Doggie Academy Part III - Crate Training Your Puppy

The first thing you'll realise as you bring home your new puppy is that you need to potty train it soon, or else your whole floor will smell like a public bathroom. The best possible way to potty train your puppy is using a crate. Crate Training is extremely efficient and may take only a few days to a couple of weeks. So what exactly is Crate Training? Well it's not rocket science i'll tell you that!

Well as this is called Crate Training, what you need to do is purchase a crate, it's going to change your life, and allow you to raise a puppy while keeping up with your daily tasks! Crates come in different sizes, what you need is a crate big enough for your puppy to sleep in, but not big enough for it to be able to pee on one end of the crate and sleep in the other!

There are different types of dog crates, and most of them may be good for crate training. In my experience the most useful ones are plastic kennel crates. They provide firm housing, easy to clean, well ventilated yet not too exposed, providing you and your puppy with privacy. Proper size of the crate is very important. Large breeds need only a medium sized crate which will be just fine for the crate training and house-breaking period. Medium and Small breeds may only need a small sized crate for crate training and beyond, which will also be useful in the future when need to transport a your dog by car or airplane.

Crate training will work best if you take the time and get your puppy used to the crate, don't just put it inside and close the door, or else soon enough it will refuse to go in! When first introducing the crate, take off the door. Take a handful of puppy food, let your puppy smell your hand so it'll now that its there and throw a couple of grains into the crate. Your puppy will soon chase the food inside the crate, if not, try this before feeding. Repeat this as many times as you like, you'll know you've succeeded when your puppy goes in smoothly and likes to stay inside, this is what you're looking for. The next stage of crate training will be to add the door to the crate, keep it open and do the same. Continue to practice, while closing your puppy inside for short intervals (seconds at first, and minutes later). Repeat crate training sessions 2-3 times daily, 5 minutes each. This will make sure your puppy continues to like the crate even after a few days of using it.

Crate training will only succed if you stick to it! You need to use the crate, whenever your puppy is in risk of peeing. These times can be easily identified: After drinking water, long night sleep, or few hours since its last time! In any of those terms, you need your puppy to be inside the crate, so it will learn to hold it's pee, and be ready to go as soon as you take it outside. This will ensure your puppy will not pee in the house but outside, learning in very few days that outside is where it needs to go! As crate training advances, you will notice your puppy running to the door of the house whenever you take it out of the crate. This means your puppy has learned by now where it needs to go potty. Now its time to move to the next stage in crate training.

HOLD IT! One Important guideline: You don't need to leave water available for your puppy at all times! Small amounts of water before putting your puppy in the cage for 4-5 hours will ensure a long sleep! Be reasonable, after taking your puppy out of the cage let it drink as much as it needs!

Now that your puppy knows where it needs to go, it's time to move to the next phase. This is a very fragile one, as you need to be attentive to your puppy, as it will give signs before it needs to pee. After taking your puppy out to pee, bring it back inside and let it drink some water. Play with it, and keep it outside the crate. You need to keep your eyes on the puppy, when you see it starting to act strangely, or going for the door, take it outside immediately. When this happens you've completed a whole cycle of going outside to pee, coming back inside the house, and going outside to pee again without using the crate!

Success indeed!

Its important to make sure that while crate training your puppy, do not make mistakes and let your puppy out of your eyesight or let it outside its crate whenever its in the risk of peeing. Mistakes will only be your fault, and will harm your pup's understanding of crate training!

With this said, a couple of mistakes are bound to happen, so don't worry!

If I had to sum up Puppy Crate Training in just 2 sentences they would be:

1. Don't let your puppy roam free in your house if it hadn't peed in a while.
2. Make sure your puppy is inside its crate after you feed and water it!

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Yes! Crate Training your puppy has never been easier.

Check out my blog - Dog Training Expert - Tells All The Secrets

10% off All Dog Products from The Paws