I’ve written before about the importance of crate training your puppy (teaching your puppy that the crate is an awesome, safe place to settle). When I brought Dawson, my maltipoo, home, teaching him that lesson was high on my list of puppy training priorities as I knew I would be wanting him to spend time in his crate during our life together.
I thought I’d share how I did that, in hopes it may be of help to others.
I had planned on staying home with Dawson that first week of his arrival to help him settle in. We played a lot and cuddled a lot. We spent time exploring my home. I gave him toys that encouraged him to play independently. And we spent a lot of time around his crate.
The first time I put him in his crate, he exhibited a lot of anxiety…high pitched yelping, pawing to get out, elevated heart rate, inability to settle. I immediately took him out and went to work desensitizing and counter-conditioning him to find the crate relaxing instead of fear inducing.
A 10 ½ week old puppy needs a lot of sleep. I wanted to encourage him to see his crate as a good place to get his that sleep in.
This is what I did:
I made the crate a super comfy place by having a soft blanket folded up as a surface for him to lay on. I brought a Snuggly Puppy Heartbeat stuffed animal to his breeder and asked that they rub it on Dawson’s mom before we left (she also gave me a little toy with his mother’s scent). That was in the back of Dawson’s crate. I highly recommend the Heartbeat stuffed animals for new puppies. Dawson went right to it and slept on it. I could tell it was comforting to him in this strange new environment.
Dawson would not eat his puppy food for the first six days he was with me. I happened to have some grilled salmon in my freezer, which was the only food would try. Luckily he was VERY interested in that food so he got that in his crate.
With his crate door kept open, I practiced having him go in and out of it. I would put small pieces in the back of his crate and encourage him to go in, then encouraging him to come out. Treats only appeared inside his crate. He began readily moving inside of it. I did this for his travel crate as well.
All of his naps were encouraged to happen in his crate. I figured there was his whole life to nap outside of the crate. Early on I wanted to condition him to see the crate as a comfy place to rest and feel safe. When I knew he was tired, I practiced having him move inside the crate. Then I practiced holding the treat low to teach him to lay down inside. Once he was laying down, I fed him between his paws. I also fed him through the bars of his cage. (The crate door was kept open at this point.) I had a book and just sat outside the crate, feeding him small pieces of salmon as he began to doze off.
During non-nap time, I smeared salmon on a lickity mat that I hung on the side of his cage a couple times a day. He would spend time in there working on the mat.
We practiced having me close the crate door. As he was easily going inside and laying down with relaxed muscles, I began practicing closing the crate door. I was looking for no sign of those anxiety behaviors. With the crate door closed, I fed him pieces of salmon through the bars. Then I would open the door and allow him to come out. If he chose to stay in there, he would get some additional salmon. He chose to stay inside and lay down more and more. In the beginning, I stayed at the side of his closed crate while he became more and more relaxed. With practice, I began moving around in the room, watching his body language to ensure he continued to be relaxed.
A piece of equipment that I highly recommend for crate training and alone time training is a webcam. Webcams come with software for your mobile phone so that you can watch your puppy from anywhere. This allows you to see whether or not your puppy is remaining relaxed or stirring, without you coming back into the room and possibly reinforcing behavior. For me, it allowed me to ensure Dawson was continuing to stay relaxed when I was out of sight.
I moved Dawson’s crate into my bedroom, near my bed, during his first few nights with me so that he could be comforted with my presence and so that I could hear him if he stirred indicating he needed to go outside. After those first few nights, because of all the work I had done to help him feel good about that space, I found that transitioning the crate to remaining in another room was easy. He was so accustomed to sleeping in his crate (that was kept in my living room during the day) that he would easily go in there. I just began leaving the crate in my living room and he slept through the night.
Yes, that was a lot of work in those early days focused around crate training; but that time has been invaluable to us now. I have a crate in the back of my car as well, that he jumps into as soon as the door opens. He usually runs ahead of me into his crate when he sees me walk back to it. Also, Dawson has anxiety issues and the crate is his safe, de-stressing place.
