You have made a decision to crate your puppy and that is brilliant. We are going to tell you how to make the crate the place your puppy just loves to be.
The first thing is to make sure you have the right size crate for your puppy. A general rule of thumb is to make sure your dog can stand up, turn around and lie down comfortably. This will make the crate snug and puppies love to be cozy.
Introducing your puppy to their new crate should be a positive experience. You need to be really patient with them as they explore and learn about their new den. The aim is to make puppies 100% comfortable with their crate so from DAY ONE or from NOW ON, the crate can only be about positive experiences.
DON'T lock the crate on the puppy's first visit inside. Making them feel trapped will cause them to panic. Instead, let them go inside explore their cozy new blankets and find a tasty dish of food.
MOST IMPORTANTLY NEVER USE A CRATE AS A PUNISHMENT
Lets Have Some Fun
Now we have a secret we are going to share with you. IMDT trainers are special. You see we don't only train dogs. We train WIZARDS as well! We are going to teach YOU how you can become your puppy's CRATE WIZARD. Every time your puppy is being occupied elsewhere you must visit their crate. Now pop a new exciting toy in there. Add a few tasty treats or a brand new chew. Then, when they have had enough playtime and have toileted, go get a puppy. Bring them to their crate and ask the puppy to see if the crate wizard has been. Now the crate wizard will visit regularly and if you take your wizard's role seriously you will have a puppy that will be so excited to get back to its crate in no time.
IDEAS FOR THE CRATE WIZARD
Feed breakfast, lunch, and dinner inside the crate
Puppy is going to love finding all the wizard's hidden treasures. More importantly, though, you will be constantly building these positives associations and in doing so your puppy is learning to love their crate.
New Puppy and Nighttime
Now that you have spent your day are the best crate wizard ever. you don't want to ruin all the hard work you have put in, by locking your puppy in their crate and letting them cry all night. The crate will become a not so nice place and your puppy is suffering unnecessary stress.
We suggest that you pick up the puppy's crate, pop it on your bedroom floor and let the puppy sleep where they know you are close by. Here they will sleep safely in their fab new den dreaming about the crate wizard's next visit. Don't worry this is not a permanent arrangement. As your puppy grows in confidence, you can slowly move the crate out of your room and back to its daytime location.
There are a few added bonuses to having the puppy in your room. If the puppy gets restless and moves around at night, use this opportunity to take them out to the toilet. This means the puppy will understand quicker that ALL pees and poops happen outside. The whole family will get sleep, except for the night shift toilet wizard. Oh, and your neighbours will thank you for it too.
We know that some people will not agree with having the puppy upstairs and that is cool. In this case, someone could sleep downstairs with the puppy until they learn to settle.
TIP A warm hot water bottle will help the puppy feel more comfortable.
So please no tough love guys. The whole idea behind all our training methods is to build a confident puppy. One who trusts you will look after them and this takes time, patience, and a whole lot of love.