In This Chapter
- Presenting the crate to your housetrainee
- Helping the crate-hating dog
- Using the crate fairly
- Looking at other benefits of the crate
The crate is crucial not only to successful housetraining
but also, in my view, to successful puppy-raising. Not only does a crate
capitalize on your pooch’s instinctive desire not to dirty her den — and thus
learn to hold her poop and pee until she can do so in the right place — but it
also gives you a safe place to put your puppy when you can’t keep your eye on
her, including while you sleep at night. And believe me, a puppy (or in many
cases, even an adult dog) needs a human’s eagle eye to prevent her from engaging
in mischief such as unfurling the toilet paper, diving into the garbage, or
chewing on the legs of your dining room chairs.
But the crate’s benefits extend not only to you; they also
include your four-legged friend. The crate is a place where your dog can retreat
whenever she needs a break from everyday household mayhem, wants a little alone
time, or needs to escape from what she perceives to be big, bad, scary
machinery such as vacuum cleaners.
Unfortunately, though, the benefits of crates may not be
readily apparent to your canine companion — at least not at first. Instead of
considering it to be her own special space, a dog may view the crate as a
canine prison to which she’s received a lifetime sentence. That’s why you can’t
simply put your dog into the crate, shut the door, and walk away any more than
you can teach a child to swim by bringing him to deep water and then expecting
him to paddle his way back to shore.
You need to introduce your canine companion to her crate carefully.
This chapter helps you do just that, and it also gives you some ideas for
helping your canine companion change her mind about her crate if she already
hates it. (For info on selecting and outfitting a crate and deciding where to
put it, go to Chapter Getting
Your Home in Housetraining Order.)
Introducing the Crate
To help your canine companion appreciate her crate,
introduce her to it immediately but gradually. If possible, start on the very same
day you welcome her into your home. In this section, I explain what to do as
you introduce your dog to her crate. This process should take only a day or
two, unless your four-legged friend has had a prior negative experience with
the crate. If that’s the case with your dog, expect the process to take longer.
Tie one on: The open-door policy
No, no, no — I am not suggesting that the way to help your
dog learn to love her crate is for you to head around the corner to the nearest
pub and party hearty. Instead, you need to make the crate, particularly the
door, nonthreatening to your four-legged friend. A door that suddenly slams
shut while your dog is getting accustomed to the crate can spook your pooch
into bypassing the crate completely.
Tip
Before you introduce the crate to your little Fidette, use a string or a prop to keep the crate door open. That way, when she explores the crate, a sudden accidental slamming of the door won’t put your pup off the crate.
Encourage exploration
As soon as you have the crate door securely open, encourage
your puppy or dog to check out the crate. Begin by letting her walk around the
crate to sniff and otherwise explore it. If she hesitates, throw little treats
around the perimeter.
When your puppy approaches the crate comfortably, see
whether you can induce her to venture inside the crate — again with the help of
a tasty treat. If your housetrainee isn’t food-motivated, a favorite toy may do
the trick. Either way, toss the treat or toy inside the crate. If she goes in
readily, praise her; if she’s hesitant, tell her in a high, happy-sounding
voice to go and get the goodies.
Remember
Don’t force her in; let her decide on her own to enter the crate. And when she does, let her know what a good girl she is. This may take some time; be prepared to spend an afternoon or so helping her with this crucial step.
Nighty-night: Getting your dog to go in her den when asked |
|
When I was housetraining Allie, my Golden Retriever, I
ended up teaching her something else without even realizing it: going into
her crate when asked. That’s because every time I put Allie into her crate, I
would tell her “nighty- night” in a soft, baby-talk sort of voice. Before
very long, Allie figured out all by herself that “nighty-night” meant that it
was time for her to head to her crate. Even now, six years later, if I tell
her, “Allie, time to go nighty-night,” my Golden girl trots into her crate,
no matter where she is in our house. The nighty-night maneuver comes in handy if, for example,
you have a repair person coming into your house and you don’t want Daisy and
the repair person to meet. In fact, for any situation in which you need to
confine your dog, the ability to send your dog to her crate on command is a
useful skill. Of course, you don’t need to use the term nighty-night to get your dog to head
to her crate on cue. Other words work just as well. I just love to see my big
70-pound Golden girl — who at most times is quite the diva and has a mind of
her own — walk with such docility into her crate while I coo “nighty-night”
to her. |
Tip
Whenever your puppy enters the crate (or whenever you put her in it), use a word that tells her what she’s doing and where she’s going. Good choices are crate, place, bed, or any other word that you know you’ll use consistently. By saying this same word in a high, happy tone of voice whenever your dog enters her crate, you’ll help her associate the word with the crate — and as I explain in the sidebar titled “Nighty-Night: Getting your dog to go in her den when asked,” she’ll soon begin to head into the crate as soon as you, well, say the word.
Shut the door (but not for long)
If your puppy repeatedly enters her crate without
hesitation, untie the door. Toss a treat inside the crate. When your pooch
enters, shut the door quietly without locking it. Leave it shut for just a few seconds.
During those few seconds, praise your pooch lavishly, and
then open the door and coax her out. Another tiny treat should provide sufficient
incentive for her to emerge.
Perform this sequence five to ten times during the day,
gradually increasing the amount of time the door remains closed, until your puppy
is able to remain calmly in the crate for about 5 minutes.
No dishes? No problem! |
|
Maybe your dog’s crate doesn’t come with dishes, or maybe
you just find them too cumbersome, messy, or awkward to use. That’s okay. You
have another option for keeping your dog occupied while she’s in the crate:
filling an interactive toy with food and/or treats. Take a toy such as a Kong (you can find one at any pet
supply store or at the Kong Web site, www.kongcompany.com)
or other food-dispensing plaything and slather some peanut butter on the
inside. Then fill the toy with treats, or even regular food, and pack it
tight. Put the stuffed toy inside your pooch’s crate. Chances are, she’ll
make a beeline for the toy, get immediately to work trying to ferret out the
goodies you’ve shoehorned into it, and not even notice that you’ve closed the
door. If you really want to challenge your housetrainee, put the
treat-stuffed toy in a plastic bag and into your freezer for a couple of
hours. Then remove it from the freezer, take the toy out of the bag, and hand
it over to your dog, who by now is probably salivating. The food stuffed
inside the toy will be even tougher for your four-legged friend to extract. This trick works not only for crate training but also for
other training situations. For example, dogs with separation anxiety often do
very well if their owners give them food-stuffed interactive toys just before
they leave the house. The dogs are so engrossed in getting the goodies that
they don’t even realize their people have left — and afterward, their
contented tummies may well induce them to take a post-snacking nap. Of course, if you make a regular practice of giving your
pooch a meal in one of her toys, make sure you adjust her other meal portions
accordingly. That way, she’ll retain her girlish figure as she works her way
to becoming a housetraining graduate. |
Leave the room
After your puppy can stay calmly in the crate for 5 minutes,
you’re ready for the next step, which is to have her stay calmly in her crate
without you there. Once again, lure your pooch into her crate — but this time,
use something more substantial than a treat or two. A full meal dispensed into
a crate dish is a good choice (or use a food-stuffed toy — see the sidebar
titled “No dishes? No problem!” for details).
When your pup is in her crate, shut the door quietly and
leave the room for about a minute. When you return, see what your puppy’s doing.
If she’s eating her meal or gnawing her chew toy contentedly, leave the room
again and come back in a few more minutes. Keep checking until she’s finished;
when she’s done, let her out of the crate and praise her lavishly for her
accomplishment. Give her a special treat to emphasize to her how pleased you
are.
Build up her tolerance
You’re now ready for the final step in your puppy’s Loving
the Crate 101 course: building up her tolerance for being in the crate by
herself. This one should be easy: Keep feeding her inside the crate until she’s
able to stay in it for half an hour. Then try leaving the house for a few
minutes, gradually extending the time that you’re away. At this point, she
should handle crate time without any problem.
If, at any point in this process, your dog starts to whine
or cry, you may be moving too quickly. Help for the whiny crate trainee appears
in the next section.
Encouraging Appreciation If Your Dog Hates the Crate
Alas, not every dog appreciates a crate. An adult dog who’s
never been inside a crate may think it’s a prison, not a haven. A puppy-mill
pooch who spent his babyhood cramped inside a crate that was too small and who
was forced to eliminate while inside that crate may not think the crate you’ve
purchased is such a great idea, either.
Either way, a dog who hesitates to enter a crate for the
first time probably just needs some patience from you and a clear incentive to
give the crate a try. Find a treat that your dog is passionate about and hold
it to his nose so that he knows what’s being offered. Then use a high-pitched,
happy-sounding tone of voice to encourage him to enter the crate. As soon as he
makes the big step and ventures inside the crate, praise him to the skies.
Above all, don’t shut the door until he’s going in and out of the crate without
hesitation.
Some dogs balk when they’re left alone in the crate for the
first time. If that’s the case with your pooch, stay away for just a minute or
so after he starts fussing. Then come back into the room and reassure him with
a quick “good boy” or “good dog.” Leave the room again for just a few seconds —
and if he stays quiet for that brief time, come back to let him out of the
crate and praise him. The important thing here is not to let him out of the
crate until he stops fussing.
Not on my bed, you don’t |
|
When President Obama and his family first acquired Bo,
their Portuguese Water Dog, a reporter asked the president whether Bo would
sleep on any of the White House beds. The Chief Executive’s firm response
was, “Not on my bed.” He also indicated that the First Dog would not be
sleeping on either of his daughters’ beds, either. Bo is the first dog the
Obamas have owned, but they’ve made the right decision in opting to keep Bo
off their beds. Puppies and human beds don’t mix for several reasons.
First, there’s the possibility that the puppy will wander from where he’s
sleeping to somewhere else on your bed and decide (yuck) to do his business
there. Second, he could fall off the bed and hurt himself. And third, it sets
a bad precedent for a relationship in which you’re trying to establish
yourself as his leader — a loving, benevolent leader but a leader nevertheless. So what should you do if your puppy balks at being in his
crate at night? Here are some ideas:
|
Warning!
Many young puppies object to being put in crates at night during their first few nights in a new home. They cry pitifully and otherwise carry on, tempting their soft-hearted people to scoop them out of their crates and allow them to sleep with them in their own beds. This is a temptation that you should do your very best not to give in to. The nearby sidebar titled “Not on my bed, you don’t” explains why and provides advice for dealing with this common situation. If you’ve done your best but there’s no way your dog will accept the crate, don’t despair. For a few pooches, particularly puppy-mill dogs and their offspring, as well as dogs who suffer from severe separation anxiety, the crate will never be the cozy den it represents to the vast majority of canines. For these dogs, the solution is to create an indoor home-alone area that’s less enclosed than a crate is but still protects your home while the dogs learn proper potty protocol. Suggestions for creating this special indoor potty are in Chapter Sorting Out Humans’ Housetraining Challenges.
Tip
A dog who suffers from separation anxiety — in other words, panics and becomes destructive when left alone — can benefit from professional help. An experienced trainer can help you teach your anxious pooch that solitude is okay. In severe cases, a veterinarian can prescribe medication that helps to lessen the dog’s anxiety.
Limiting Crate Time: How Much Is Too Much?
As you’ve undoubtedly discovered, I’m a passionate advocate
of crate training, keeping your
four-legged friend in her doggie den whenever you can’t watch her directly and
letting her out for meal-times, potty breaks, and playtime. Nothing, in my
view, makes the whole teaching Doggie Bathroom Manners 101 process easier than having
a crate that capitalizes on your dog’s instinctive desire to keep her den
clean. But that said, it’s entirely possible that use of a crate can be too
much of a good thing — and even cruel to your four-legged friend.
Too many people embrace the crate a little too tightly and
turn it into a canine warehouse. They put their dogs into their crates in the
morning, go out all day, and then come home in the evening to let their pooches
out. Yes, the furniture and rugs are free of destruction, dog poop, and other
hazards that are part of sharing one’s life with a dog. But confining your dog
to a crate for that long is inhumane — even if she can hold it all day.
Warning!
Not only does crating your dog for too long cause her discomfort in bowel and bladder — possibly even causing a urinary tract infection — but you also deprive your dog of exercise, mental stimulation, and your company, all of which can cause her to develop a distaste for her crate. And if she can’t hold her poop and pee, you’ve really made things tough for her, because you’ve forced her to dirty her den and then stay in that dirt until you let her out.
Generally, I don’t think it’s fair to confine even a fully
housetrained dog to a crate for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. And as you
can see in Chapters Heading
to the Outside: Outdoor Housetraining and Making
Some Inside Moves: Indoor Housetraining, dogs who are still developing their basic bathroom
manners need to be let out of their crates much more often. That said, it’s
okay to crate a dog overnight after she’s demonstrated that she can hold it for
that long (generally after a puppy reaches 4 months of age). But keep that crate
with you in your bedroom so she can share space with you and you can hear her
if she has a problem or needs a middle-of-the-night pit stop after all (for example,
if she’s suffering from a urinary infection or diarrhea).
Tip
If you think your schedule or your home décor requires all-day crate confinement for your dog, you need to explore other options. Here’s what you can do:
- Come home at lunch. If your workplace is close to your home, make a quick trip there during your lunch break to give your four-legged friend a much-needed potty break.
- Hire a dog walker. Urban and suburban areas abound with pet sitters and dog walkers who are more than happy to spring your pooch each day for a reasonable fee. Check out your newspaper classifieds, your veterinarian’s office, or an online source such as Craigslist (www.craigslist.org).
- Enlist a neighbor. If you have a dog-loving neighbor who stays home during the day, maybe she’d be willing to come visit your dog and walk him at noontime. Of course, if you embark on such an arrangement, make sure that you’re willing to offer her services that she needs, such as watering her plants and picking up her mail whenever she goes away.
- Bring your pooch to work. Many workplaces allow their employees to bring their well-behaved dogs to work. Check with your company’s human resources department to see whether your company is one of these dog-friendly treasures. If so, you can take your-legged friend out of his crate periodically for a walk and a potty break.
- Consider doggie day care. More and more cities and towns offer cage-free doggie day care to give the confined canine a more pleasurable day. See whether yours is one of them.
Continuing to Use the Crate
After your dog becomes a fan of the crate, you can adopt a few
measures to help her keep those good feelings. Crates have many benefits beyond
housetraining, so maintaining that appreciation is well worth the effort. In
this section, I explain how to do just that, and I name some other ways you and
your canine companion can use the crate.
Keeping the love alive
Tip
You need to do your part to make sure that the crate continues to be something your dog loves. Here are some ways to do just that:
- Potty first. If you plan to have your puppy or dog stay in her crate while you leave the house, give her an opportunity to poop or pee beforehand. A before-the-crate bathroom break greatly decreases the odds that your four-legged friend will go to the bathroom while she’s in the crate.
- Let her settle. If you’re crating your puppy or dog in her crate while you go out to run errands, put her there a few minutes before you depart. That way, she’ll have a chance to settle herself before you head out the door.
- Downplay comings and goings. Don’t make a big deal of putting your dog in her crate when you leave or of letting her out when you arrive home. Big, emotional hellos and goodbyes can put your dog on emotional overload, making settling down in the crate tougher for her to handle.
- Potty last. Just as you took her to her potty before you left, do the same thing when you arrive home. A dog who’s held her poop and pee while crated needs and deserves the consideration of a bathroom break as soon as possible thereafter.
Beyond housetraining: Other uses for the crate
Even after your puppy or dog is housetrained, you and your
dog will still find the crate useful. Here are some other roles a crate can
play:
- A room of her own: In addition to using the crate as a safe place in which to avoid fearsome vacuum cleaners and get herself some space during my family’s TV time, my Allie occasionally uses her crate as a place to stash toys and treats. (Unfortunately, she soon forgets that she’s done so.)
- A place away from visitors: The crate’s a great place for your dog to stay if you have repair personnel or other visitors come into your home. Even if your dog is a social butterfly, your guests may appreciate not having to deal with sloppy doggie kisses and shedding. And if your dog is more reserved, she’ll appreciate having a place to retreat to when strangers come around.
- A safe way to travel: The crate is a safe place for your dog to be when you’re both traveling by car — and it’s required if you’re both traveling by air and the dog is too large to join you in the passenger cabin.
- A home away from home: Many hotels and motels that generally frown on accommodating animals may cut you a break if you can tell them your dog will be crated. And if you think that you’ll visit only pet-friendly hotels, well, you may not have that option. If you and your dog find yourselves having to leave your home to outrun a natural disaster such as a hurricane, having a crate can save the day (not to mention your pet’s life) when you’re both scrambling to find a safe shelter.
Crates are also great when you’re visiting relatives or friends in their homes and want to bring your dog along. She’ll be a lot more comfortable having a familiar home away from home, and your hosts will be more comfortable knowing that your dog has a place to be that will keep her from damaging their stuff.
- A place to heal: The crate may serve as a recovery room for your dog if she undergoes orthopedic surgery such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair (a common problem that big dogs such as Labrador Retrievers face). In fact, many veterinarians require that their canine ACL patients be on what they call crate rest for at least several weeks after surgery. Under such circumstances, the dog who’s accustomed staying in her crate and liking it will fare far better than her crate-hating counterpart. The same situation applies if your dog is being treated for heartworm.
Any way you look at the crate, though, the bottom line is
that a dog who has gotten a good start with one is probably going to have a
good start with housetraining and every other kind of training. Showing your
dog that her crate is something to love is worth every bit of effort you and
she make.
by Susan McCullough
0 comments:
Post a Comment