# New Dog, Crate Training



## Judi (Feb 26, 2007)

Don't give up!
Encourage her to get into the crate by tossing treats in.
When she goes, in, praise her and close the door.
The beginning will be the hardest but after a while, if you are firm and ignore her noises, there is a good chance that she will calm down. Reptition over a period of time is important and most definitly, you need to be consistent in order not to send mixed messages. Good luck.
Also, do you have a closed top of your garbage?


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## Jupiter's Human (Aug 22, 2009)

Start playing games with the crate to make good associations with the crate. Throw treats into the crate and then praise her when she goes in to get them. Then, when she is going into the crate for good, use a really high-value treat like a piece of turkey or a Kong filled with really good stuff. You want your dog to run, not walk, into the crate, and it will take time to make positive associations but it will pay off in the long run. Good luck!


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## Judi (Feb 26, 2007)

Isn't that pretty much what I just said?


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## acupofteha (Jun 28, 2010)

Yes, we do have a closed top garbage, apparently she is able to open them, (I haven't seen this yet, shes been pretty good with it so far) 
We tried to play games and threw her treats in there last night but she didn't want anything to do with it. I am going to have to work on this today, by playing alot of games involving her crate.


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## mdoats (Jun 7, 2007)

Judi said:


> Isn't that pretty much what I just said?


Since you both posted at the *exact same time*, it's unlikely she saw your post before posting his/her own reply.


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## mdoats (Jun 7, 2007)

acupofteha said:


> She will not go into the crate, and when we do get her in after alot of encouragement she is fine for about 15 minutes and then she will scratch, whimper, and then bark. We had the crate in the same room as us last night to hopefully help this anxiety, and we ended up having to take her out so that we could sleep.


Unfortunately, this just reinforces her behavior. If you let her out when she has been barking, what she learns is that if she barks, she gets out. If you let her out after she has been barking, whining, crying for a really long time, what she learns is she has to bark, whine, and cry for a really long time to get what she wants. It can become a vicious circle.

As hard as it is, sometimes you just have to ride out the temper tantrums. Definitely throw treats in there during the day as suggested. Put her in there when she is completely exhausted. If she's been good in the crate for 15 minutes, put her in there for 14 minutes during the day and let her out while she's still calm.

The key thing is, you need to only let her out of the crate when she's calm. Not when she's having a temper tantrum. I know it's not easy. I had a few very rough nights with Rookie when he was a puppy before he learned to deal with the crate. 

Rookie never really learned to love his crate. I had to lead him to his crate every time, but he was and is always very calm in his crate and he sleeps peacefully.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

When I got Ranger, he'd only been in the crate for about a week. His foster mom said he sometimes didn't like going in it...sure enough, the first time I tried to put him in it, he slammed on the brakes. I looked at it from his point of view; everytime he had gone in there for the last week, he'd been shut up and left in there for 8 hours a day.

So, I started doing the "toss treats in kennel" everytime I walked past it during the day. Sometimes I'd put a jackpot of stinky treats in there when he wasn't around so he'd go in there on his own and discover the jackpot. I spent a week doing this before using a command "get in". I'd say "get in" while tossing a cookie and he'd run in. By the end of the week, I'd toss cookies, close the door, then feed him cookies through the door, the open it again. 

Pretty soon, he was running into his kennel on his own and I'd give him a cookie for it. Eventually, the day came when I had to actually leave him in the kennel (I made sure to walk him for an hour beforehand). I had a frozen kong and a handful of treats. He raced into his kennel, I gave him cookies and the kong and left him. 

I was just upstairs and about two hours in, he started doing high pitched yelps. I ignored him and went downstairs an hour later and he was snoozing happily. Since he was calm, I opened the door and let him out. Up until the day I got rid of his kennel, he loved it. People were so amazed when they came over and saw how quickly he'd kennel up without a command. All I had to do was go to the freezer and take out a kong, and he'd tear into his kennel and wait patiently. He certainly didn't care I was leaving him when he had a kong!

It was so funny the day I moved his kennel into the storage room. I pulled out a kong and he ran to where his kennel used to be and looked so confused! He was running in circles, wondering where he needed to be in order to get his kong. He finally decided on his bed, but was wagging his tail pretty unsurely. Sooo funny.

ETA: Make sure you're calm when you put your dog IN the kennel and take her out. She needs to be calm before entering and leaving, and too often people have a "party" when they finally let the dog out or feel bad when they're putting the dog in. I'd always get everything I needed before leaving and lights off before I put Ranger in his kennel so I wasn't wandering around with him in it. He went in, I left. When I got home, I'd let him out right away without saying a word to him or petting him for the next few minutes so he realized it wasn't a big deal.


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## acupofteha (Jun 28, 2010)

Thank you for the suggestions.. I'm trying, I'm trying to be patient and calm. She doesn't want to have anything to do with it.. I put treats in, her Kong, her food, stuffed kong. taken her out for walks then tried getting her in.. threw her toys in. She will put her paws in and then try to paw the toy out. She was never crated before, she was put outside on a chain when the owners went out, and has a bad past. I am begining to wonder if a crate was part of her past too. How do you not give in to the temper tantrums? I have neighbors and don't want them to get upset hearing the dog bark, we were told she was crate trained when we were looking at her but when we got her we found out that it wasn't crate training she had it was Chain training.


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## firedancer722 (Apr 12, 2010)

I had to crate train Charlie after he started destroying things while i was at work. I started out by setting up the crate in the living room (the highest traffic area) of the house. If you need her to sleep in it at night, then you might need to get two (one for the bedroom and one for a high traffic room). At first, Charlie would not even go near the crate, but the magic bullet was to put his food bowl in the crate at meal times. he would go in and eat and i would praise him saying "good kennel" several times while he was eating. I never shut the door for the first week or so. It got to where he would go in to eat, he would go in after treats, and he would go in for toys if I threw them in. After a week of this, I started feeding him and closing the door while he was being fed. Then, after his meal, I would let him stay there with the door closed for about 3 minutes. All the while, praising him saying "good Kennel, good boy." Every time I fed him, I would increase the amount of time afterward that I would leave him in the crate with the door closed. I never left the room with him in the crate until about 4 days after I started shutting the door. By about day 10, I would pour the food into his bowl and he would run into his crate and wait. I praised him lavishly for this and put his food down in the crate, shut the door, and walked into the kitchen (where he couldn't see me). I gradually increased the amount of time I was out of his sight, and even though he only whined a few times, I NEVER gave him any attention if he whined. I waited until he was calmly resting in the crate, then I would praise and give a treat and open the door. This process continued until he was staying in the crate, door closed, for up to 6 hours while I'm gone. Little by little, it just worked. And now, if I have a treat and say "kennel up", he runs into the crate and waits for his treat. Then I shut the door and he is fine. My trainer told me the best and most painless way to crate train a dog is to do it SLOWLY and to only praise positive behaviors and ignore negative behaviors compeletely. I may have been lucky with Charlie... he was very easy to crate train, but it did take patience and about 3 weeks before I could leave him in it and go to work for the day. 

GOOD LUCK!!


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## acupofteha (Jun 28, 2010)

Just wanted to update everyone on Baileys progress, so yesterday she'd hardly go in the crate, so today i took a new approach to it all. I threw a handful of treats in there, made sure they were at the very back of the crate. She ACTUALLY went in to get them, as she was in there I was praising her, the same way I praise her at other times when she does something I want.. shes gone in a few times since looking for more treats, I will have to sneak some in there when shes not watching just so she can find them. Hopefully soon I will be able to close the door.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Great work!! It took Ranger awhile before he trusted me enough to NOT lock him in after he went in there. He knew there were treats, but he'd look at me very suspiciously. Spend another week or two of tossing/hiding treats in there and she'll start to associate it with fun stuff!


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## dogbite-expert (Jul 6, 2010)

*make the crate great*

Hi,

I have been a trainer for 32 years and this always works.

Use a leash if you have to to get your dog in the crate. He may fight a little
but don't worry about that. Leave the crate door open so he can come out
any time he wants.

The trick is to praise him like crazy from the moment he enters the crate
and stop the moment he chooses to leave the crate. Do this over and over.
You will find that once he knows he can leave anytime and that the praise
stops when he leaves, he will start to like being in it and stay longer and longer each time.

Ron http://www.dogbite-expert.com


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## acupofteha (Jun 28, 2010)

So here's my update, I have stopped hiding treats in her crate, she now will walk in there just to explore. We've been able to Lock the door and go out successfully only for an hour at a time, when we come back shes sleeping quietly! I make sure to take her outside for a pee, and play with her ball, mainly its here running around me with the ball in her mouth but she enjoys it. In order to get her in the crate I just gently lead her in, and she goes in without a problem. I am glad to see how far shes come in just under 2 weeks.


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## dogbite-expert (Jul 6, 2010)

*getting used to being in the crate*

Several posts here are correct. If you open the door and let her out
when she barks, scratches or whatever...you are actually rewarding that behavior and what is rewarded will continue.

Start putting her in long before you have to go to bed..maybe while you watch 
TV early in the evening so she won't be keeping you up.

You have to be in it to win it. If you wait her out, she will tire and give up.
When that happens she will deal with her anxiety by going to sleep.

http://www.dogbite-expert.com


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## Laurag29 (Oct 5, 2010)

acupofteha said:


> So here's my update, I have stopped hiding treats in her crate, she now will walk in there just to explore. We've been able to Lock the door and go out successfully only for an hour at a time, when we come back shes sleeping quietly! I make sure to take her outside for a pee, and play with her ball, mainly its here running around me with the ball in her mouth but she enjoys it. In order to get her in the crate I just gently lead her in, and she goes in without a problem. I am glad to see how far shes come in just under 2 weeks.


Hi! I'm glad you are having such success - thank you for the post, there are a lot of great suggestions. I just adopted a rescue golden a week ago and she does not want to go back in the crate. Was going to have her sleep in it, but she's actually doing really well at sleeping on her bed (not on mine) through the night. Need to get her accustomed though to stay in it while I am away at work. I've taken the door off and started throwing treats in, which she will go in and eat, but never lets her back legs all the way in. The crate is huge and she is just 40 pounds, so not sure how I am going to be able to shut the door. Going to start feeding her in there and lavishing on the praise. 

Has anyone tried the collapsible crates? I can bring her to work with me for another two weeks but can't imagine hauling the huge home crate back and forth everyday. 

Thanks for any input :wavey:


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

personally I would not invest in a fabric, collapsible type crate until she is relaxed in her stronger crate...zippers and the fabric itself are EASILY chewed...and some dogs learn how to 'walk/roll' the crate with themselves inside...


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

when you say huge...how huge?
A smaller crate 24x36 (or even smaller for a 40 lb dog) may actually be more comforting than a larger crate.....


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## Laurag29 (Oct 5, 2010)

LibertyME said:


> when you say huge...how huge?
> A smaller crate 24x36 (or even smaller for a 40 lb dog) may actually be more comforting than a larger crate.....


Wow, well those are the measurements of this crate 24 X 36 and 32 tall. It just seems so large, but I guess there are bigger? Thanks for your input on the mesh type, that makes sense. Maybe I will just invest in another one and work on her training at home and office for the next couple of weeks until she gets more comfortable. I did see her going into the crate looking for more treats this afternoon on her own, so I think that's a good sign.


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