Crate Training your puppy is imperative for so many reasons. It is the fastest method for housebreaking, it gives your puppy a space that is theirs, it gives you a break- you can not possibly supervise your puppy 24X7. You can feed your dog in the crate if you want, or just give them a treat when they go in. Never leave the collar on a puppy in a crate. Put the crate in a location that is out of the way but where the dog can see you. Another really great tool to use in conjunction with the crate, is an exercise pen. When the puppy is a bit bigger you can put the pen around their crate and if you are supervising them they can have a bigger space without being able to get into trouble by getting out of your sight.
It is very helpful with a young puppy to put the crate in your bedroom- this way you will hear when they need to go out and can easily get to them to take them. (no your young puppy is not going to make it 8 hours in their crate.) When I have a puppy I have two crates and an exercise pen in order to control things.
House Breaking with crate training:
1. Puppy is never unsupervised -this means puppy is always supervised.
a. Supervised means contained to a room always in your line of site- you can use gates, you can use a puppy playpen depends on size of dog- you can also leash dog to you- which works pretty well if you aren’t doing a lot of moving.
2. Puppy is on a schedule for everything
3. During the day the puppy can only be crated for maximum of 1 hour per month old they are- I do not recommend the dog ever spend more than 5 hours in a crate no matter how old they are! If you have to be gone longer get someone to come in and give it a break.
4. Never punish dog for accidents- however you can say bad dog in a firm unpleasant voice and then you will take the dog out – see instructions further below.
Overall design of schedule.
· Dog must go out immediately after it has been crated so first thing am obviously, but then any other time it is in crate for nap or whatever.
· Dog goes out 15 minutes after a meal
· Dog goes out if you have been having a play time
· If you know that it just had a drink – take it out in 15 minutes.
Download Instructions and a sample schedule for housebreaking:
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