Abigail is 6 months old now. She's passed from her
early puppyhood into adolescence (a period (as with humans) that brings with
it a whole new set of challenges!).
Sharing our lives with Abigail has been joyous -
partly because of her incredibly sweet personality, but also because this time
round we used crate training. Simply put, crate training involves having your
new puppy in a crate when you are not with her. Like many people I resisted
this method of training because I believed it was cruel to cage up my new
puppy. But it works, and it's not cruel. From the first day we brought Abigail
home from the shelter, we put her in her crate when we were not around. Her
crate soon became her "den", her safe place. Because her ancestors
lived in dens, Abigail was comfortable in a small, enclosed space. Being in a
crate and feeling safe, Abigail learned how to relax and not to be afraid of
being alone. When we leave the house now, she is very comfortable and doesn't
experience separation anxiety.
When choosing a crate, the size is important. Pick
a crate that is large enough for your dog to stand up in and stretch out in,
but not so big that the back corner can become the "potty". Many
people purchase a larger crate and then partition it off - the partition can
be removed when the puppy grows bigger.
For the first few nights after Abigail came to our
house, we had her in the bed. All our dogs shared our bed as puppies. Abigail
kept me awake off and on all night. And no matter how often I took her out to
pee, she'd wet the bed. So after 3 or 4 nights, I took Evelyn's
advice, and we started putting her in the crate at night also. At 8
weeks of age, Abigail should only need to pee once during the night (if we had
remembered to keep food and water from her from supper time on!). When I heard
her cry midway through the night I would take her out to pee, put her right
back into her crate and no matter how much she cried, I wouldn't get her out
again until morning. It was tough the first few nights. It
was like not picking up a crying baby. But by 10 weeks of age she was sleeping
through the night. And not once did she mess in her crate.
When I worked at the shelter in the morning,
Abigail would be in her crate. Your puppy can be expected to stay in the
crate for 1 hour for each month of age (plus 1 hour), so at 12 weeks, she
could be in the crate for 4 hours at a time. When I came home at noon, I would
lift her from the crate and carry her out to pee (if I let her walk to
the back door, she would pee on the way!). Abigail was completely
housetrained at 5 months and I know this success was due to crate training -
she learned great bowel and bladder control in her crate.
Because of crate training, damage to the house has
been minimal - and only when we have slipped up. Puppies need to chew, so I
always kept a sturdy safe chew toy in the crate with her.
Last month we began keeping her out of the crate
when we were gone for short periods of time. She's a well-behaved little dog.
We 'Abigail-proof" the room she is in to make sure she will be safe. Over
the Christmas holidays, with my 2 year old grandson visiting and all the
hustle and glitter, we kept her in the crate while she was unattended
because there were too many new things in the house that could cause her
trouble, but she responded to this confinement with no complaint. When she was
spayed at 5 months, and it was important to keep her relatively inactive, it
was a blessing to be able to keep her in the crate and know that she was
content.
As you can tell, I'm sold on crate training. At the
shelter, if you come to adopt a puppy while I'm there, I'll preach to you.
It's a proven system that makes puppy training easy and pleasurable for all
involved.
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