Crate training is widely agreed by dog owners to be the best technique to house train a puppy. You certainly need a crate for puppy crate training. A crate basically looks like a cage. It is used to restrict the movement of your puppy to a specific area for a short period fo time, e.g. when you can’t fully monitor her. Your puppy should be in that crate at all times unless she’s eating, going for a potty break outside with you, or playing under supervision.

The crate serves as your puppy’s den, which is a place where your puppy feels safe and secure, and enjoying spending time in, whether she’s sleeping, napping, or simply needs to be alone. Because it’s a dog’s natural instinct not to soil her sleeping area, your puppy won’t want to dirty her own resting place, so she is likely to hold her poop and pee until she’s out of her crate.

How to select a crate?

Picking the right size of crate for your puppy is crucial. If the crate is oversized, it gives your puppy space to sleep at one corner, and do her business at the other corner. This then defeats the whole purpose of crate training your puppy, and will set back the house-training process for several weeks!

When picking a crate, ensure that the crate is big enough for your puppy to stand up, lie down and turn around without problem. But don’t worry, you don’t have to keep purchasing new crates as your puppy grows and increase in size. If you can buy just only one crate and use it until even your puppy gets bigger, you’ll save a lot of money in the long term.

Buy an adult-size wire crate and partition the inside space with dividers while your dog is a puppy. You can use a wire grille or board as divider. When your puppy needs a larger area as she increases in size, you can then slide the dividers back to adjust for more space. If you prefer to build the crate yourself, that’s a good idea, too. You can later replace it with a larger model when your puppy gets bigger.

Making the crate inviting

Try to make the crate as welcoming as possible to invite your puppy in. Try laying a couple of thick blankets or towels inside the crate, and place some toys and a chew inside. The door of the crate should be open at all times to appear welcoming. However, the door should be tightly closed when your puppy is inside.

Remember: before your puppy is fully house broken, you wouldn’t want to give her total freedom in the house to avoid soiling incidence. If you let her wander freely in the house before she’s fully house broken, you’re like ‘approving’ her to do her business anywhere she wants to. The more times your puppy does this, the easier for her to repeat it, the tougher to house train her.

Where to place the crate?

During crate training, you would want to keep your puppy’s crate close you. The most suitable place to put the crate is where the family members gather, for example the kitchen. Having the puppy crate near to you makes puppy house breaking easier for you, and at the same time helps to create the bond between you and your four-legged friend. Your puppy needs to feel that she’s a part of the family now, and that she’s not isolated from everyone.