I train my dogs to see ‘crating up’ as a positive experience and all willingly crate themselves readily. Tibbe loves his crate, sees it as his sanctuary and often sleeps in it, door open. I change the fur pad in it weekly so his crate is always fresh smelling. He often just spends time in it, takes any special treat he gets there to enjoy. If a large, wild, rambunctious dog or kid visits, he initially might observe it from his crate of his own volition as that is his ‘man cave’ to his thinking. Used an upbeat, happy voice when training him to love going into it, found his fav treats lying about in there, any new toy he might get is first put in there for him to ‘discover’. At the vet, recuperation or during emergencies, etc., dogs may need to spend time in a crate so loving it is important.
My body attitude, focused stare, loudly clapped hands and verbal reprimand are my tools for any misbehavior, not crating, as my dogs love spending time in their ‘den’, go willingly, knowing a treat has been placed in there beforehand
when they enter at my request. I first trained them to love, never dread, their crates, then used it for periods of confinement during crate training, along with confining to the same room I was in and always keeping them on a timed schedule for going outside, one they came to count on, treats and happy, genuine praise for going potty outside. After 18 months of this, any Yorkie is then clean in the house, prefers pottying outside in nature where they can leave scent messaging for other dogs and critters and willingly spend their own time in their crate. Tibbe will cross his legs to hold it to get to mark his outside territory, hating to waste his precious scent messages in the house.
__________________ Jeanie and Tibbe One must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. C. S. Lewis |