The Benefits Of Crate Training

Hi it’s Tenille here from Dog Matters. And today we’re gonna talk about crate training. Now many people see crates and think oh I don’t want to put my dog in a cage so it would be really mean. But there’s actually some really amazing benefits to crate training and that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. So obviously if we were to shove our dog in a cage and lock them up and never interact with them, that would be mean. We wouldn’t do that. But the way that crate is supposed to be used is not cruel.

The dog likes being in there. They’re trained to like being in there before you lock them in there. And its not something that they’re forced to do or stuck in there for hours on end and then once they’re happy being in the crate there are many benefits to having your dog crate trained. So one of the benefits is if you need to transport them. They can stay in a safe place in your vehicle and they’re safely contained, not distracting the driver and they’re comfortable.

Another important benefit of crate training is if your dog needs medical attention an operation, they often need crate recovery time and that’s going to go a lot smoother for you if anything happens, if your dog is already crate trained. Another benefit to crate training is toilet training. And crates are often just used for toilet training new puppies or new adult dogs that haven’t learnt to be house trained by having them in, its like their bedroom and its their safe space their bedding is in there. You feed them in there and they instinctively don’t want to toilet where they eat and or sleep. So it helps to train your dog to hold on and gives you the ability to control the timing so that you can take them out to where you want them to go in toilet training.

Now I mentioned that you want to make sure that your dog likes the crate. So if we have a look at Lola here she is actually gone and gotten into the crate without me telling her when we were setting up for filming and we moved her crate into the room to just film the crate and show you what it is like and she went and popped herself in there voluntarily with the door open and made herself comfortable which she is still working on that but you can see she is quite relaxed and happy to be in there by choice and that’s how you want your dog to see crate training as well. And then if I was to shut the door which I’ll show you now. Its not gonna make any difference to how relaxed she is.

Good girl.

So this is a wire crate and that’s the type that I would recommend for most dogs with your crate training. Your dog shouldn’t be scratching at the door to get out. You should be doing your foundational training to make them know that it is a safe space and to actually like being in there and then usually for most cases we are only using it for a few hours at a time at most or to use it overnight for sleeping in which doesn’t really matter. That’s a longer period of time because they’re sleeping anyway and you want your dog to be comfortable and happy to sleep in their crates. This is also useful if you’re having issues with trusting your dog around chewing the furniture or things like that when you’re not around and they need to sleep inside for warmth overnight you can teach them to just sleep in their crate.

That’s their bedroom.

You know that they’re not going to get up to any mischief through the night and that they’re safe. Then your dog can gradually earn more privileges as they become more reliable and are in their habit of not destroying things overnight. They get in the habit of just sleeping through the night holding on to their toilets and as they get older and more experienced they can gradually earn more freedoms if you want them to sleep other places or sleep with the door open. You can also make it cozier and warmer by putting covers over the top or putting bedding inside.

As you can see Lola’s quite chilled out in there and not stressing or trying to get out whatsoever and that’s how it should look like. And they should also be willing to go in when you tell them and this is all again where your training comes in. So I’ll show you how easy it is once you’ve done some training to get your dog to go in.

Obviously she want in voluntarily as well. She is quite comfy. She wants to be in there. Lola, here, good girl. Alright so just showing you her going back in on command. Ready, in your crate. Good. She is like why did you tell me to get out and just me back in but that’s just to show you that they should go in willingly on command and that they’re quite comfortable to be in there, whether the door is open or not. The basics of how to get them set up for enjoying the crate like that and being willing to go in is to feed them in there, give them all their best things in there and to do some actual training where you are allowing them in and out and making it a fun game and a positive experience for your dog.

If you want to start crate training make sure that you don’t just shove them in and lock the door and expect them to get the hang of it. That would be very rare for dog to do that and that’s how you would get a dog that would get very stressed. So make sure you put in that foundational training and if you need some help with that make sure you check out the website for more training tips of crate training. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tip today and I’ll see you in the next video.

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