The Importance of Crate-Training -a revisit

I was asked the other day by a well-meaning woman "Why should you crate-train a puppy. It's like a jail cell."

"I'm at home all the time," she continued, "I took six months off to raise my puppy. They come EVERYWHERE with me."

Lots of responses popped into my head, but a couple of big questions too.

First off, what happens at the end of six months when you go back to work? You suddenly have a six month old pup that is used to having you around at all times. Regardless if you crate or not, if you don't leave small periods of time where the dog has to get used to being by itself, you're going to create separation anxiety in some form. Secondly: if you gave a child unlimited freedom to do whatever they wished when they first started to crawl, can you imagine the trouble they will get themselves into, without you there to save them from it. You'd probably have someone call social services on you.

If you want horror stories I've heard it all. Couches torn apart and dogs choking to death on random things chewed and swallowed in the house, car wires ripped out on a 15 minute trip to the grocery store while puppy was in the car, a robber breaking into a house that the pup went running and got hit by traffic because he wasn't confined. And for one close to home, a young pup in my own puppy class whose mum ran to get the telephone while her pup was still playing outside. While she wasn't able to pay strict attention to her puppy, he managed to chew neighbors' plants through the fence and half an hour later had to be rushed to the emergency vet clinic with seizure like symptoms to get his stomach pumped. $2000 vet bill, that quickly. And it could have been worse.

But instead of all the horror stories, instead I asked the woman: "Do you have children?"
"Yes," the woman said.
"When your child was only a few months old, what happened when you needed to shower?"
She paused.
"Or when they needed a nap," I prodded her towards my answer.
"They were in their crib," she said.
"Is a crib a jail cell?" I asked.
"No," she said, "but she whines so much sometimes."
Aha, I had gotten to the gist of it. Puppy doesn't enjoy her crate, so woman has decided it's evil.

So, it takes a different light sometimes to put things in perspective.
You can choose to see a crate as a jail cell, I choose to see it more as a "crib".

We don't let our babies sleep on cushions in our room. No, we put them in a place where they are safe from the world, where we can sleep in peace knowing they won't get into anything, and where they learn to rest. Babies fuss in their cribs sometimes, so too do puppies in their crates, but it shouldn't be a reason to give up the crate or the crib. With crate games and giving value to the crate, we build a positive association, keep our pups safe from the world, and our house safe from our pups.

For puppies it's usually as simple as ALL GOOD STUFF IN MY LIFE COMES FROM THE CRATE for a few days to a week, and weaning off of it for a week or two. All meals come in the crate, all treats come in the crate, all toys are in the crate. I always give an hour or so naptime throughout the day, even to young foster pups. They usually end up with a turkey neck to chew on. Boo-ya, crate can't be so bad if there's a turkey neck in here! For the fussier puppies, we play 'in and out' games, where the dog is rewarded every time they enter the crate, and don't get rewarded at all for coming out. Soon you have a dog that would rather just stay in the crate.

The key is that the crate has lots of value. At night here, pups get their supper in their crate and it's bedtime. Even Cheddar who was one of those 'fussy' puppies within a week trotted into his crate at night (though he'd try to sneak in with Jinks first). He would sometimes have to pee middle of the night, but that's okay. If he whines/howls like he's gotta pee, take him out for a few minutes, and then bring him right back in to his crate. When they gotta go they gotta go!

What the crate also allows, besides the very important safety aspect, is that you get to supervise all behaviors and nip anything undesirable in the butt toot suite. If your dog is loose and you are away and they are practicing barking at people as they pass by the house, or guarding toys from another dog, or chewing something they shouldn't, you can't step in and intervene to redirect to what they should be doing instead. It's very easy to have bad behaviors start because a dog has too much freedom. The isn't due to lack of training on the people's part, it's due to behaviors being reinforced by the dog themselves.

Think of it this way: would you leave your 3 year old home alone without a babysitter? No. You wouldn't leave them alone in a crib either (but that would be safer!), but the principal is the same.

This is a baby who needs supervision when they are out. Even someone who is home most of the day will go through moments where they have a long telephone conversation with someone, or they take a long shower, or perhaps they want to have a romantic supper and don't want to worry about the puppy while they have a drink or two, etc, etc. All good moments to put pup in a crate with a tasty goodie. Think of it as kind of like sitting your kid in front of the TV, but with more educational results.

Goodie in crate -AWESOME-. Instead of "Oh, mum's occupied, let's pull all the toilet paper off the roll" Oh that's awesome! In this way, you get to decide what's so awesome. I had a client at the daycare ask me how to stop their dog begging at the table. I said "go throw something in his crate and close it for the hour. Do it for two weeks, the same thing every night."

She said by the end of the fourth night, when supper landed on the table instead of having a begging 9 month old puppy, the puppy instead ran right to it's crate, expecting something yummy. So mum's gotten into the habit of him having his "supper time chew" when they have supper. They're tired after a long day and don't have the energy level to direct towards maintaining a distance control or set of behaviors -and dad has previously rewarded at the table, which makes it hard to make it an area that doesn't include reinforcement. After a long day I'm sure very, very few of us do! By the end of the two weeks, the pup would go to bed with his chewie treat for an hour, and would wait in the crate with an open door until his parents were done supper. Something so simple, because of good crate-training.

Another example: You have people over to fix your plumbing. If you're like me and have a puppy going through fear stage, or you have a jumpy puppy, or a puppy that is barking at strangers/shy, etc, (IE: Anything that isn't the perfect gentlemanly puppy) you don't want to have to worry about dealing with the plumber, and focusing on the training with your pup. That's just stretching yourself too far and is in my opinion asking for trouble, either with your plumbing or with your puppy. So, easy solution. Before the plumber comes over, throw puppy in a crate for an hour. Deal with your plumbing. If they have a few minutes they can spare when they are finished, ask them if they'd like to meet your puppy. Then you can give 2-4 REALLY AWESOME training minutes to your dog, which is going to be way more beneficial to everyone than the hour that the plumbers are here, you trying to deal with your dog. Quality in attention is truly more important than quantity in attention. It is the quality that shapes the good behaviors in our dogs, whereas a quantity of freedom can undo them or even make simple problems worse. (I wouldn't want to know what Jinks was doing home alone if someone came to the door!!)

Scenario #3, A Real Life Circumstance
Fantastic movie is playing at the theater. Someone bought you a ticket. "Oh no, I can't leave my puppy at home for three hours." Maybe not right at eight weeks, but by 12 weeks or so, three hours isn't too long to ask for. You might not be able to see Lord of the Rings quite yet though.

If you haven't crate trained, you probably wouldn't go, you just can't trust the pup lose. You might be able to wrangle a friend, but it's Friday night, chances aren't good. But if you have a crate-trained pup, you find the biggest kong you can find and stuff it generously with peanut butter or cream cheese. If you have enough time in advance, you even freeze it. I LOVE freezing kongs with gravy inside them, or even cheaper -beef broth-. On the odd days Jinks now stays home for 8 hours, that's her chew of choice, and she's still a chewing when I get back. (With the fear stage, I find it hard to take her on busy days to the daycare, as I'm not as effectively able to intervene and redirect on every action. I need to, especially at this point, be her primary reinforcement, not daycare dogs!) 

So guess what? You might just be able to have a life! Yes, even with a puppy. And really, no adopter wants a dog to take up their WHOLE life as in, not able to really do anything because you have to watch the puppy (that's kind of why you get a baby right ;) ). So there may be naysayers, but to me, crate-training is just part of foster boot-camp here, with all pups and most young dogs. I believe, and feel free to leave a comment if there's anyone reading whose adopted pup I started on crate-training, that it's been of great benefit to new families.

Also, other points of good crate-training. Travel is much safer. Young dogs should really travel secure in cars. There's no way I'd be driving with the border collie in the back-seat, she'd make me crash I'm sure! Also, if you ever have to take your dog on an airplane, they'll need to ride in a crate. Hotels are usually much more accepting of dogs if they are crate-trained, as too are places to rent. One of the most important points besides safety though, is the fact that life is life, and sometimes we need to go away for a few hours. The dog that is crate-trained (even if it's just for night-time and a short nap period) is going to have a much easier time adjusting if you want to go to supper with your friends from college, or you get caught in traffic and are home a little later than usual, or even if someone is coming to visit you that doesn't really like dogs (though I wouldn't invite them over in the first place ;) ).

I find it in the pup's best interest, along with the adopter, that the pup has a basic understanding of crate-training and that the crate is a good place to be. Just like as a kid grows up, when a dog grows up (at least 1 year of age is my recommendation, though I think 2 is better -we get over the stupid teenage stage-) they gain privileges and freedoms and of course responsibility. They move from crib to captain's bed to single bed, from a crib in your room or nursery, to their own real room. 

So, even if you solely train your crate for bedtime, you will be doing your dog a huge favor in multiple ways. If you can list 10 different reasons NOT-CRATING AT ALL benefits your PUPPY in a typical home situation I'm all ears.

Until then please don't think of a crate as a jail-cell, think of it as a crib. Some adults dogs obviously don't need a crib anymore, but for babies, the crib is the safest place to be when they can't be directly supervised. Embrace the crate :)