It’s Time To Crate Train Your Dog!

Crate training is a great way to help your dog through long-term confinement. Now long-term confinement doesn’t always mean a crate itself, it could be a room or a pen outside, or being in the car for a time. Crate training helps teach the dog that it can’t chew on everything and helps with potty training. The crate is to help the young canine feel safe and secure.

Time Lengths for crate training puppies:
8 weeks to 10 weeks – up to 1 hour
11 weeks to 12 weeks – up to 2 hours
13 weeks to 16 weeks – up to 3 hours
Over 4 months – up to 4 hours

Some think crate training is cruel and mean and this is not the case. If you let a dog loose in a house and they don’t know right from wrong, well the little one might just start going to the bathroom on your grandmother’s rug or chewing on your favorite coffee table’s leg. Then you put the dog in the crate, one the damage has been done and the dog has begun naughty habits, and two the dog has associated the crate as a bad thing.

Start the dog with the crate to begin and see what happens. Give them some toys to chew on and a bowl with water. Let them get used to you and the noises around it.

For a detail explanation and more information, check out the article on the SPCA website.
Or the article from the American Kennel Club.