Lesson 7: How to Transfer Crate Skills to Other Areas

Teach your puppy that it can be quiet in the crate no matter where it is and what is happening around it

By Dr. Gayle Watkins, PhD

Good Dog is on a mission to educate the public and make it simple for people to get dogs from good sources and for reputable breeders, shelters and rescues to put their dogs in good homes.

One important point to remember is that you should NEVER allow anyone or any dog to come right up to your puppy’s crate, to stick their fingers in, put their face near, or in the case of dogs, put their nose against the crate. If the crate is in the car, no one gets to come up to the area where the crate is. If the crate is in a training area or outside, no one gets to come within 3 feet of it initially. You have asked your pup to trust you by being calm and quiet in the crate. To fulfill that trust, you must always make it feels safe by respecting that the crate is his or her space.

Goal

Your goal in Lesson 7 is that you will teach your puppy that it can be quiet in the crate no matter where it is and what is happening around it.

Time Frame

Lesson 7 usually takes several weeks, with 3 to 5 sessions a week. Some pups will complete Lesson 7 in a week.

When to Move On

You are done!!! Your puppy is crate trained. Not only that, you have the tools you need to handle situations when your pup is noisy or over-excited.

Troubleshooting

If your pup is struggling with one aspect of this process, go back over Lesson 6 and then try Lesson 7 again.

In this step, you will teach your puppy that it can be quiet in the crate no matter where it is and what is happening around it. By slowly increasing the distractions and excitement around where the pup is crated, and continuing to reward a settled and quiet puppy and/or correcting a noisy puppy, it will learn to always be quiet in the crate no matter what.

Setting Up For Lesson 7

Do this lesson when you don’t actually need to leave the house.
Start with a hungry puppy.
Put the crate in a quiet, non-distracting area for this training.
Cover all but the front of the crate with an opaque sheet. Fold the front of the sheet above the door so you can easily cover the front if you need to.
Be sure your pup is cool enough to be comfortable.
Put a good chew toy in the crate before starting.
Before starting, scatter a handful of treats towards the middle and back of the crate.
Take your puppy out to potty immediately before you begin training so you are sure he does not need to pee or poop.

Training Lesson 7

When you add distractions or excitement while the pup is confined, you are challenging your pup’s self-control. It’s much easier for a pup to be calm and quiet when things around it are boring. However, when the pup is crated in an exciting environment, it’s tougher to stay calm and quiet. However, be confident that your pup can do this! And you are going to help it learn this lesson by starting with easy challenges and gradually working up to the tougher ones, generously rewarding good behavior, and clearly communicating when the pup does the wrong thing by covering-earthquaking-uncovering-rewarding.

Here are some examples of challenges that our client’s (and our) puppies have struggled with and how difficult most have found them. Develop a list like this for your puppy. What can the pup watch others doing and still remain quiet and relaxed in his crate? What starts the puppy barking a little? What sends the pup over the edge?

Start with the easier challenges so your pup builds up self-control “strength.” And be sure to initially reward with high-value treats at a fast rate before gradually backing off as your pup gets better and better.

Challenge (1 easiest - 10 hardest)	Difficulty
Another pet sleeping in the room	1
You and another person sitting in the room	2
Being crated in the car	3
Multiple people moving around in the room	3
Children playing quietly on the floor	4
Being crated in the car in a quiet area	5
People eating together	6
At training class when the instructor is talking	7
Another pet getting attention from person	7
People moving around cooking	8
Near excitement, like a ball game, where children are playing, or the dog park	9
Children running around playing	9
Another pet being fed dinner in the same room	10
Another pet playing in the room	10
Another pet being fed dinner in the room	10
At training class when other dogs are out training or playing	10
A strange dog or person walking by the crate away from home	10

Adding Other Challenges

Each time you add a new challenge be sure to give the puppy excellent treats more frequently to reward the pup for being quiet. Then gradually decrease the number of treats over time as the puppy learns the new skill. Next, begin to increase the interval of time between treats always ping-ponging them so the puppy has no idea when the next treat will come.

As the puppy understands that it must remain quiet and settled in the crate no matter what is going on around it, you can build the time the pup can settle in the crate with the added challenges. Once the puppy understands that being settled and quiet works, each additional challenge will get easier and easier until it can just settle anywhere, any time.

Crate Trained!

Once your puppy is quiet when confined in all kinds of circumstances for an hour, the puppy is officially crate trained. The pup has learned that its behavior drives the consequences and that the crate is a good, safe place to be.

Congratulations!

Dr. Gayle Watkins, PhD is the Founder of Avidog, the leading educational platform for dog breeders and puppy owners, and Gaylan's Golden Retrievers, her 40-year breeding program. Today, Gayle is the only golden retriever AKC Gold Breeder of Merit, and is a three-time AKC “Breeder of the Year.”