crate training

Well my puppy is now 7months old and is worse than she has ever been with chewing and doesn't want to sleep at bed time.Anyone ever crate trained a puppy this age?and how did you do it?

I would approach it the same as any other puppy. One thing....do not use the crate as punishment! If she does chew on something bad, don't put her in the crate, she will associate it as punishment. I would suggest that you simply crate her as you would any other puppy.

Make sure she has "safe" toys such as Kongs in the crate or I've seen chewers eat the bars on the crate(my Macey did )

I second the toy.
What I did with Bear (he was 9 months when crate trained) was get him a toy he really liked that he only gets while crated, in his case it was a Kong.
Worked wonderfully.
His crate stays set up, though now he is only crated if we will be gone extended periods (over 4 hours).
His destructive tendencies are gone and he can be left home alone unsupervised without him destroying things (he doesn't even get into the garbage).

For times when he is crated now, I stuff his Kong with peanut butter the night before, I freeze it over night.
Makes for a great distraction.

Good luck with her training.

You can certainly crate train a dog at this age, and as puppies will be puppies, and will chew on things as a need not as a `naughty' behaviour, crating sounds like a good idea.

I have to reiterate and emphasise what was said above. A crate is NOT a punishment and never, ever, ever should be used as one - ever. Under any circunstances. I cannot stress that enough. You will have a disaster on your hands if you do this.

I suggest you go to www.chazhound.com and go to their training and/or puppy section and do a search on crate training. There is a wealth of information there.

All of our dogs, except my lab are crate trained. This comes in real handy. BUt as others have said this isnt a place for them to go when they are bad. That will make them hate t he crate. Think of it as their own bedroom.

When we got our pug she was almost 1 yr old. Our lab was already crate trained so maybe it was because of Snickers that Buttercup took to it so easily. One thing I do recommend is at bed time cover the crate. We did that at our old house because the crates were in the living room w/ the TV (which runs 24/7) and didn't want the lights to bother them. When we moved, their crates were put in the spare room so the first night we didn't cover them. They whined and cried because they didn't think they should go to sleep. As soon as I covered them, they settled and laid down. Buttercup had no problem adjusting and actually takes some of her naps in the open crate. It's her own little place.

I couldn't imagine having a dog that WASN'T crate-trained. Yes, it can be done at 7 months, and probably should be!

*Keep it positive...never a punishment.
*Introduce it gradually...leave the door open, let him/her explore it, sniff it, and allow him or her to enter it without shutting the door. Toss treats or preferred toys in the back to encourage your dog to enter.
*Offer meals inside with the door open.
*Practice shutting the door, then returning after a few seconds. Let the dog come out, praise and treat. Do it again, and increase the time be a little bit more each time...always praising and treating upon opening it. Mix up whether you leave the room or stay with him.

The only time we plan to use the crate is at night while we are sleeping during the day while we are at work she is outside.

this site should help out!!!


http://www.dogwoodrottweilerclub.com/crateTraining.asp