Building Love for the Crate

GDB puppies are first introduced to a crate during their time in the Puppy Center, but the crate in your home will be different and new! Take things slowly to build a strong positive foundation so the crate will become a comfortable space for the puppy and a tool for management and safety. It can also become a portable home away from home! When puppies go on their first overnight adventures, it can be soothing to have their familiar crate to sleep in at night. Imagine being able to bring your bed with you on vacation!

As you work on introducing the puppy to settling in the crate, reach out if the puppy has trouble with any of these steps, or is unable to progress!

What You’ll Need

• Crate, with cozy bedding
• Kibble in your bait bag

Before we leave a puppy in the crate, we want to build strong positive feelings around being in the crate. Food and verbal encouragement are great ways to do this! For the first introduction, drop a couple pieces of kibble into the crate and allow the puppy to find the food. Celebrate their curiosity and cleverness when they do! If the puppy isn’t adventurous enough to go all the way to the back to eat the kibbles at first, put a couple closer to the entrance to start, and gradually toss them further towards the back.

Here’s a Tip!
If the puppy seems a little unenthusiastic about the crate, try these!

• Mix up the food you’re using! Try something higher value like chicken or tiny pieces of cheese.
• Secretly put a couple pieces of food in the crate without the puppy seeing so they can be pleasantly surprised to find food inside once they’ve gone in.
• Allow a puppy to see the food “out of reach” in a closed crate that they won’t be able to get until you help open the crate and let them inside. Oh, the suspense!

Sometimes, these can help build a little more excitement around the crate than simply luring with kibble – try it out and see what your puppy thinks! Don’t forget to encourage the pup’s efforts and celebrate little wins!

Once the puppy is readily going into the crate, you can offer them more kibble for staying in the crate. Work up to shutting the door for just a few seconds, then latching it, and stepping away for a moment. As you do this, use a happy voice and food rewards so the puppy continues to have a great time while in the crate.

Most puppies will start anticipating food inside the crate and hop in on their own, even before you’ve put kibble inside! At that point, you can start using the cue “Kennel!” and no longer have to toss kibble before they go into the crate each time. Be sure to keep rewarding the pup once they’re inside! If the puppy doesn’t seem eager to enter the crate on their own, reach out for support!

Once the puppy is comfortable with the crate door being shut and you stepping away for just a moment, you can increase the time you’re not right next to the puppy.

What You’ll Need

• Crate with cozy bedding
• Chew toy or two to leave in the crate
• Stuffed Kong
• Kibble in your bait bag
• Sleepy puppy who is not hungry, thirsty, or needing to potty
• Calm and quiet home

Here’s a Tip!
It’s best to introduce this once the puppy has some practice settling on their own in the YES space and has been introduced to a stuffed Kong.

Start by sitting next to the puppy until they’ve settled and place the stuffed Kong in the crate as you stand up to leave. Slowly work up to moving further and further away. You can also pretend to be busy (e.g. tidying up, folding laundry, etc.). As the puppy continues to stay settled, you can try practicing when the home is slightly busier and different times of day. Eventually, you’ll want to work up to not needing a stuffed Kong.

Keep these first few sessions short and sweet. If the puppy barks or whines, wait a few seconds and they’ll likely quiet down on their own. As much as possible, only come back to reward or release the pup when they’re calm and quiet. If the puppy isn’t able to self-soothe, end the session and start at an easier step next time.

Once you’ve started working on Just a Moment: Teaching “Wait” and “OK!” add those skills too! We don’t want puppies energetically bursting out of crates as soon as the door is unlatched, so take some time to reward polite waiting as you open the door until you say “OK” and encourage them to come out.