Dog Weekend Crate Training Tips and Tricks

Employing a Crate to House Train Your Dog

You can use a crate to safely contain your dog during the night and once you can't monitor her behavior closely. Dogs don't prefer to soil their sleeping areas, so your dog will naturally avoid eliminating in her crate. If useful for house training purposes, the crate should really be sized which means your dog can take a nap comfortably, stand up and never having to crouch and easily turnaround in a circle. If the crate is any larger, she might figure out how to soil one end of it and sleep at the other. If the crate is any smaller, she may be uncomfortable and struggling to rest. (When you no longer need to use the crate for house training, you can get a more substantial one for your dog if you like.)

Employing a crate will allow you to predict when your dog needs to get rid of and control where she eliminates. If she's been crated overnight or for a few hours through the day, the odds are very high that she'll eliminate as soon as you release her from the crate and take her outside. So, with the crate's help, you can prevent your dog from eliminating indoors and have an opportunity to reward her for moving in the right place-outside. For more information about house training your dog, please see certainly one of our articles, House Training Your Puppy or House Training Your Adult Dog.

Employing a Crate to Prevent Destructive Behavior

As well as acting as a house-training tool, your dog's crate can prevent her from being destructive. Dogs and puppies need to learn to refrain from doing lots of things inside their homes, like digging on furniture or rugs, chewing table legs, cushions and other household items, and stealing from garbage cans or counters. To instruct your dog not to complete things you do not like, you need to have the ability to observe and monitor her behavior. Confining her in a crate can prevent unwanted behavior once you can't supervise her or need to leave her home alone. If your dog includes a chewing problem and you'd like more information about how to solve it, please see our article, Destructive Chewing.