Simple Yet Effective Tips to Crate Train Your Dog Fast and Easily

There is more to the crate than meets the eye. It provides a safe haven for your puppy and frees up time for you to go about your daily chores without worrying for the security of your new pup. Those who are not aware of the usefulness of a crate will see it as a form of torture for dogs, however, if crate training is carried out properly, it can be a fun and rewarding for both you and your puppy. It's effectiveness cannot be denied, as shown by the number of professional dog trainers who swear by it when potty training.

Getting the Right Crate Size - An ideal dog training crate should be large enough to allow your dog to stretch out without hitting his head and allow him to be able to turn around easily. The size of the crate is consider too large if you find your dog relieving himself in one corner and playing and sleeping in another. You can block off and make the crate smaller by blocking off certain section with wooden cardboards if your pup is still young.

Critical Crate Training Rules - You must introduce the crate slowly to your dog when you begin crate training. Crate him in short intervals, about 10 minutes, and gradually increase the duration over time. All dogs need some time to get used to staying in the crate. Do not leave your dog in the crate for more than thirty minutes when you begin to crate train him.

It is not recommended to left a pup in a crate for long hours. Your puppy should have the chance to exercise and urinate before being crated. Dogs are clean creatures and do not wish to dirty the space near their personal sleeping areas. However, he might be forced to relieve himself if you cruelly lock him in for longer than he can hold it in.

A rule of thumb to gauge how long your puppy should be in his crate is to add an hour to his age in months. For example, a puppy who is two months old must not be left in a crate in excess of three hours.

It's common for pups to bark and moan to attract your attention while in the crate. If any of these things happen when he is in the crate, do not give him any attention! Yes! Do not even look in his direction.

Dogs are intelligent animals. Do not let on that he will be able to get your attention and change your mind when he is upset. Simply ignore him. Praise your dog or let him out only when he settles down.

Offer a treat or toy to distract and calm your pup down if necessary. No matter what you do, you must not let your pup out of the crate, this is a very critical moment where you must not give in.

If you notice that your dog displays hyper active behavior as compared to before, you might be crating him for too long. If your dog starts to chew on himself, let him out immediately and consult a trainer or behaviorist.

Here are some tips to help introduce the crate to your dog:

1. To make it easier for your pup to accept his crate, play with him there, or spent time near the crate doing whatever you like, reading or playing video games while he is busy playing with his new toy. If he is there all by himself, he begins to associate the area with isolation and may resist being there at all.

2. Start crate training at the start of dinner. Give him his food, one piece at a time, by throwing bits of kibble in to the crate and making him search for it. This is one of the many ways that you can do to make crate training fun for him.

3. You can place his favorite toy, or even surprise him with treats hidden in the crate for him. To surprise him, you can even hide a biscuit in the crate – that's fun!

4. Don't crate him for longer than he can hold the urge to eliminate or defecate. If you are gone for long periods each day, you should consider a larger confinement area such as an exercise pen or a small room.

5. The best place to place the crate would be where your puppy can see the environment and family members, hear and smell you, the owner.

6. Do not punish your dog in his crate, it will backfire. If you introduce the crate to him in a fun way, your pup will take to crate confinement quickly and without much fuss. It is meant to be a comfortable and safe space, not where he'll get punished.

7. Crate training cannot be used as a permanent solution to ensuring your dog is kept safe without supervision. Puppies should not be left alone for extended periods in their crates. Your training duration will be affected greatly if you crate him for too long and he urinate in the crate.

To conclude, crate training is a very valuable and useful obedience training lesson. The main benefits are to provide the owner with a peace of mind knowing that the dog is safe, reduce unwanted destructive behaviors in the house and make it easier to travel during short term confinement, whenever the owner requires it

security, safety, reduce potentially destructive behaviors, add to the ease of traveling and protection for short term confinement, whenever the owner needs it. It is one important lesson all puppies should learn from day one.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Moses Wright is a dog lover and owner of Dog Obedience Tips site. He loves to help dog owners with their dog problems and do so by consolidating his years of dog ownership experience into a free book filled with simple yet powerful dog training tips: Free Dog Problems Book

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