Tips on Crate Training Your Dog - Comments

Good article!

This article makes me wish I had a dog. Except I'm sort of scared of them...Oh that's creepy, a natural pet product's ad came up...

Anyway, you did a good job. I've only had a dog...three times. I don't think crate training is bad for them. I think it's better than letting them be chained up outside or whatever. It's safer. I think? For me anyway. Lol.

@ paper sirens.
Maybe he just needs a lot of praise for coming out, but not so much that he doesn't want to be in his crate anymore Might be a question for an experienced dog trainer!

@ dragon.angel
He's about six or seven years old. There's nothing out there to be scared of and once he's out, he does just fine. It may just be that he wants to be where the people are.

@ paper sirens.
Is it that he just really loves the crate or is he scared of something outside? And how old is he?

Most of the time, my problem isn't getting my parents' dog into the crate - it's getting him out of the crate. While I hope to take him from them someday and let him wander around a bit more, as of right now he's only allow in the crate or outside. He'll happily go into the crate, but he will absolutely refuse to come out if we want to let him outside. He's difficult and I'd like to look into training him better so he'll go in and out, but I can't do that from so far away.

It is! My friends don't seem to understand that, but it is. Poppy was always really happy with it anyway, she had the biggest, most comfortable-looking bed in there.

My dog demands a lot of attention as well, but I just feel that she should get that bit extra when I come in and she's been in her crate for a while. She usually expects attention when I come in the house anyway so I don't know if it reinforced anything when she was a puppy but it definitely did help!

@ house of cards.
No, it's definitely not mean when used like that - I'm like you, I just want him to be safe. It's an indoor kennel, in a way

That's a good tip, I should go edit that in My puppy kind of demands that as it is - the longer he's in there for, the bigger of a 'welcome back, I missed you' I get when I let him out, so he gets a bunch of cuddles for being in there for a longer time anyway

Someone once told me I was cruel for keeping my dog in a crate when we went out, but my dog used to eat the floor tiles when she was a puppy so it was more dangerous to leave her out. I'd hate to think of what would happen to her if she choked on a tile piece. She's only just out of her crate now because she's 3 and knows better than to eat anything on the floor. Or at least knows better than to eat anything that isn't food. Labradors.

Another thing I always did when we were training Poppy was to give her lots of praise when she spent a deal of time in the crate. If we were gone for the day and we came back and she hadn't wrecked anything (her bed seemed to be her favourite thing to rip up), we'd spend a good hour or so playing or petting her, just so she knew that if she did well, she'd get this influx of love once we came back. I think that in the end, she used to love her crate, she'd spend hours in there by herself when the night drew to a close!