Apr 30 2009
Crate Training Your Puppy
One of the most daunting tasks to new dog owners is how to house-train your new puppy. Whether or not your pup will live indoors full time, it is still a good idea to house train him from the beginning. There are times when you may need to bring your pup or dog inside and if they’re trained when they’re young that will make it much easier. So unless you are absolutely certain you will never need to bring your pup inside, house train them!
Our Golden Retriever is pretty much an outdoor dog now. She has a nice big yard to play in and plenty of sheltered spots to sleep in. She loves being outdoors and goes stir crazy when we try to keep her inside. But we live in an area where typhoons happen five or six times a year and she has to come inside during those. We also kept her indoors after she was spayed so we could keep an eye on her. Oh, and the kids sneak her inside every now and then too just because they want to!
When we bought our Retriever we also bought a wire dog crate at the same time. It was big enough for her to sleep in and turn around in without any problems–actually it was bigger than it needed to be at first, but she grew at a tremendous rate so the crate seemed a bit big at first. A dog normally won’t eliminate in the area it sleeps unless it’s left there for a very long time. Puppies won’t pee or poo in their crate either, its just instinct.
When we got home we spent time outside letting her do her ‘business’, then we brought her inside. Of course she ran around a bit and sniffed at everything, and jumped all over the kids. We let her play for a bit then when she was looking tired we popped her into her crate. She dozed off for a while. Immediately she awoke we took her out of the crate and marched her straight outside (we’d take her out on a leash so we could lead her to the ’spot’ we’d chosen for her to do her business and she wouldn’t run away from us). Once she did it, we praised her and took her back inside. We’d let her run around a bit inside immediately after she came in then we’d pop her back in her crate. We followed this pattern all through the first few days and surprisingly enough she left only one or two little puddles indoors.
Taking her outside to do her business, then praising her once she did, gave her very positive reinforcement that helped train her even more quickly.
Some tips or pointers to remember:
- Dogs won’t eliminiate in their crate unless they’re left there for a long time.
- Dogs love praise, so if you praise them everytime they do their business outdoors they’ll soon understand what they’re supposed to do.
- Young puppies need to be taken outside at least every 2 hours during the daytime, they can’t hold it longer than that.
- Puppies usually need to poo about 20 minutes after they eat. You feed puppies usually three meals a day at first–so remember to take them outside pretty soon after they’ve eaten.
- Don’t let puppy see you cleaning up after them if they do happen to make a mess inside.
- If you catch your puppy ‘going’ inside, scold them sternly, and pick them up and take them outside right away to the spot they usually go.
- Don’t rub your pup’s nose in it, if he makes a mess inside. It doesn’t help at all.
I’d say within a couple of weeks our Retriever was totally house-trained to the point that she’d go to the door when she needed to go. We were soon able to let her roam around the house whenever we were there to watch her and we’d only pop her into the crate when we needed to leave her for a time. We also had her sleep in her crate at night as we didn’t want her wandering around the house wreaking havoc while we were sleeping.
She soon outgrew her crate but by that time she was totally house trained. It’s such a relief to know that she is and that we don’t have to worry that there will be accidents when we leave her inside.
