Crate Training

NOVEMBERS POLL How do you feel about crate training?

It works great 70%
I did not like it 7%
It did not work 4%
I will try it 15%
It is wrong 4%

If you want your puppy to get housetrained you have to confine the puppy! There is no way around it! If you're already upset by the idea of using a crate to house train your puppy? Well, let me put your mind to rest! There's absolutely nothing wrong with using a crate to housetrain your dog! Our record of housetrain dog's is 98% why do I say that? Because, if I were to tell you we have not had a mishap, I would be lying. .

A little help might help you understand that a crate will mimic its den. WHAT? Ok let's take a step backwards and look at the background might be helpful. If your puppy were born in the wild, it would have been born in a cave or a hole in something, for the nursery. For the first four to six weeks the mother would have cleaned up the waste, made by the puppies. But after that time the mother is going to teach them that it is wrong to do it in the den and that it is done outside!

One of the first mistakes you could make, and I have seen it done! "The Crate Is To BIG"
How do you tell if the crate is to big or to small? And what is the right size, Easy!
If the puppy can fit in it and turn around in it, "it's just right"
If you put the puppy in and it can stand up or walk around in it, it is too BIG!
Now I have heard of someone going and buying a big one thinking that they will let the puppy grow in to it, and put a cement block or a cardboard box in it, "WHAT?"

A lady called me one time and said, " I'm crate training my Bichon and it still go's in the crate, what should I do? When I asked a lady what size she got? She said, "one that was just the right size"! Well, I went over to see what was going on for myself, when she said that the crate was not working that the puppy was still using it for a bathroom. When I turned the corner in to the kitchen and saw a crate for a Great Dane, I ask her were fluff's crate was? She turned to me and said "That Is Fluff's Crate!"

Now can every dog be crate trained? "NO"

I have found that puppies that have lived in there filth (poorly managed Shelter's, Pet Store's, and even some Breeders) will not crate train! And the only way to train them is confinement to a room or hallway near the door that they go out. "Paper is the only way" Better to do this, than having to clean the puppy and the crate every time.

So Will It Work?

If you follow the "4 basic steps" you too will have a 98% rate.

1.The crate size

2. A young puppy can not be crated for longer than two to four hours

3. When you let the puppy out of the crate, straight outside! And do not let it back in till it go's

4. And when the puppy is out of the crate, do not let it out of your site

For more INFO on crate training look at the rest of the TRAINING page.