Potty Training Your Puppy: Why A Dog Crate Makes Housetraining Easy

Crate Training A Puppy

All dogs are born with the instinct to keep their beds clean and as soon as their legs are strong enough to support them, puppies will toddle away from their littermates to relieve themselves. Before that, momma dog stimulated the puppies to relieve themselves and cleaned up after them. You can use a crate to housetrain puppies.

Using a crate as a training tool takes advantage of the puppy’s instinct to keep its bed clean, and helps the puppy develop bowel and bladder control because the pup will make an effort to hold it when he’s all relaxed in his cozy den.

Several types of crates are available for puppy owners. Some, like the soft-sided fabric carriers, are strictly for traveling. However, the plastic or wire crates can be used both for traveling and for housetraining. Plastic crates have a wire door and are usually made of two pieces ? a top and a bottom that fastens together with bolts. Wire crates look more like a cage and are open all around.

The kind of crate to use is a personal preference. Plastic crates provide more security for the puppy; open wire crates allow more air flow. Wire crates often fold up for storage and make a compact (although heavy) bundle, whereas the plastic ones are quite bulky, but lightweight. Weigh the pros and cons of each and choose the crate that will fit your lifestyle and puppy best.

Choose a crate that is big enough for your pup but not big enough for an adult-sized dog. Make sure your puppy has enough room to lie down, get comfortable and move around, but no more. If the crate is too big, your puppy will be able to relieve himself in a back corner and still have enough space to get away from it.

Remember, the purpose of the crate is to capitalize on your dog’s instinct to keep its bed clean. If you already have a crate, and it’s big enough for a full-grown standard sized breed, use a piece of cardboard or a thin plank of wood to section it off so that your puppy doesn’t have access to the entire crate.

Introducing your pup to the crate is not difficult. Simply open the crate door, propping it open so it won’t swing closed accidentally, then toss a treat or toy inside. Encourage your dog to go get the treat or toy with a personalized command, which you’ll want to continue using.

For instance, say, ?Sweetie, go to bed!? When the dog goes inside, praise ?Good Dog!? Do this several times throughout the day. At feeding time, place your dog’s food bowl inside the crate so that it must enter the crate to eat. After two or three days of this routine, begin closing the door behind your pup as it’s eating and open the door when he is done.

Once your dog is comfortable staying in a closed crate, you can begin using it at night. Place the crate in your bedroom so the dog can hear you, smell you, and to close to you all night. This is eight hours of closeness you couldn’t find time for any other way. With your dog close to you, you can also hear it should it become restless and need to go outside.

Get the FREE report about Potty Training Your Puppy. This information works because I used it myself on my stubborn pound puppy who was really an older puppy dog.

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