Crate Training
The dog crate is a wonderful tool to use. Apart from its obvious uses for transporting dogs by car or a plane, the crate may be used for shot-term confinement. To keep the dog out of mischief at times when the owner is not able to supervise the dog. Confining a dog to the crate prevents it from developing bad habits. The crate may be used specifically to create good habits and to reduce hyperactivity and barking. Sometimes crate training can backfire and misuse of the crate by the owner may produce a dog that is more difficult to housetrain, more vocal and destructive and maybe aggressive.
Introducing the Crate No matter how much the dog enjoys its crate, there will be occasions when the owner wants to confine the dog but the dog does not want to be confined. Never call the dog and put it in the crate, or else it will soon become wary of approaching the owner when called. Instead, use a place command, go to your crate. It is possible to enforce a place command without ruining the dog's recall. Tell the puppy/dog go to your crate, lute it towards the crate with a food treat and give the lure as a reward when the pup settles down inside. Praise the dog and periodically hand feed kibble while the dog is inside, but ignore the dog the moment it leaves. Feed the dog in the crate. Place pieces of kibble in the crate so the dog will develop the habit of visiting the crate on its own. Whenever it does, praise the dog and offer especially tasty food treats, ignoring the dog when it leaves. The dog will soon learn it gets lots of attention, affection and goodies inside the crate, but very little outside. Accustom the dog to short confinement. Throw a treat in the crate. Repeat this many times over. It is important that the dog learns confinement does not necessarily mean for the duration, but rather, for a short time and a good time.
A dog crate is a marvelous place to send the dog when the house gets busy or when the owner just wants a little peace and quiet. It is important to familiarize the dog with the crate as early on as possible, so that controlled, quiet periods set the precedent for adult life. Learning to turn the dog off, to frequently instruct the dog to settle down and shush, is a priority obedience exercise for pet owners. The length of time a dog may be confined to a crate depends on whether it enjoys the crate and whether it is housetrained. To confine an unhousetrained dog to a crate for lengthy periods is courting disaster. If the dog is forced to soil its sleeping area, the crate may no longer be effective in inhibiting eliminations, and therefore can not be used as a predicting tool in housetraining.
Housetraining
A dog crate may be used extremely effectively as a housetraining tool. House soiling is a spatial problem, and confinement is the solution. The dog is eliminating in the wrong place, and if confined and not allowed free access to the living room and bedrooms, it can not soil the carpets. The long-term confinement to a small area to prevent house soiling should not be confused with short-term confinement to a crate during housetraining. During housetraining, the purpose of short-term close confinement (crate training) is to inhibit the dog from eliminating at all. Then the dog will want to eliminate immediately when released from confinement and taken to it toilet area. When away from the home, keep the dog in its long-term confinement area such as the kitchen, utility room, basement, outdoor run or kennel. When at home, confine the dog to its crate in the same room as the family, so the dog is not socially isolated. Every hour, take the dog to its elimination area and give it three minutes to produce. If it does, praise and give food treats. If it doesn't, back in the crate for another hour.
Chewing
When the dog owner is home, confine the dog as much as possible to its crate with a variety of chew toys. A chew toy is an appropriate item to chew, which the dog can neither destroy nor consume. Confining a dog to a crate with a chew toy is like confining a child to an empty room with Nintendo. This is called passive training. All the owner has to do it set up the situation, and the dog is AutoShape via self-reinforcement. As the dog becomes hooked on its chew toy habits, regular chew toys sessions soon comprise an integral part of the dog's day. Indestructible toys may be stuffed with tasty treats. A dog biscuit forced inside a King or some freeze-dried liver squished into the cavity of a Redi-bone make irresistible toys. The dog knows the treats are there, and will worry at the chew toy forever.
Misuse and Abuse of crate training
Crate training problems usually arise because owners fail to teach the dog to like the crate, and leave untrained dogs confined for two long. If the owner has not accustomed the dog to the crate, it will not enjoy confinement, and might run from the owners when called, or resist and recent being manhandled into the crate. Once confined, the dog might bark out of frustration and try to destroy the crate in an attempt to escape. If confined for too long, the dog will soil the crate. Whether or not an adult dog likes its crate depends on when the crate was initially introduced and how. If the dog was taught to enjoy the crate during puppyhood, it will prefer resting in its doggy den as an adult.