Crate Training a puppy

[jinkazama]

Just got a new puppy and we're worried about him soiling the floor while we were out, so we tried just locking him up in the bathroom but he managed to jump up onto the toilet and then up onto the counter and knock up over all of my vitamins and my wifes medicines, luckily he didnt get into the bottle itself.

We bought a nice size crate for him but he absolutley hates it, we live in an apartment complex and all he was doing while he was in it was barking and howling and our other puppy was worried about him so he started barking as well.

any ideas on how to ease their fear while in the crate?

[Souj]

Buy a house and put him outside in your fenced off yard.
Problem solved.

[Chun Liroy]

Sorry to say, you just gotta deal with the barking. Only put him in it when he is bad, it's time for sleep or any other time you want them in the cage. I don't know if you have an older dog, but what we did for my sister's dog was put my older dog (she was like 2-3 at the time and cage trained) in it when she needed to sleep. Also try putting a blanket over it. If nothing else it will sorta muffle the sound? lol Good luck.

[jinkazama]

Buy a house and put him outside in your fenced off yard.
Problem solved.

silly me why didnt I think of that! lol

Im almost done with school then we're moving so didnt see the point in buying a house if it'll only be for 12 months, and then having to try to resell it in this market =/

[jinkazama]

Editted for double post!

[Vandalhart]

I've been told never to use the crate for punishment at all.

My dog is almost 11 months old now and she spends some time in a kennel during the day. I'm negotiating to change that, but my wife is hesitant for some reason.

We tried to get our dog to sleep in her kennel, but she'd wake us up at 3-4am every night having to go pee. We eventually just decided to let her sleep with us and she gives us full nights sleeps. She's up at 7am, but we get up for work around that time anyways.

The only way to get a dog crate trained is to let them whine/bark/sulk it out. It sucks, but it's gotta happen. Our dog knows when she needs to go in now and she doesn't put up a fuss unless we hang around the house too much after she goes in.

What I tried to do was make it a nice little place for her to be safe in. I'd hide treats in there and eventually she'd go in and out on her own. After a while, she'd start to take treats or toys in and chew them while laying down. I'm not sure how she'd fare if we were to try to put her in there at night. Everything I've read indicates that we'd just have to let her cry it out. If you go to her at any point during they will take it the wrong way and keep doing it.

Maybe just let your neighbors know and apologize in advance. Maybe they'll understand.

[Shade]

Yeah, ideally you want the crate to be their safe space. They should -want- to go in it. This makes it way easier if you ever need to crate them for travel purposes.

[Pabst]

As a puppy it's going to want to spend a lot of time with you. What I did was have the crate in the bedroom so the dog knew we where right there.

It will take some time but try to coerce them in the crate with treats. If it goes in the crate give it a treat, sits down in the crate-treat. Also little tip put puppy in crate after it's done eating and then let it out to go to the bathroom around 30 mins later. Keeping up with that will eventually train it to go outside. and patience, patience, patience.

[deiopea]

Before putting him in the crate make sure to take him for a walk. Drain his energy. Depending on the type/size of the dog, it can take 10-30mins. A smaller dog 10-15mins, bigger dog 30-45mins. Get one of those rubbery toys and put peanut butter or w/e inside so it has to work on it to get the treat. When you put him in the crate, put the rubber toy in there with him. Ideally, the dog will sleep when you come back from the walk for 2-3hours wake up and hopefully will busy himself with the toy. For my puppy, he destroyed the bed I had in there with him rather than the toy. For the first several weeks, have a blanket over the crate, but don't cover it completely lol. Also make sure the blanket edges aren't near where he can grab. Initially, he will cry/whine, but eventually he'll get used to it. Of course, when you get home, take him for another walk.

EDIT: Usually, dogs will not poop or pee where they sleep, so when he realizes this is the place he sleeps he will hopefully not go in the crate. So it CAN be a good place for him to sleep overnight too, if that's what you wanna do. My puppy never had accidents in his crate. But every dog is different.

[Mjd]

We got our little bundle of joy as a rescue from a puppy mill. She has some anxiety problems (cries when no one is around, won't eat unless someone is near and so on).

As far as pee/poop training goes, take it out for walks whenever you can. Be rough, don't let it back in till it pees/poop. If you're like us who works most of the day, set it up in a small room with pee pads all over the place. Let it know it is OK to pee/poop on them. Our little bundle of joy only goes on the mat now.

Feeding, I'm kind of a dick to her. When I wake up I give her a dish of food and take it away after 10 minutes, and walk her before I leave for work. When I get home I feed her and again take it away in 10 minutes. She needs to know if she doesn't eat her food, she gets no snacks or popcorn.

During the day, we lock Nugget up in the bedroom (versus a crate). We leave a radio on, and a bowl of water for her. She usually just sleeps all day and doesn't whine anymore (she used to be really bad, we recorded it...lol).

If she acts bad (bothers us while eating or something), we'll put her in another room and ignore her. It's mean but when she comes out she knows we mean business and not to f-around anymore.

Gate training > Cage training


Edit: We made a bed for her out of old comfy blankets when we first got her for when we all went to bed. Night light above it and she was A-OK. Just be patient, there have been a handle full of times I wanted to scream at her but held back cause she's just a dog

[Uzor]

I don't get people's attitudes towards dogs.

If you don't want him to soil the floor, take him for a walk every 4 hours or so. If you're at work during this period, teach him to poop/pee on newspapers on the floor. You can move it closer and closer to the door, until you remove the newspaper after some time. That way he'll wait untill you take him for a walk.

Its never a good idea to put him in a crate when he's bad. Dogs has a very short memory, so unless you punish them within a few minuted of them performing the bad deed, he will have no idea why you're punishing him. It is also generally better to just tell him in a harsh tone that he's a bad dog and to go lie in a corner than putting him in a carton. There's no need to use any kind of punishment besides a harsh cold voice that means business. The dog should know you're higher up than him in the hierarchy, and will know he's been bad if you talk to him in a harsh voice.

If he's been really bad (such as steal food from the table), you can do the eye challenge with him. That is, tell him he's been bad and stare him in the eyes until he whimpers, lay down and look away.

Putting him in a carton will just create problems for him later, as it is possible he will assume you're punishing him any time you leave him alone, put him in the backseat of your car, put him in a room, or otherwise leave him in an enclosed area.

If you want it to be a safe place for him; why use it as a punishment? Also, why have a crate as a safe place for him? Give him his own dog bed in the corner of a room where you place his toys around. He'll go lay there whenever he's tired or want to calm down. There's no use to use a crate.

[jinkazama]

Yea I got him a really nice size crate, one up the size of the one that was recommended for him. It's heavy duty nylon but his nails were just trimmed so they cant scratch thru it. Its got the windows and such in it so he can see out of it.

We put it in the bedroom so maybe at nite he'll also want to go in there and sleep rather than wake us up by whining and wanting on the bed.

I just feel so bad, he seems so terrified

[jinkazama]

I'm not using this for punishment, dogs wont soil where they sleep and reside at. Thats why you crate train them at a young age to build their bladder up so they can hold it longer.

he's pretty good at holding it during the nite while we're all in the bedroom together, but i dont want him roaming around the house while we're out.

[Mjd]

Crate wife. Sleep with dog.

Problem solved.


Edita:

but i dont want him roaming around the house while we're out.

Gate him in a room.

Edit2:
Wut kind of dog

[deiopea]

We put it in the bedroom so maybe at nite he'll also want to go in there and sleep rather than wake us up by whining and wanting on the bed.

I just feel so bad, he seems so terrified

Don't feel bad! Look at it this way. It's better than having your house destroyed by him lol. People overreact when you mention crate use. I find it really useful in toilet training a dog. Of course, you know, since you have another dog, to take him for walks after he eats. But this isn't really about toilet training a dog or punishing a dog lol.

[Vandalhart]

ha ha.

Also, dogs by nature travel in packs. That's why it's so hard for them to be alone for long period of times, even if you're in the room.

What kind of dog is it? Larger dogs will be able to hold it longer than smaller dogs. The general rule I was told was that they can hold it as long as they are old in months. Example:
3 month puppy = will pee in 3 hours
5 months = 5 hours, etc.

It seemed to work out for us.


Also, a fenced in yard is awesome. We just had one installed and it's fun to get her outside tearing around the back yard chasing after toys. Even if it's more or less her running to the toy and staring at me wondering why I'm not going over and making it work again.

[Stu]

When I bought my puppy, the store owner told us the first thing we should do is to place him on top of newspapers or a weewee pad in our house, because that's a good way to get a dog potty trained. So we took him home and did exactly what she said and he started sniffing around the newspaper and stuff to get familiar with it or something I guess. Later on he peed on it no problem and hasn't had a problem for the past year, unless we forgot to replace the weewee pad lol. It's probably a territorial thing or just teaching them while they're young so they get use to it. Not sure if you can still do that though since you brought it home already, but anyone else that's gonna be buying a dog in the future can try this.

[Vandalhart]

Oh yeah, be careful with getting a crate to big for the puppy. They will do their business in one side and sleep in the other if they have the room for it.

[jinkazama]

yea its not that much bigger..

its a miniature aussie puppy. about 14 inches tall.. the crate isnt necessarily too long/wide its just higher than the other one so he doesnt have to feel the urge to lay/kneel all the time.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...puppies035.jpg

[jmc]

I'm not using this for punishment, dogs wont soil where they sleep and reside at. Thats why you crate train them at a young age to build their bladder up so they can hold it longer.

he's pretty good at holding it during the nite while we're all in the bedroom together, but i dont want him roaming around the house while we're out.

Good idea on not using it for punishment.

The idea for crate training, its to make the dog comfortable with the crate to stay in it while master is away. Its kinda supposed to be a "safe spot" for the dog, where he/she can go relax........ hell my 100 pound shepherd will still go in his crate during thunderstorms to ride it out until the noise is done.

As others have said, you just gotta let him bark it out....... you don't want to goto the dog every time he/she barks because then that shows barking will get your attention, and will always continue to bark.

Good luck