Empowerment through the written word
Empowerment through the written word
The key to crate training is to make the crate the best place in the world for the puppy… and that means food and toys!
Every meal that your puppy has should be fed in his crate; while he’s eating close the crate door and build up the amount of time between him finishing eating and opening the door to let him out, but please bear in mind during the early days of toilet training, that eating stimulates your puppy to want to go to the toilet.
Your puppy should have his crate door closed overnight and initially, whenever you’re out of the room as the last thing you want is to nip out of the room for five minutes and get back to a trashed room and a little ‘present’ in the middle of it, or, much worse, a puppy that has been injured or electrocuted due to chewing through a wire.
Feed your puppy all his meals in the crate so that he associates it with nice things happening. Invest in a couple of puppy kongs so that you can stuff them with his puppy food and then when you return your puppy back to his crate after toileting after a meal, you can give him a stuffed kong to help him settle down rather than a ‘toileting’ treat. Stuff it quite loosely to start off with and remember to reduce his meal allowance by the amount of food used in his kong.
I feed my dogs a raw diet, so I tend to firmly pack some of their food into a kong and freeze it until it starts to firm up and then give it to my puppy as I’m settling them in the crate for an hour. If you’re not a raw feeder, then I would recommend using firm wet dog food that holds together when pressed into the kong.
As with the toileting routine, after the first day or so start to close the crate door when settling your puppy down with a kong.
When your puppy is tired encourage him into the crate with a food treat and help him to settle and sleep in the crate by sitting on the floor by the open door and stroke him until he nods off, then quietly close the door, without locking it.
Again, after a couple of days you can start locking it when your puppy is asleep and build up the time between him waking up and you opening it to let him out so that he doesn’t expect to be let out immediately and panic or throw a tantrum when he’s not. Bear in mind though, that certainly in the early days, he will need to go toilet fairly quickly after waking.
When you lure your puppy into the crate with a treat repeat what will be your command word as you do so… “in your crate”, “crate” or “go in your crate” all work well; use a different word for his bed to save confusion and in the early days of crate training, the crate should be the only bed available to your puppy.
So, once he’s allowed in the living room you’ll have to decide whether you invest in another crate or take his night time one in with you… the crate in your living room won’t be forever, you’ll be able to replace it with a bed in a couple of months.
Up until the arrival of Ziggy in 2010, my puppies were trained to sleep downstairs from the first night; however, with Ziggy, I tried something different. After many discussions with my friend and colleague Ross McCarthy, I decided to bring Ziggy’s crate into my bedroom and have him by the side of the bed for a couple of nights.
It worked ever so well that this is now how I start puppies off; that is if the new owners phone me prior to bringing the puppy home as once the puppy’s slept downstairs I tend to leave them be.
So, if this is the first night of your puppy being home, when bedtime comes take your puppy’s crate upstairs and put it by the side of your bed, close enough so that you can drape your hand on it if your puppy gets unsettled… try to keep everything calm and quiet and no ‘cooing’ over him at bedtime – take a matronly approach and you’ll do fine.
When you hear your puppy start to stir (properly as opposed to just changing position), get straight up with no fuss and only the dimmest of lights and carry puppy down to the toileting area; as soon as he’s done straight back to bed for both of you, giving him the tiniest of tiny treats as you pop him in his crate… you can now ignore him or just let your arm drape across the crate until it’s time to get up.
After a couple of nights with your puppy beside you, start edging the crate out of the room and on to the landing; before you know it, your puppy will be sleeping quietly and confidently downstairs.
Even the professionals can get it wrong, especially with their own, and so a word of warning with the stuffed kongs; please don’t make the mistake that I did with Ziggy and give them in the middle of the night to help your puppy settle back down - within a couple of days he was demanding his 4 a.m. kong!
Excerpt from Manners not Mayhem by Lez Graham MA
Illustration by www.tom-kitchen.co.uk
All rights reserved.
The key to crate training is to make the crate the best place in the world for the puppy… and that means food and toys!
Every meal that your puppy has should be fed in his crate; while he’s eating close the crate door and build up the amount of time between him finishing eating and opening the door to let him out, but please bear in mind during the early days of toilet training, that eating stimulates your puppy to want to go to the toilet.
Your puppy should have his crate door closed overnight and initially, whenever you’re out of the room as the last thing you want is to nip out of the room for five minutes and get back to a trashed room and a little ‘present’ in the middle of it, or, much worse, a puppy that has been injured or electrocuted due to chewing through a wire.
Feed your puppy all his meals in the crate so that he associates it with nice things happening. Invest in a couple of puppy kongs so that you can stuff them with his puppy food and then when you return your puppy back to his crate after toileting after a meal, you can give him a stuffed kong to help him settle down rather than a ‘toileting’ treat. Stuff it quite loosely to start off with and remember to reduce his meal allowance by the amount of food used in his kong.
I feed my dogs a raw diet, so I tend to firmly pack some of their food into a kong and freeze it until it starts to firm up and then give it to my puppy as I’m settling them in the crate for an hour. If you’re not a raw feeder, then I would recommend using firm wet dog food that holds together when pressed into the kong.
As with the toileting routine, after the first day or so start to close the crate door when settling your puppy down with a kong.
When your puppy is tired encourage him into the crate with a food treat and help him to settle and sleep in the crate by sitting on the floor by the open door and stroke him until he nods off, then quietly close the door, without locking it.
Again, after a couple of days you can start locking it when your puppy is asleep and build up the time between him waking up and you opening it to let him out so that he doesn’t expect to be let out immediately and panic or throw a tantrum when he’s not. Bear in mind though, that certainly in the early days, he will need to go toilet fairly quickly after waking.
When you lure your puppy into the crate with a treat repeat what will be your command word as you do so… “in your crate”, “crate” or “go in your crate” all work well; use a different word for his bed to save confusion and in the early days of crate training, the crate should be the only bed available to your puppy.
So, once he’s allowed in the living room you’ll have to decide whether you invest in another crate or take his night time one in with you… the crate in your living room won’t be forever, you’ll be able to replace it with a bed in a couple of months.
Up until the arrival of Ziggy in 2010, my puppies were trained to sleep downstairs from the first night; however, with Ziggy, I tried something different. After many discussions with my friend and colleague Ross McCarthy, I decided to bring Ziggy’s crate into my bedroom and have him by the side of the bed for a couple of nights.
It worked ever so well that this is now how I start puppies off; that is if the new owners phone me prior to bringing the puppy home as once the puppy’s slept downstairs I tend to leave them be.
So, if this is the first night of your puppy being home, when bedtime comes take your puppy’s crate upstairs and put it by the side of your bed, close enough so that you can drape your hand on it if your puppy gets unsettled… try to keep everything calm and quiet and no ‘cooing’ over him at bedtime – take a matronly approach and you’ll do fine.
When you hear your puppy start to stir (properly as opposed to just changing position), get straight up with no fuss and only the dimmest of lights and carry puppy down to the toileting area; as soon as he’s done straight back to bed for both of you, giving him the tiniest of tiny treats as you pop him in his crate… you can now ignore him or just let your arm drape across the crate until it’s time to get up.
After a couple of nights with your puppy beside you, start edging the crate out of the room and on to the landing; before you know it, your puppy will be sleeping quietly and confidently downstairs.
Even the professionals can get it wrong, especially with their own, and so a word of warning with the stuffed kongs; please don’t make the mistake that I did with Ziggy and give them in the middle of the night to help your puppy settle back down - within a couple of days he was demanding his 4 a.m. kong!
Excerpt from Manners not Mayhem by Lez Graham MA
Illustration by www.tom-kitchen.co.uk
All rights reserved.
The key to crate training is to make the crate the best place in the world for the puppy… and that means food and toys!
Every meal that your puppy has should be fed in his crate; while he’s eating close the crate door and build up the amount of time between him finishing eating and opening the door to let him out, but please bear in mind during the early days of toilet training, that eating stimulates your puppy to want to go to the toilet.
Your puppy should have his crate door closed overnight and initially, whenever you’re out of the room as the last thing you want is to nip out of the room for five minutes and get back to a trashed room and a little ‘present’ in the middle of it, or, much worse, a puppy that has been injured or electrocuted due to chewing through a wire.
Feed your puppy all his meals in the crate so that he associates it with nice things happening. Invest in a couple of puppy kongs so that you can stuff them with his puppy food and then when you return your puppy back to his crate after toileting after a meal, you can give him a stuffed kong to help him settle down rather than a ‘toileting’ treat. Stuff it quite loosely to start off with and remember to reduce his meal allowance by the amount of food used in his kong.
I feed my dogs a raw diet, so I tend to firmly pack some of their food into a kong and freeze it until it starts to firm up and then give it to my puppy as I’m settling them in the crate for an hour. If you’re not a raw feeder, then I would recommend using firm wet dog food that holds together when pressed into the kong.
As with the toileting routine, after the first day or so start to close the crate door when settling your puppy down with a kong.
When your puppy is tired encourage him into the crate with a food treat and help him to settle and sleep in the crate by sitting on the floor by the open door and stroke him until he nods off, then quietly close the door, without locking it.
Again, after a couple of days you can start locking it when your puppy is asleep and build up the time between him waking up and you opening it to let him out so that he doesn’t expect to be let out immediately and panic or throw a tantrum when he’s not. Bear in mind though, that certainly in the early days, he will need to go toilet fairly quickly after waking.
When you lure your puppy into the crate with a treat repeat what will be your command word as you do so… “in your crate”, “crate” or “go in your crate” all work well; use a different word for his bed to save confusion and in the early days of crate training, the crate should be the only bed available to your puppy.
So, once he’s allowed in the living room you’ll have to decide whether you invest in another crate or take his night time one in with you… the crate in your living room won’t be forever, you’ll be able to replace it with a bed in a couple of months.
Up until the arrival of Ziggy in 2010, my puppies were trained to sleep downstairs from the first night; however, with Ziggy, I tried something different. After many discussions with my friend and colleague Ross McCarthy, I decided to bring Ziggy’s crate into my bedroom and have him by the side of the bed for a couple of nights.
It worked ever so well that this is now how I start puppies off; that is if the new owners phone me prior to bringing the puppy home as once the puppy’s slept downstairs I tend to leave them be.
So, if this is the first night of your puppy being home, when bedtime comes take your puppy’s crate upstairs and put it by the side of your bed, close enough so that you can drape your hand on it if your puppy gets unsettled… try to keep everything calm and quiet and no ‘cooing’ over him at bedtime – take a matronly approach and you’ll do fine.
When you hear your puppy start to stir (properly as opposed to just changing position), get straight up with no fuss and only the dimmest of lights and carry puppy down to the toileting area; as soon as he’s done straight back to bed for both of you, giving him the tiniest of tiny treats as you pop him in his crate… you can now ignore him or just let your arm drape across the crate until it’s time to get up.
After a couple of nights with your puppy beside you, start edging the crate out of the room and on to the landing; before you know it, your puppy will be sleeping quietly and confidently downstairs.
Even the professionals can get it wrong, especially with their own, and so a word of warning with the stuffed kongs; please don’t make the mistake that I did with Ziggy and give them in the middle of the night to help your puppy settle back down - within a couple of days he was demanding his 4 a.m. kong!
Excerpt from Manners not Mayhem by Lez Graham MA
Illustration by www.tom-kitchen.co.uk
All rights reserved.