How do I crate train a dog?
Done properly it gives a dog a place it chooses to go. Done as a containment device it produces distress, and the difference is entirely in the introduction.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 30 min
- Read
- 3 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Set the crate up with the door open and never shut it for the first several days, feed every meal in it, and build duration in seconds rather than minutes. The dog should be going in voluntarily and settling before the door is ever closed. If it panics, you have gone too fast — go back several stages.
A crate works because dogs use dens, and a properly introduced crate becomes the place a dog takes itself when it wants to be left alone. Everything that goes wrong comes from closing the door too early. The introduction is slow and boring and it is the whole job; the crate itself is just furniture.
Safety
Step by step
- Choose a crate big enough to stand, turn and lie stretched out.Measure the dog standing, nose to tail base and floor to head. For a puppy, buy adult size with a divider so the space grows with them — a puppy given a whole adult crate will use one end as a toilet.
- Put it somewhere the dog wants to be.In the room the family uses, not in a utility room or a garage. A dog that wants to be near people will not settle somewhere it feels excluded, and isolation defeats the point.
- Make it comfortable and partly covered.Comfortable bedding, and a blanket over the top and one or two sides to make it den-like. Leave the front open. Avoid anything the dog might chew and swallow unsupervised.
- Leave the door open for the first several days.Do not close it at all. Scatter food in it, put chews in it, let the dog go in and out freely. You want the crate to become the best place in the room before it becomes a place with a door.
- Feed every meal in it.Bowl at the back, door open. This does more than any other single step to build a positive association.
- Build duration in seconds.Once the dog goes in willingly and settles, close the door for two seconds while it eats, then open it. Then five. Then ten. Increase only when the dog is completely relaxed at the current duration, and vary the times rather than always going up.
- Add your absence separately.Closed door with you present is a different exercise from closed door with you out of the room, which is different again from you out of the house. Build each one from short durations.
- Give something to do.A stuffed and frozen food toy or a long-lasting chew turns crate time into a positive activity rather than confinement. Only use items that are safe unsupervised for that dog.
- Respect the limits on how long.A crate is a resting place, not a management solution for a long working day. Puppies need very short periods and frequent toilet breaks; adult dogs should not be crated for long stretches routinely. If a dog is home alone for long periods, a dog walker or daycare is the answer rather than a bigger crate.
- Read distress correctly and back off.Panting, drooling, frantic scrabbling, persistent barking or howling, or attempts to bite the bars are distress, not protest. Open the door, and go back several stages. Continuing produces a dog that fears the crate permanently, and possibly injury.
- Get help for separation distress.If the dog is distressed by being left rather than by the crate, the crate is not the problem and will not fix it. That is a behaviour issue — see the guide on choosing a trainer, and start with a vet to rule out a medical cause.
Questions people ask
How long can a dog be left in a crate?
Short periods, and less for puppies, who need frequent toilet breaks. It is a resting place rather than a way to manage a full working day — a dog alone for long stretches needs a walker or daycare instead.
My puppy cries in the crate — what should I do?
Distinguish needing the toilet from distress at the confinement. Take a young puppy out to toilet, calmly and without play. If it is distress, you have progressed too fast: go back several stages and rebuild with the door open.
Is crating cruel?
Not when introduced properly, and a well-trained dog chooses to use it. It becomes cruel when it is used as punishment, for long periods, or forced on a dog that finds it distressing.