6 Useful Tips to Crate Train Your Puppy for a Trip

I travel solo and don’t really have anything apart from my backpack with me. However, many people traveling with their pets told me how many problems it causes. Here is a useful guest post on how to crate train your dog to travel with it.

It is essential that you train your puppy early enough so that he gets used to a certain way of life and learn to observe the good habits as he grows?

There are many areas in which you will be required to train your dog.

Crate training is one of them.

There are many reasons as to why you might need to train your puppy.

And here are the best ones:

One of them is to teach your dog how to control their bladder: housebreaking does the trick. It is the reason why you should crate train him in the first place. Puppies also tend to feel uncomfortable around strangers, and many people, crate training him will give him direction on where to run to when he feels uncomfortable, with that, you will prevent him from being aggressive when you have visitors around.

The other important reason as to why you need to get the best dog crate for small dogs and train your puppy is for traveling. A crate trained dog will allow you to have fun during your travel without having to worry about him getting into trouble. How do you crate train your puppy?

1. Bet the perfect crate

The first step is to, of course, choose a crate for your dog. Here, you will be needed to select a crate according to how big your dog is. Ensure that it is strong enough to withstand heavy handling and does not restrict airflow. You also need to make it comfortable by providing nice beddings. It is also vital to equip it with toys and treats. With all that ready, you should place the crate somewhere that you spend most of your time. Like in the living room.

2. Time to introduce your puppy to his crate

Is everything set?  Now the crate should be ready for an introduction.

Introduce the puppy to the crate. You need to be witty while doing this. Forcing him to the crate will not give you the results that you anticipate. A softer and more playful approach will do.

To make your puppy interested in getting into his crate, you can entice him with toys, treats or his favorite foods. Try as much as you can to keep the puppy training treats nearby the crate. If the response is positive, you can start placing them inside the crate.

Remember to be patient and to reward him for getting into the crate.

3. Feed him inside the crate

Do not do this until your puppy is open to the idea of getting his treats from the crate. Your dog will be more than willing to stick around places that remind him of all the delicacies. This also can start by you placing the meals at the door until your puppy feels comfortable enough to go inside for them.

4. Start closing the door

With time, you will find that your puppy finishes his entire meal while inside the crate. In the beginning, it is not always advisable for you to close the door until your baby can finish his meal from inside. It might make him uncomfortable.

To make him slowly get used to it, be opening the door right before he is done eating. He would like to get out and move around after eating. Finding the door closed might make him feel caged. You might get lucky and find your dog already comfortable with sleeping inside the cage.

Care to reward him for being nice!

5. Use cues to show him to the crate

By now, your puppy is already familiar with the crate. What remains is for you to be able to talk him into getting into the crate. If he obeys the commands, reward him. If you want him to come out, use a different command.

With time it will be easy for you to tell your puppy what to do. Do not, however, overwhelm him with training. Take breaks in the course.

Also, you can be leaving the room for a couple of minutes to make him get used to being inside the crate when alone. Do this severally and if he does well, remember to reward.

6. Train your puppy to stay longer in the crate

Note that travel takes more than 15 minutes. What that means is that making your dog finish his meals while inside the crate is not enough. You need to make him more ready: this is by conditioning him to be comfortable with staying more extended hours in the crate.

At this point, you already have a way of communicating, and you can tell him when to go to the crate. There is one more exercise that you need to carry out. Command your puppy to go to the crate.

Since he might still not be very comfortable or gotten used to being there especially if there are no treats or food inside, encourage him by sitting next to the crate.

After a while, you are allowed to leave the room for a few minutes then return and sit again for some time. This time around you can open the crate for him then go.

Repeat the exercise more often until you notice that he is comfortable being there for over thirty minutes. This means that you could go shopping and leave him crated for an hour or two. From here, then your puppy should be able to spend the night inside the crate.

To make your dog get used to being inside the crate a little faster, you need to do away with emotional goodbyes. Also, do not make a fuss over you being back home. You need to keep your arrivals as low-key as possible and your departures very brief. Crate training your puppy is a step by step process that requires a lot of patience.

Eventually, you will find that the puppy will be comfortable with being left alone in the house and being inside the crate. By then, your pup should be ready for travel.

Learn more travel tips here

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