I have recently had the pleasure of fostering 2 adorable, affectionate, and very smart Pit/Husky mix puppies from the same litter, one male (Rolly) and one female (Penny).
I want to describe the 2 different experiences and outline the benefits of crate training from Day 1 and the problems that can arise if you don’t. And what I mean by Day 1 is the day puppies are really supposed to go home which is at 8 weeks old.
We picked up Rolly at 8 weeks old and the first thing we did when we brought him into our house for the first time, was introduce him to his crate. We put a soft blanket in there and a few toys for him to make it as comfortable as possible.
We introduced him to his crate by giving him the “kennel up” command and gave him treats for going in. Also, we didn’t let him out of the crate until he was told “free”.
Rolly was a true Alpha. He played hard from the minute he came to our house and crashed just as hard, and he had no fear of my 3-year-old 100-pound German Shepherd. We put him in his crate for all naps and he loved his crate. He napped as long as 2 hours at a time and had 3-4 naps during the day on a somewhat regular schedule. Within a few nights he was sleeping through the night.
About a week after Rolly went to his forever home, we picked up his 13-week-old sister Penny to foster. She wasn’t as fearless as Rolly and was considerably more mellow. She had spent a little over a month at another foster home where all her other siblings were as well. God bless this woman and thank you to all the fosters and rescuers out there. You guys are doing a great thing!
I brought her into our house for the first time and immediately introduced her to her create. That afternoon, she fell asleep on the floor after playing with Magnum, and I brought her up to her crate for her first nap. She started wailing as soon as I closed the door. I then took Magnum out for his walk and could hear her wailing from down the block and when we got close to home again.
Penny sleeps in her crate at night but is not crate trained and there is a difference. These are the observations I made of the results of not crate training Penny from Day 1:
1- Penny has separation anxiety. She sleeps through the night in her crate as she can still see me but as soon as she loses sight of me (or whoever her pack leader happens to be) she gets upset and either wails or cries and not just while she is in her crate. She was not put in her crate to nap and therefore is not comfortable being left alone.
2- Since Penny has a very irregular nap schedule, Penny also does not have a regular potty-training routine so that is behind schedule as well.
3- She does not get uninterrupted sleep during the day and does not play hard or nap hard and puppies need lots of sleep.
4- She is more difficult to watch as there is no break from puppy chaos.
All these issues can be avoided, and you can have a well-adjusted adult dog by having puppy take all naps in the crate.
Conversely, Rolly was crate trained from Day 1. We used a baby monitor to watch him closely and he benefited in the following ways:
1- Rolly is well adjusted and has no separation anxiety. He loved naps in his crate, and he felt perfectly safe and content in there. He knows it’s perfectly fine to be alone and nothing bad happens.
2- As soon as Rolly would start to fuss, we would go get him and take him out to the bathroom immediately. We would also take him out before we put him up for a nap. By the time Rolly (12 weeks old) was picked up by his forever family, his routine was established, and the accidents were down to almost zero.
3- Rolly played hard and napped hard and got lots of uninterrupted sleep which puppies need.
4- Having a puppy is a lot of work and using the crate properly, gave Rolly a safe place to nap and gives us a welcomed break from puppy chaos for a little while.
5- We practiced “kennel up” and “free” several times a day which sped up his obedience training.
Folks, there is a difference between having your puppies sleep in their crate and crate training them. The benefits of crate training are many and I encourage all pups to be crate trained Day 1. It will make your life and your pup’s life so much easier.
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