When starting to crate training a dog, you must decorate the crate as a place which is comfortable to rest and attractive to your dogs. Presume the crate as the bedroom for your dog, bedroom which will be attractive to your dog to stay there for longer period of time.
I would recommend starting crate training a dog by playing and giving full attention to them before putting them into the crate. When they are tired of playing and feel like resting they will stay quite and rest in the crate. And they will understand crate as their ‘bedroom’ to rest and relax. And start to enjoy and rest while staying in the crate.
During the initially stage of crate training a dog, do not let them stay in the crate for more than two hours for the first few weeks of training. Because dogs are playful as they might get bored easily!
Give them some time to adapt to this new environment. After some period of training your dog, they will get used to it and you can leave them in the crate for longer period of time.
Training your dog and how to attract your dog to get into and stay in the crate?
First, I would suggest you to attract them by putting some toys in the crate which will ease their boredom and increase the capability of adapting. Give them or reward them with some treats which will be eye-catching to them! Reward them with their favorite treats. Remember, rewarding during dog training is very important as by rewarding your dogs will only feel attracting to follow your instructions.
How to “invite” your dogs into the crate?
Prepare dog training treats; pitch the treat into the crate which will attract him to jump into the crate. When crate training a dog, choose a word that will be consistent such as “inside” or “kennel”, where slowly they will understand the word “ inside” or “kennel” to be “inside/kennel” + “ crate” will is equivalent to “ treat” which is appealing to them!
Whenever you shout the word “inside/kennel” they will be waiting for their treats inside the crate! Great job, these make training your dog job easy and let your dog enjoy!
After getting into the crate how to make them stay in the crate for a period of time? This is another issue that you might need to learn and understand.
Leave toys, blanket, or snack bones which can grab their attention for some time, to bite, chew or cleaning. Dogs can bite a toy for some period of time, they are addicting to biting the toys and will keep on enjoy biting it without feeling bored! But, do not give them all the toys they used to have as dogs are easily get bored, you might want to varies the toys or snacks which will be always appealing to them!
Dog owners do remember crate is not the magical solution.
Do not crate your dogs all day long. As they will feel trapped and frustrated. Dogs do have physical and emotional needs that crating will not solved it. So, crate training a dog and let them enjoy the training.
Danielle Chua
www.dogcareschool.com
Love and Understand your dog.