Choosing the Right Crate for Your Dog
By nature, dogs are pack animals that live in dens. They take comfort in having their own secure area. You may have already observed your puppy finding a secure spot under a chair or bed. Offering your dog its own crate meets its instinctive needs and allows you some control in your housebreaking efforts.
Crate Selection
The first thing to do is decide on a crate. The crate or carrier should be big enough for your puppy to turn around and lay down. Giving your dog too much space allows it the option of soiling half its crate and still having an unsoiled area to lay down and rest.
Crates are made of a variety of materials. Those made of molded plastic are easy to clean, are draft-free, and have limited visibility. I have always used a wire crate. Wire crates provide a better view if car travel is frequent, but the crate may need to be covered to make it more den-like.
To get you started on your selection, we’ve provided information on current selections on e-bay.
Dog Crates
Crate Cleaning
If the crate is too large for the puppy, use a divider to make the area only large enough that he can stand up and turn around. Some crates even come with a divider so the crate can grow with the puppy. As puppy grows, you can move the divider to one side as you need to.
Our crate had a bottom tray that pulled out and could be cleaned and slid back in with little fuss.
Originally posted 2009-02-01 21:34:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
House-training your Puppy
It would be great if puppies came to us knowing all there was to know. Unfortunately one of the things they don’t already know is where to go to the bathroom. This article details how new owners can housetrain puppy.
Dogs are creatures of habit. Provide a routine makes them comfortable. It also makes housetraining easier to learn when things are done in the same way and at the same time everyday.
Puppies need to go to the bathroom more often when they are young. They still need time to grow into their bodies. So, how do you know how often to take puppy to the potty? Simply, take puppy’s age and add one. This equals the number of hours that puppy can wait before needing to visit the “little puppy’s room”.
Set feeding times when you can be home to take puppy to the bathroom. The hard part will be to maintain the same schedule on the weekends. You may be tempted to sleep in, but for the sake of puppy and the various corners of your home, keep to the status quo.
Offer puppy praise and discipline when he deserves it. When it is time to go outside, lead puppy to the area that you have designated as his bathroom. Be patient while he does his business. Think up a command to use each time he goes to the bathroom. Afterwards, praise him for doing well.
Do this as many times a day as you need to in order for puppy to remember the spot. This includes using the same route to reach the back yard. Keeping everything the same will help speed up the process and make it easier for puppy to learn. Be patient with puppy as he learns this all new routine.
Puppy will make mistakes. If he is nervous or afraid, this can lead to his using the bathroom in the house where he is not supposed to go. Yelling at puppy will only make the situation worse. Rubbing his nose in his mess, besides being gross, is no way to discipline puppy.
Wait until puppy is somewhere else in the room and then clean up his mistake. Continue with your housetraining routine as before. Cleaning up all of the mess keeps puppy from coming back to that spot later. He is little, but he will learn.
Watch for tell-tale signs that puppy is ready to go to the bathroom. He may whine, scratch at the floor or the door, or wiggle. Don’t trust puppy to make it outside by himself. If he starts to go in the house, scoot him outside quickly to the bathroom area so he can finish.
Housetraining puppy can be trying at times and patience is a virtue in this case. As you continue with the routine, your hard work will pay off with a well trained puppy.
