No matter what kind of pet you have, if you will use a crate for containment at home and in your vehicle, introducing the pet to staying in the crate is critical. If you do it right, your pet will have a good impression of his crate as a safe place to stay. If you do it wrong, your pet may always be suspicious of the crate, making it much more difficult for you to use and for the pet to accept.
Ideally, your pet will be introduced to his first crate when he is still with his mother and littermates. This is true regardless of the kind of pet you have—puppy, kitten, ferret kit, or baby anything. I have seen many litters of puppies raised with an airline shipping crate, its top off, in their sleeping area when they are very young. Later, the breeder adds the top, leaving off the door for easy access. The mother dog often sleeps there with her puppies . . . until they can no longer fit!
Introducing very young animals to a crate when they are still with their mother is such a good idea. It becomes a part of their lives, just as common as food bowls and play toys. As they grow and become more mobile, they crawl in and out of it, eventually sleep in it, even eat in it. By the time they are taken for their first veterinary visit, being in the crate seems standard and usual, giving the breeder a safe way to transport them all and an easy container to clean out if any of the pups experience car sickness. Carrying very young animals loose in a vehicle would be crazy!
But if your puppy or kitten or other baby animal has not been introduced to a crate with the help of his breeder and his mother animal, what you do will be even more critical.
If you intend to use a crate to housebreak a puppy, remember that the size of the crate is very important. (More on that below.) Remember, too, that we are talking about an airline shipping kennel, not a soft-sided crate made of cloth. Later, when your dog has learned to accept confinement peacefully, more portable containment may be more practical to use. A foldable, zippered, soft-sided kennel can be great for away from home, but only if you’re quite sure from practice at home that your dog will not destroy it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your puppy would never attempt to chew or dig his way out of less secure confinement!
(Soft-sided kennels are not appropriate for transport confinement, as they offer no protection whatsoever in a collision, or even a quick, brake-slamming stop. Coated-wire kennels—open wire mesh, collapsable for moving—are often used at home by owners with very large dogs, as they come in even bigger sizes than airline shipping kennels. Open coated-wire kennels also offer cooler housing for dogs with heavy coats, especially in hot weather. While wire crates may be used in vehicles for containment, often for more than one dog at a time, they do not offer the same protection from collisions or quick stops as solid airline shipping kennels do. They are always a second choice—better than no containment at all, but not as safe as a solid crate.)
When you’re using a crate to help with the housebreaking of a dog, keep in mind that the crate should ideally fit the size of the dog. Buy or borrow a crate that your puppy fits in snugly, then bump up the crate size as he grows. The bigger the crate compared to the size of the puppy, the more likely he will decide that one end is for sleeping and the other end is for evacuating his bladder and bowels—not what you want! The use of crates for housebreaking is ultimately based on the natural behavior of dogs, who instinctively do not want to eliminate where they sleep. Their natural instinct is to leave their sleeping area to potty. By giving them a kennel just their own size, you give them a chance to learn to “hold it” until they are outside their sleeping area.
Smaller crates—just the size of the puppy—with handles are also easier to move around the house as they’re needed. Rather than putting your very young puppy in a crate far away from where you sleep, consider lifting the crate up onto your bed or putting it directly beside your bed, so you can tell when the puppy is moving around in it, restless, perhaps needing to go outside. Your puppy will have the reassurance of being close to you without any chance that he could wander away or leave a mess on your floor.
I also encourage feeding in crates, especially if you have more than one dog. Having meals in his kennel helps your puppy feel at home there, and reinforces for him that good things happen in the kennel. What could be better than breakfast (or dinner) in bed? If other pets in the house might have an interest in the puppy’s food—why, yes, even a cat might want to check it out—confining the pup and his food behind a closed door will discourage them, avoiding any chance that your pup will feel he needs to guard his food bowl. He should always feel safe when eating!
Other good things also happen in crates—for example, feeding toys! Fill a feeding toy with his regular kibble plus a tiny bit of peanut butter or string cheese for added excitement, and leave him in the kennel while he enjoys it. Chew toys—safe chew toys, not stuffed toys with squeakers, please—should “appear” in his kennel often, so that every time he goes near the kennel, he will discover a good reason to be there. There is nothing more thrilling than to see your new puppy run to his kennel to search for goodies. Your job is to be sure the goodies are there on a regular basis.
I do not recommend bedding in kennels for new members of the family. It never fails that a new puppy owner invests in a kennel and then decides that young Fido simply must have a lovely new expensive bed to make that kennel more comfortable. Don’t do it! Put nothing in the kennel with your new dog until you are absolutely sure he will not destroy it. My rule for kennel bedding is that the pup does not get a real dog bed of his own until his first birthday, and then only if he’s proved he has no interest in chewing up anything he’s confined with . . . tested by letting him sleep on old towels after he’s six months of age or so. If the towels get chewed on at all, remove the bedding and try again in another month. Please do not waste money you could have spent on puppy class by investing in lavish dog bedding that will only become shredded to tatters overnight by your pup.
Most airline shipping kennels come with small plastic cups that attach onto the kennel door grate. These cups are mandatory for actually shipping an animal on an airline—access to water is important—but they are useless at home as they too, just like that expensive bed, can become chew toys in an instant. Keep the cups in a safe place in case you ever do ship your dog, but don’t use them in the kennel. Free access to water, especially overnight, is not conducive to good housebreaking!
For some dogs under some circumstances, it can be smart to place the crate somewhere that does not offer a wide view of a lot of household activity. For example, expecting a puppy to go to sleep in a kennel in the middle of your family room while everyone watches a loud movie may result in exactly the opposite of what you want (a sleeping puppy). If you suspect your pup is distracted and kept awake by whatever is going on around him, consider draping the outside of the kennel with a towel or blanket so that he cannot see out of the side openings—leave the door uncovered for air! Covering a wire kennel with a towel or blanket can help a young animal feel much more secure, as his bed becomes more den like. Don’t forget how easy it is for little puppy teeth to pull cloth through holes, though—check to make sure your pup can’t get to the covering with his teeth!
To teach any animal to go into a kennel when you ask, start by making that kennel so attractive that the animal simply cannot resist. With most animals, food helps you accomplish that goal. Feed in the kennel. Offer food-stuffed toys in the kennel. Throw safe chew toys into the kennel. Keep a container of treats close to the kennel (yet inaccessible to the animal) so that every time you walk by, you can throw a treat in through the open door. If your puppy is watching, if he dives into the kennel to eat the treat, encourage him with soft verbal praise: “Good kennel!”
Decide what you’re going to call the kennel before the first time your pet sees it. That way, you can remember to repeat your chosen word as gentle vocal praise when the puppy is in the kennel. Eventually, that word becomes the cue to tell your puppy to go into the kennel as well. It is not a “command.” It is a cue, as in “when you hear this word, what you do next is . . . ” There will be no yelling “KENNEL!” at any young animals, please—it scares them and it doesn’t work. Instead, your job is to make any and all associations with that kennel, for that animal, positive! That means no yelling. If you must put an unwilling animal into a kennel, simply pick up the animal and put him in, ignoring any struggles he may make. It’s not the best way to handle kennel training, but sometimes it’s necessary. Still, maintain your cool and remember to praise him once he’s in there!
One important point about crate training: you must never let the animal out of the kennel when he is making any inappropriate noise or doing any inappropriate behavior. What’s inappropriate? Barking, whining, pawing at the door, yodeling, jumping up and down—in short, either objecting to being in the kennel or demanding to be let out. You will never respond in any way to noise or ruckus from the kennel (unless you believe the animal to be in pain). Opening that crate door in the middle of noise and ruckus easily convinces the animal that his inappropriate behavior is the key to getting out!
Instead, wait for quiet and calm—or, at least, for that one second when the animal stops the ruckus and noise to take a breath!—and only then open the door and let him out. Institute this protocol from the first time your animal is in his kennel, and you will end up with a pet who understands that his safe and comfortable crate is a place to be quiet and to sleep, not to party and make noise! Give in once to whining or barking and you are well on your way to creating a crate monster. Don’t forget, the longer you hold out—if you finally give in—the more persistent your pet will learn to be. Don’t give in! If the noise and carrying on bothers you, but you are absolutely sure the pet is safe and comfortable, leave the room. If you have to, leave the house. But come back soon, listen carefully, and, if you have a quiet animal in his kennel, that is the time to let him out!
Next week, we’ll discuss how to use a crate to housebreak your dog.
