Crate Training
Where does your dog sleep? Where do they nap? How does this impact their attitude, their relationship with you, and the quality or their rest?
Firstly, lets keep it simple, if you don’t to read the whole article, here are the bullet points:
Crate Training is good and you should implement it for your dog
Bam! Done. But why?
There are lots of reasons why crate training is good for our dogs.
Practical reasons
There are some things in our house that our dogs shouldn’t chew on, eat, sleep on or otherwise muck around with and if we’re asleep our dogs potentially have access to these things (think furniture that shouldn’t be eaten, power cords, harmful foods). Crate training prevents curious or opportunistic pups from getting themselves into trouble when we’re sleeping, or otherwise unable to keep an eye on them.
Simply put, Crate Training is Safer.
Restful Reasons
You wouldn’t want to sleep in a lit up room, with the TV on and a pot of boiling water on the stove… it would be too stimulating. That’s why (most of us) choose to sleep in a quiet, dark, cosy room, which is exactly what your dog want’s too. By creating a cosy space for them in their crate, and covering it with a blanket at bedtime, you can create a space for your dogs to sleep or nap with minimal stimulation, resulting in a more restful and comfortable sleep.
Relationship Reasons
We know that for our dogs to thrive, they need a clear leadership structure in the house. We want to build a relationship with our dogs focussed on communication, trust and leadership.
Leadership has many forms in our dogs eyes. Being a leader for our dogs means that we are someone who can care for our dogs and keep them safe, but also that we are also the family member who sets and enforces rules and boundaries for our dogs. When we’re trying to build this relationship with our dogs, we might spend the whole day building ourselves up in our dogs eyes, by providing food, love and care, by enforcing rules and boundaries and creating a calm and safe environment.
If at the end of the day, our dog hops up to the best spot in the house (the bed) and makes this space their own, they will question the dynamic that we’ve spent all day building. While the bed or the couch can be a great place to invite our dogs to come and have a cuddle, if they’re sleeping in this space, it will create doubt in their mind about who is the leader within your house.
When our dogs sleep in a cosy, quiet crate, instead of the bed or the couch, it becomes a clear message for them about how the family is structured, and allows them to unwind in their space, not yours.
Change of Environment
For those of us who move houses often, live with two different family members, or bring their pups on holiday, crate training is a great way to help our dogs feel happy and settled while on the move. Creating a safe, restful space for your dog will help them to settle in quickly in new places.
Imagine being able to transport your bedroom with you every time you went on holiday, visited a relative or moved home… this is what we can do for our dogs when we pack their crate.
Additionally, when we place the crate securely in our car, we can make travel much less stressful for dogs who might be overstimulated by the car.
Giving everyone a break
The house can be a busy place, especially if you have multiple dogs, kids, a young pup with an older doggy sibling, or a small home, and sometimes EVERYONE just needs a time out! By having a safe, secure and restful place for our pups to take a break, we can settle the home, give the kids a break, give our older or more timid dog some time to themselves, or just settle the home so that everyone can take a nap and return refreshed to finish the day!
There’s nothing wrong with giving yourself and your dog a break, and crate training allows you to do this easily and comfortably for your dog.
Crate training is the best way to give your dog their own quiet, settled space within the home, and is a must for all dog owners.
Keys to successful crate training:
Be Consistent - particularly early on, be consistent with your dog, make sure you put them in the crate every night to sleep, and for a nap or two each day.
Ignore Whining - If your dog begins to whine in the crate, ignore them. This is your dog seeing if whining will get them out of their crate. Once we let them out once, this will reinforce their behaviour and make them more likely to whine in the future.
Make it Cosy - Make sure your pup has some comfy blankets, and put a blanket or cover over the top of the crate to make the space less stimulating for your dog. This will help them to get a more restful sleep.
“Crate training our red heeler puppy, Murray, has been a really positive experience. The crate quickly became a relaxing space for him, and he adapted to spending more time there with ease. Consistency is vital, but I’d definitely crate train again.” Ash M, Murray’s Mum.
Murray, the adorable and handsome red heeler <3