Commonly, you have to struggle a lot when trying to make your dogs feel familiar with their crates. Yet what to do if crate training doesn’t work?
If you have the same worry, our post is for you. Keep scrolling down for further information!
What To Do If Crate Training Doesn’t Work?
In case of crate training not working, you can apply some effective methods below, like playing with your puppy more, supervising and limiting the space, bringing him outside or using praise.
Play With Your Dog More
In many situations, the crate is a nightmare to numerous dogs, as they feel abandoned and detested by their owners. They will show aggressive behaviors when being enclosed in cages.
How to get a dog to like their crate?
If you want to succeed, you must eradicate your puppy’s fear by brushing, feeding, playing or cuddling with it more to gradually build its positive association with crates.
Supervise And Limit The Space
When crate training isn’t working, you should narrow down your dog’s area until the space is equivalent to a crate.
For instance, if you decide to place a chain-link kennel in the kitchen, you must allow your dog to be fed, play, and pee only in the restricted area.
The reason is that a swift transition from a spacious area to the confined one could shock your puppy and heighten its crate aversion.
Bring Your Dog Outside
As we have mentioned, some dogs are scared of crate training because they feel their owners abandon them.
Therefore, when your dog is not acquainted with the cage at first, you should usually bring it outside after eating or before bathroom potty breaks to show your concern.
Ensure that you only take it outside for a short period of time, between five and ten minutes.
Use Praise And Show Your Love
How to crate train a puppy who hates the crate?
To reinforce your love towards your puppy and facilitate the crate training, praising it from time to time is advisable.
Some people regard it as a spiritual approach, helping your dog feel your affection through words of encouragement.
What Are Some Problems During The Crate Training?
Following are numerous problems you might face.
My New Puppy Doesn’t Like Crate
It is common that your dog easily panics and displays some violent conduct, such as screeching, crying nonstop, scratching the cage’s door, etc. Everything seems to turn into frantic chaos!
How to get a puppy to like his crate? You are advised to play with your puppy more as a way of relieving its severe panic attack.
Relentlessly Whining Or Barking
This situation often arises when your dog has just left its mom or siblings. It must encounter loneliness and consequently feel frightened of being put into an enclosure.
These unwanted behaviors not only indicate the following violence but also wreak havoc on its mentality.
It would be best to stop forcing it into the cage and let your dog reunite with its family.
Placement Of The Crate
The crate’s placement plays an important role in the crate training process. This is because many, which are placed in a crate, are isolated from their pet parents.
As presented above, numerous dangers and negative impacts may stem from this happening.
Accordingly, you’d better place a crate close enough to your dog’s family members to increase the success rate.
Ruining Household Appliances
The practice is often rooted in your puppy’s extreme emotions, namely true separation anxiety or anger when staying in a completely different environment.
You can avoid this potential issue by putting the cage far from expensive items or in an empty room.
A Crate Is Not An Ideal Storage Device
During the training procedure, many people leave their puppies in cages all day without bringing them outside.
This act is quite dangerous, as dogs must spend some time running or playing with the purpose of boosting their immune system and overall health.
If the problem persists, there is a high chance that they could get sick soon and even die.
Putting Technology To Work
Many people want to keep track of their dogs when they are not at home or their puppies show signs of health problems at the first stage of the training.
Simply, they want to keep this duration as an unforgettable memory and watch it later.
To do so, they can apply technology by setting up a small security camera equipped with a microphone in front of a crate to follow every movement of their little puppies.
What Should You Do And Avoid During The Crate Training?
What You Should Do
- It is strongly recommended that you opt for a wire crate with a tray at the bottom. You find it easier to clean and give your puppies more space.
- Choose a cage whose size is suitable for your dog. If not, it might feel quite stifled and uncomfortable.
- Place soft and cozy bedding inside the cage.
- The position of the cage is of paramount importance. You must place the cage near your dog’s family and in the quietest and warmest corner of your house.
- Keep the crate interesting by providing puzzle toys, exercise pens, food treats, or chew toys to enhance its mood when staying inside.
- Pay attention to some signs, such as dog barking and wagging tail. Your puppy may feel happy and want to escape its crate to play with you.
- Give your puppy some physical exercises for 10-20 minutes, such as a twenty-minute nosework session.
What You Should Not Do
- Don’t force your puppy into the crate at all costs if it is not ready.
- Don’t fasten the crate training, as it only makes your puppy scared and hesitant.
- Avoid confining your canine for a long time. You can prolong this caging span until it is familiar with the crate.
- At first, when your pet barks or whines loudly, let him out of the crate to avert aggressive behaviors later. Over periods of time, this practice should be stopped. Otherwise, your puppy might assume that noise-making will help it escape out of the cage.
- It is inadvisable to place housetraining pads or newspapers inside the cage. These materials would likely encourage your fluffy friend to escape outside, contrasting with your initial intention.
- Don’t rely too much on the crate. It is just an effective tool, helping you manage your puppy easily and efficiently instead of a confined container.
- Don’t let him know about your arrivals and departures. All you need to do is ignore your dog for about a couple of minutes before you actually leave.
- You shouldn’t share food dishes, such as canned food or cinnamon bread with your puppy, which is not good for its health to some extent, especially during crate training.
How Much Time Do You Spend Crate-Training Your Puppy?
The answer varies wildly, depending on your dog’s personality and the crate’s conditions. Some people only need a week or a month to tame and alleviate their dogs’ crate aversion.
However, many dog breeds seem fragile, or their personality traits develop in an introverted manner. You may meet more difficulties before accomplishing the training task.
The Bottom Line
After this article, you will have a precise answer to the question: What to do if crate training doesn’t work?
Hopefully, knowledge about potential problems and the time required for the training may assist you a lot.
Thanks for your support, and have a good day!
