Crate Training..HELPPPPPPP
 

Ok - I have dogs most of my life...but they were more the types of dogs that were more self maintained, etc. I have my lovely Killer as you are all aware of (btw he has had me extremely busy the past month hence why I havent been on much), and lately because he has had some upsetting experiences with the vet and the groomer. I have never been a fan of crates or crages when it comes to animals but because my pup is stressed and now in a total emotional fit - I went and purchased one. Any tips or thoughts about crate size, what to leave in/out of the crate, and things of that nature?
I am desperate to make sure that I am making the right decisions with this little guy. He can be quite spiteful. Cute but spiteful.

Follow-up...he likes the crate but has not an iota of a clue that its for him. He likes it when he is outside of it. but inside...not so much.
Its only the first day we have had and we have not a clue how to ween him into it.

I am a newbie, just so you are warned! ;)

We crate trained a stray for 3 weeks until we found a home for her and now we have been crate training Penny for about 3 weeks too.

You want to have a crate that is just big enough for them to turn around and lay down. If they have too much room in there, they will feel comfortable doing "business" because they can still get away from it and lay down.

To get them used to the crate, throw a favorite treat in there for them to eat a few times a day. Also, put their food bowl in there when you feed him. Put it way at the back of the crate so he has to go all the way inside to eat.

After a day or two of all this, then you can close the door on him when he goes in to eat. :D Do NOT open the door when he whines. Only open the door when he is quiet. Some people throw a treat in as soon as they are not making noise, so that the dog is eating the treat when they open the door for them to come out.

Now that I have written all of the above, I have to confess that we did all of this in one day for both dogs because they HAD to sleep in the cage the first night we brought them home. :p

Both dogs acted like we were harming them for about 15 minutes, but got over it. After being locked up off and on all day long, it wasn't such a surprise when we shut the door at night after throwing in a treat.

Penny grabbed the bars on the kennel the first 3 nights and pulled on the door for about 15 - 20 minutes frantically. It was soooo pitiful that we almost gave in. Now she goes in the crate during the day to nap and could care less that we shut the door at night. :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that you have to feed and water them on a schedule so that you know when to let them out to do business. It depends on the age of the dog on how often you feed them.

We would keep her in her crate for about 20 minutes after she eats and that way when we let her out we can watch her for about 20 - 30 minutes closely to make sure she went on her pad. She was a bugger the first week, we never could figure out when she would go, but she started going within 20 - 30 minutes after eating and drinking eventually.

We feed Penny, almost 8 months old, twice a day. We put up the water dish around 7:30pm so that she will be on "empty" at 11pm and sleep through the night. We let her out around 7am and after she runs around the room like lightening for about 3 minutes, she goes and does business.

I will have to try that out. The thing with the food is that he is self maintained on when he wants to eat. He figured that out right away. Should I just leave the food and water in there then? At least that way he will have no choice to meander in and out of the crate.

Hee hee, you were writing while I was writing! :D

So just to be clear, we only put food and water in the crate twice a day. Once they get out after eating, we put the food and water up. We put in a plastic place mat under the food and water bowl to make cleaning up the crate after meals easier. ;)

At night and during the day, we have an old towel in the crate. Someday we will purchase a pad for the crate or make one.