Crate Training

Oh the crate. A thing that divides dog owners. Some love it, some swear that would never use one. We were the latter before we got Roo. Never planned on getting one. But it has been the biggest life saver and the thing we are most grateful we ended up doing.

Let's start with why we didn't want to use one. Basically, neither of us had grown up with or knew of any dogs that used crates. So the old chestnut of stick with what you know.

Now onto how we become crate lovers.

When we first got Roo, we thought she would just sleep downstairs. But we failed to factor in the layout of our house. We have no door downstairs with no small room to keep her in so she had free roam of the whole downstairs. The first night, she cried, she howled. Living in a terrace house, we were very concious of the neighbours so we took her upstairs to sleep in our room in her bed on the floor. As you can imagine, she did not stay in her bed on the floor. She kept getting up, wandering around and getting into things she shouldn't. Here comes the crate. Initally we thought we would just use it at nighttime to keep her from wandering the bedroom but later discovered the wonder of it's usages. It really helped when transitioning her from our bedroom to back downstairs.

The most important thing about crates is that they are your dogs safe space. Their little bedroom. So make sure they love it! Lots of positive experiences. Do not use them as punishment, but you can use them for time out - which we did a lot whilst Roo was teething. Although this was more our fault as we hadn't learn the wonders of forced naps yet.

How we did this? Treats, attention and fuss. Start of by putting the crate in the room you want to keep it in. Leave the door open and let your pup explore it. Treat them everytime they go over to it, sniff it, get in it. Be super excited and encouraging. Baby steps. Do this for a day or so. Then start encouraging your pup to go inside by throwing a treat in. Once they are happy going in the crate, you can start closing the door behind them, only for a second or two. Again, treat them.

Slowly start to build up the time the door stays closed for until you can do it for a minute or so. Next comes, stepping away from the crate whilst the door is closed. Ignore them if they cry and stick to the time you have set.

With Roo, we started off leaving her in there with the door closed for 2 minutes, then once she could do this without crying, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes and so on. Remeber not to move on before your pup is comfortable with it. Slow and steady wins the race. It took a few days before Roo would settle and not cry in her crate even being in there for only 5 minutes.

Once they can be in there for say 15 minutes without crying, start leaving the room. Come back in every now and then. Do not fuss the pup whilst they are in there though. You need to get them used to settling in there whilst you are going about your day. Then start building up that time.

Once your pup is happy doing this, crate training complete. Haha well the hard part anyway.

Roo now spends a good part of her day in her crate and loves in. We have trained her to go in there on command and will even run to it when she heres her treat jar open. She is happy to sleep in there when we are at home or if we go out. Although leaving her in the crate whilst we are out is a new thing we have started doing and honestly wish we had just done from the start.

Until about a month ago, Roo would settle easily on the sofa when we left the house but out of no where she started destorying things whilst we were out. Letters than came through the door, the doormat, our houseplants. So we decided that until she could be trusted, best she be in her crate where she couldn't get into trouble. As Roo already loved her crate, this was an easy transition and actually one we think she prefers.

We also recently go Roo a crate for the car. She used to sit harnessed in on the backseats again, until about a month ago, she was great in the car. She would just lay down and sleep. Then she suddenly started wanting to get through to the front or would just stand up, wandering around on the backseats. So we decided to try a crate for the boot. Again, she loves it. First time we used it with no prior car crate training she jumped on in and laid down. No crying, no fuss.

Roo also has a crate that we take with us when going to other people's houses, this allows us to keep her energy levels under control and ensure she gets the rest she needs.

Don't knock crates until you have tried them. They are not cages for your dog. They are not intended to be used to keep them locked away for hours on end. They are a safe space for your pup to be in, a happy place where they know they will not be distrubed or harrassed - to ensure this is the case, avoid trying to drag them out of their crate.

Are you team crate or no crate?