House-training your dog and setting up a crate

House Training

I cannot tell you how many times people have adopted dogs from the local animal shelter, only to return them the next day for wrecking the kitchen or chewing up an entire couch!  This is not the dog’s fault!  The adopters harbored unreasonable expectations and lacked preparation and supervision.  The loss of furnishings could have been easily been prevented with the use of a crate.  The crate should be sized big enough that the dog can stand up on all fours comfortably, turn around, and lie down stretched out at full length.  For house-training purposes, it should be no larger.  If you have a puppy, you can buy a crate that will fit the dog when full grown.  Some brands of crates come with dividers that you can use to resize the crate to fit the puppy as it grows.  If you don’t have one of these brands, you might have to improvise by stuffing a cardboard box into the crate to take up the extra space; you can adjust the size of the box as the puppy grows.  Dogs are naturally clean and do not like to soil where they eat or sleep, so the proper sizing of the crate helps Fido learn to relieve himself outside.  Too small a crate, and the dog will be uncomfortable.  Too large a crate, and he will be perfectly comfortable soiling one corner and living in the other, so plan accordingly.

Setting Up the Crate

The crate should be a safe place, a comfortable den for the dog, if you will.  It should not generally be used for punishment.  You might want to put a towel, blanket, or dog-bed in the crate for your dog’s comfort, or some old clothes with your scent on it.  Don’t put anything in there that the dog can’t have or that the dog can easily tear up and/or choke on.  For a puppy or dog that is not yet housetrained, you may want to supply newspaper for bedding instead (for bedding, not potty, purposes!)  I supply the crated dog with water by providing a flat-sided, stainless steel pail hooked to the side or door of the crate with a carabiner-style clip.  This provides the crated dog with fresh drinking water while minimizing the possibility of spills.  The crate is also a good place for you to put the dog’s chew-toys, provided you are there to supervise. Further details are in the next post.

When to give a crate-trained dog more freedom

Reducing the Use of a Crate

Some owners are perfectly comfortable crating their adult dogs all day while they are at work and all night while they sleep, for the entire life of the dog.  In my eyes this is unfortunate and probably unnecessary for most dogs.  Other owners prefer to give their dogs more freedom.  The latter is fine, provided that the dog has gradually earned your trust.  How long it takes the dog to no longer need a crate depends on the dog and the breed.  Some retrievers and working breeds, such as Australian Shepherds, don’t really start to mellow out until two-and-a-half to three years of age.  Puppies that are still teething are definitely best crated unless supervised.  Teething usually starts at about four months and is over (or at least the worst of it is) by the end of six months of age.  

The general idea is to provide constant supervision whenever the dog is not crated, and then to gradually allow more freedom as the dog has gained your trust and follows the household rules.  Once you are sure the dog prefers his chew-toys and will not destroy your furniture, even when you are out of sight, and once he is eliminating outside without accidents, you might want to try giving him his freedom at night or while he is napping, as long as you are at home.  Presumably he will be on his best behavior while he is sleeping!  Gradually lengthen the other times he is allowed alone outside the crate, until he is rarely using it at all.  If there is a problem, blame yourself for trusting him too soon, and increase the level of crating/supervision until the dog is more reliable.  Even after your dog has grown up, you may still want to hang onto the crate to use when you are traveling or for the first few days after you move into a new home.