Crate Training

                                    Crate Training

After having an enquiry regarding crate training and knowing that many new owners can struggle with this, I thought I would share a few tips to help with this.

Crate training can be a big undertaking with some puppies and dogs.

First off set up your crate with these things in mind.

You need to make it a welcoming safe space for your new dog. It needs to be enticing and inviting.

So have a nice comfortable bed/ blanket / mat in there for them.

Place some toys inside and also high value treats.

You can also have some treats and toys leading up to the crate to create some interest in the crate. Leave the crate door open, so that they can come and go as they please.

Let them find their own pace at going near and into the crate so it isn’t a big scary situation.

Give them some of their meals inside the crate so they know good things happen in here. Puppies will also settle down and sleep after eating, with a warm comfortable bed in their crate they will be happier to snuggle into it.

Keep the crate kid free zone. The crate needs to be an exclusive, safe space they can go to whenever they want, sometimes to escape the chaos that involve family life. Remember puppies need 18hrs sleep a day on average.

For Puppies place the cloth/toy that has the scent of their mum on in the bed,  for all puppies and dogs place a small blanket that you have rubbed your scent on so that you are not too far away from them.

To help your puppy or new dog to settle at night , try not to get them excited in the evening, use a regular routine to help them relax calm down and.

Use Licki mats to help calm them, have some cuddles with them and comfort them with long gentle stokes.

At night once you have completed these steps in the day time you can also put the radio on low at night so there is some background noise in the night and not just all strange sounds and noise that they do not understand. Classic fm now has a soothing sounds for dogs station which can be really helpful.

These measures will all help with getting your puppy or new dog confident in spending time in crates and settling down for the night.