How I crate train a puppy

[Bruce Lanthier]

With all of this crate training talk going on I thought I would offer my method. I'm not saying it will work for every pup but it has worked for mine.

I have 2 wire crates - 1 XL (the biggest I could find), 1 Lge (the next size down). These are my day crates and sometimes travel.

I have 2 airline crates - 1 Lge and 1 MedLge, I use these for travel or temporary "storage".

I have 1 puppy sleep crate - This crate is big enough for a puppy to sleep in and it has a handle on top (important).

Daytime
Puppy gets home, yippee. I have a day crate set up in the living room or wherever the family will be spending a lot of time during the day. It is not sectioned off although I see nothing wrong with that. Whenever the puppy is not having direct supervision it is in the day crate. There is a water bottle and something to chew. Towels, if the pup is not destroying them. The pup gets taken outside approx every 2 hours for potty breaks. The potty time schedule is not set in stone, just a general guide. It gets expanded as the pup ages and learns. The pup never gets taken out if it is whining. It is to young to whine to pee, it is just whining to - get out, get attention, lonely, because it is a pup. I haven't had a pup whine much, if at all, in the day crate since it is near all the family action anyway or it is out interacting with us or it is sleeping.

Nighttime
When it is my bedtime, I take the pup out to potty, give it plenty of time and it generally does. Then I put the pup in the small night crate with the handle. If it is not destroying towels one of the smaller day crate towels goes in there with it. I put the crate next to my side of the bed, opening facing the bed. We go to sleep. If the pup whines, I put a finger in the crate, the pup usually will nose it, maybe lick it, settles and we go back to sleep. I am a light sleeper so when the pup rustles around about 2 hours (longer if your lucky) later I wake up, pick up the crate by the handle (told you it was important), walk outside, open the crate, pup comes out, usually pees right away, I put it back in, pick up the crate, back to bed, back to sleep. I believe that the close in surroundings of the small crate and nearness to me give the pup a comfort zone that prevents whining. I have not had any prolonged bouts of whining doing crates this way.

I am the last person the pup sees before bedtime and the first person the pup sees in the morning, not counting midnite pee pees. I find this is a very good way to form an initial bond, along with the feeding and interaction with the pup.

Like I said, this is my way and I have had great success with it. I actually no longer use crates (dogs are older, we have gates) but the dogs have no problem using them when we need to.