crate-trained, don’t leave him in there for more than two hours during the day. Also, he needs to be exercised before he goes in there for a long time, such as a car journey.

It’s best to crate training dogs from when they are puppies. It can be harder to crate train a fully grown adult dog, especially rescued dogs – because they might panic and become distressed when put into a crate.