Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Importance Of Crate Training Puppies

By Tim Bell

While convenient for us to have our dogs trained to the crate, it can also be beneficial for them. This can provide your pet with a special place that they can call their own when they need privacy and it can also be used as their place to sleep. Crate training puppies can be easy as long as you are willing to be dedicated and consistent.

Assisting younger dogs to learn to control their own bowels and bladder is much easier when using a kennel. Plan on having several accidents, but quite possible to begin with dogs as young as seven weeks. Remember that using the crate is to benefit the dog and provide them with a safe and secure place; they cannot spend the majority of their day in it. It needs to become a place that they want to go instead of one that they come to dread.

Many people like to encourage them to the kennel with the use of treats, but if it is to be a sort of sanctuary the introduction of food may not be the best idea. The best results in the past have been to allow only their favorite toy and a pillow for them to sleep with. These items tend to make it feel more special to them and less likely to want to use the bathroom here.

After a round of play they usually need a nap and this is the time to take them out for a bathroom break before placing them inside the kennel to go to sleep. Cover the kennel floor with soft sleeping materials. For very young dogs it is probably best to use towels that can be bleached and washed often.

Dogs do not like to use the bathroom where they sleep or eat. Puppies have very little to no control when they are very young and they must be watched carefully. They will provide indication of needing to go either by a squatting motion or by voicing discomfort to you. Immediately acknowledge by removing them and taking them to the grass.

This may be a very immediate and difficult process during the night and for the first couple of weeks, but at approximately ten weeks old young dogs begin to really catch on. Not only should this be done when they are in their kennel, but any time they perform this behavior in the home and they will quickly learn to go out.

At night, taking them out on a two-hour schedule is probably appropriate. If they demand more attention than that, they may be lonely and it is important not to give in to the problem. Learning to sleep alone is important to their development and will make them a much happier and confident pet and the time will come when they will learn to love their kennel.

If there is no choice other than kenneling them for meals, then take the food away after allowing them time to eat. They will need to use the bathroom about thirty minutes following their feeding when it involves puppies between ten weeks and as old as six months. Allowing them constant food is not a good idea for their health or while training.

As the young dogs grow older and with your help, they will have much more control over their bodily functions. From crate training puppies, they gradually learn to hold it at night until you take them outside so that they do not soil their bed. It will also become important to them not to soil the home they live in and this will certainly make you happy.

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