- A lot of people struggle with crate training their dog,
so today I'm gonna teach you five tips that can help you
successfully sail through crate training,
and teach your puppy to love their crate.
I'm Kayl McCann and today I'm gonna be using
here, hop up, hop up, yay, my seven month old border collie
puppy Beeline and welcome back to McCann dogs.
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Thanks for joining us McCann dogs,
where every single Thursday we post brand new videos to help
enrich your dogs life and to help your dog become
a better four legged family member.
Now, we're gonna talk first about crate training
and the first thing I wanted to explain to you
is there's basically two different types of crates
that are great for puppies.
One would be a wire crate and the second would be a plastic,
enclosed crate.
There are other types of crates out there like soft
sided crates or crates that are easier to move around,
but when you're dealing with a baby puppy those
aren't exactly safe choices to start off with your puppy.
So one of the things I like to do to begin training, okay,
training my puppies to like the crate is start by doing
little fun games to get her to happily get her to go in
and out of the crate without any stress.
So I don't put her in and lock her in there right away.
I might just do some fun things to get her willingly to
go in and then I let her come right back out again.
So, I have a couple of treats here
and I'm just gonna throw them into the back of the crate,
so that she can hear them hit off the crate.
Okay, yay good girl.
Just let her go in and get the treats.
Okay.
And then I let her come out.
We'll try that again.
Okay.
Good girl, yes okay.
That a good girl, very nice.
Now once you've repeated that a few times,
the next thing I like to do is play
a little offering game.
So I have, oh yes.
Good girl.
Just like that.
I have the treats ready, I wait til she offers to go in
and then I reward her.
Good girl.
So all of the food, yes get it, is always being delivered
while she's inside the crate.
So that's like her favorite part.
Okay Bee.
Yes, good girl.
And I can either feed by hand,
or I can toss some cookies into the back of the crate
so she can get them out.
Good girl, okay one more time.
Yes, you''re so smart missy.
She's already waiting in the back of the crate for them.
Good girl, very nice.
Fun little game to play with your dog that teaches them
that the crate is very very fun.
Good girl.
When you're choosing a crate for your puppy try to make sure
that it's properly sized.
Now, if you have a bigger breed that's going to be growing
over a long period of time, if you have friends that you
can borrow their crates that would be helpful,
or you can buy bigger crates and buy barricades
that can sort of grow with your dog as they get bigger.
Now the ideal size for a crate for a dog or a puppy
is for it to be big enough that they can lie down,
stretch their legs out and turn around easily in the crate.
If it's any bigger than that, a lot of puppies tend
to use one end as their play or sleep area
and then often use the other end as their potty area
and that can sort of open a world of issues.
So keeping the crate small enough that they want
to keep it nice and clean as their den,
will help prevent any bathroom issues
that your puppy may be having.
Now, one of the tricks that you can do to help your dog
to not go to the bathroom in the crate is to make sure
that you don't have any absorbent type of material
in their crate.
Whether it be towels or blankets or even stuffed animals.
I have known many puppies to go to the bathroom
on their bedding or their stuffy and push it off to the side
so the rest of their area to sleep in is quite clean.
Dogs are fairly clean animals,
they don't necessarily like to lie in their own mess.
So, its nice for them to be able to push it off to the side.
So, if you don't leave anything in their crate
that they can pee on.
They typically will try to hold their bladder a little bit
longer and hopefully if you're lucky they'll be able
to make a noise or make a sound to let you know
they have to go outside and then of course
you can let them out from there.
Now puppies have little tine bladders, which means
they cannot necessarily hold their bladder
for a really long time.
So it's in your best interest to take your puppy
to the bathroom often so they don't end up going
to the washroom in their crate.
Now normally for the first couple of nights,
I find that I do have to get up once or maybe twice
throughout the night to let them go to the washroom,
but usually by night three or four they're able to sleep
throughout the night and then I'll end up having to get up
a bit early in the morning to let them out.
But usually at that point they can go anywhere from six
to seven hours without having to be let out.
But that's something that you have to do gradually
and every dog is different.
I have a little toy poodle, she took a little longer
to be able to do that because her bladder is so tiny.
Beeline, my latest puppy she was able to sleep through
the night I believe, by the second
or third night without issues.
But again she's a little bit bigger breed,
easier for her to hold her bladder.
Another thing that may help your puppy to not
go to the bathroom in their crate is reducing the amount
of water that they have at a certain time of night.
So for example maybe after eight o'clock,
no more water in their crate.
Now I've had other issues with water in the crate.
I own dogs that all tend to love
swimming in their water dish.
So whenever I do put water in their crate,
I'm very careful to secure the bowl to the crate
very very well, so they can't pop the bowl off
and splash water everywhere.
And if I can't secure it, then I'll let them have a drink
and then I'll take the bowl out of the crate.
Rather than leaving it in there with them.
And that usually helps provide a much
cleaner area for the puppy.
It's also a really good idea to keep the crate close by you.
So when I have a new puppy home,
I generally have more than one crate for that puppy.
I usually put one crate in the family area of my home,
a place that we can see the puppy at all times.
Make sure the puppies with us.
And then I have a second crate that I usually put in
my bedroom and that's where the puppy will sleep at night.
That way if they stir or make any noise,
I can decide at that time whether they have
to go to the washroom and that I need to get up
and let them out,
or if its been few days and I think dog is able to hold
their bladder.
I can address the noise in the crate and start teaching
the puppy to be able to sleep quietly through the night
and not have to go out until the morning.
The other thing that I do with my dogs for quite some time
even til they're several months old, even older,
is I give them all of their meals in their crate.
So breakfast and dinner inside their crate and what starts
to happen, is when they hear the kibble hit the bowl
and I say do you want your breakfast, are you hungry?
Okay.
She just jumps right in that crate because she knows
dinner's gonna be served or breakfast is gonna be served
in the crate.
And then I can put the bowl inside the crate with her
and then I can shut the crate door, that gets her
used to eating and being rewarded while she's
in the crate with the door shut.
And then we can go from there and it's a great way to get
the dog to offer to go in that crate really easily without
any battles whatsoever.
I found crate training to be extremely beneficial
in the way that I've been able to raise my dogs.
Its reduced the amount of mistakes that my dogs have had
in the house, as far as house training goes.
Its prevented them from chewing things in my house.
Its also helped me with any behavioral issues
that I may have had.
It just allows me to make sure that when I'm not able
to supervise and give my dog great information that,
I know there are ways somewhere safe that they
can't get into mischief and that they can just
be calm and relaxed.
But on top of that, I try to make sure that I make the crate
a really, really great place for my dogs.
Now we have quite a few dogs and many of them are old enough
and trained enough now that they don't need their crates,
but I think they would be very sad if we took
their crate away.
Often if we can't find, even our oldest dog, we found she
snuck away and she's sleeping in a crate somewhere
in a dog bed, upside down completely in love.
So, if you teach the dog that the crate is a great place,
not only does it help you, but it also gives the dog
a place that they can go and hang out and be happy as well.
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Whether it's topics like this, puppy training,
all kinds of fabulous information.
And if you found that crate training has helped you
and your dog with anything related to house training
or chewing or behavioral issues, we would love
to hear about it in the comments below.
And if you have any questions about crate training make sure
you comment below in that as well.
For now this is Beeline, I'm Kayl.
Thanks for watching.