Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan, and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together,
we're bringing you real -world training insights
built on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live, unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. creating calmness, and becoming
the kind of leader your dog truly needs. We do
that with our three pillar method of trust, obey,
and perform. Together, we'll show you how these
three pillars shape every step of training. Thanks
for being here. Let's get started. All right,
episode nine, crate training, building security
and independence. So when we're talking about
crate training, a lot of people tune out. They
tune out real quick because they're like, oh,
well, I am either not interested in a crate or
my dog's too big for a crate or my dog's too
old for a crate. And just going to call it what
it is. None of those things are true. to pawprint
academy and tonight we're talking about crate
training we're talking about the so this kind
of builds on last week's episode last week's
episode was on potty training and we talked a
lot about how we're going to use the crate to
help with potty training well that goes so much
further than that right because we can use the
crate to do all sorts of things and one of the
biggest reasons why we use crates is to deal
with just anxiety. And a lot of owners see the
crate as being the center of their dog's anxiety.
That has not been my experience. And so tonight
we're going to bring you a bunch of examples
and some stories and things, and we're going
to talk through crate training. As we do this,
we talked about it on the intro, but we've got
live clients on the line and I've got the questions
open here. Just a second. Yep. So I've got the
questions open. So as you guys think of questions,
please jot them down, send them over so I can
monitor that as we're going through this. And
we'll try to. Answer them as we go. That seems
to help some of this. And then at the end, we'll
open it up to a live Q &A for all of your questions
and concerns and things related to what we're
talking about. And even if you've got a random
other question, we can deal with it. All right.
So as we get into your core idea, the crate is
not punishment. Right. I cannot say that loud
enough. I cannot make this a big enough exclamation
point. So the crate cannot be punishment. And
when I say it cannot be, I mean like when you're
trying to train your dog and people are calling
me asking about, hey, how do I do this? You cannot
afford to let the crate become a punishment.
And right off the bat, I haven't even gotten
through the entire core idea, but that's like
just the first sentence that I wrote down, right?
And it's like, we got to talk about that. No
matter what you do and no matter what you hear
me talk about tonight, if you don't learn anything
else, circle back to that one. The crate cannot
be a punishment. You cannot use the crate to
punish. Your dog. Yep. Because if you do that,
none of this other stuff that we're going to
talk about is going to work. Yeah. All right.
So back to the core idea for the entire podcast
episode. The crate is not punishment. It is a
tool that creates safety, structure, and independence.
When introduced properly, it becomes one of the
most valuable foundations in our. Training regimen.
Yeah. All right. So that's a little bit to unpack.
So let's kind of just break it down. So number
one, dogs are den animals by nature. They, you
know, grew up that way, evolved that way, if
that's what you believe, whatever you want to
call it. Dogs have been den creatures in the
past. And the crate. provides a safe space for
them to thrive for them to decompress for them
to feel protected for them to feel uh confident
yep all of these things are attributes that we
want our dogs to feel so um um let's see here
i'm gonna refer back to my notes um first thing
uh that that kind of supports that point so the
crate creates a calm environment away from overstimulation
so let's talk about that for a second because
we're all of this is going to circle back to
that one major point right the crate's not punishment
and it's a tool that creates safety structure
and independence so when we are talking about
that what we're talking about is creating a space
where your dog can just go and they can see what's
going on they can kind of feel like they're part
of it they're informed they're experiencing the
things that the family is experiencing but they're
not necessarily in the middle of it yeah because
when they're in the middle of it that's where
you get overstimulation and we say this part
all the time but an excited dog is not the same
thing as a happy dog A happy dog is not the same
thing as an overstimulated dog. And excitement
and overstimulation has a razor thin line between
it. Yeah. And you can get right up to the edge
of excited and everything can be totally fine.
And as soon as just the one little paw pad. goes
past that line and you're on the overstimulation
side, your dog's going to behave differently
and they're going to make different choices in
that state of mind. So we can use a crate to
control some of that overstimulation. Right.
And I think when people mistakenly see it as
is like, Oh, it's a cage that I'm putting my
dog in. Right. Cause there's like, Oh yeah, for
sure. Stories of like, you know, Crazy things
where people leave their dogs in crates for like
days, right? That's not what we're talking about.
Not what we're talking about at all. I want people
to reframe their mindset when they look at a
crate and think of it as like a bedroom, right?
Because where do you go when you're exhausted
and you're like tapped out for the day and you
just want to relax and it's your personal like
space that you get to go into and you're like,
yep. And now it's time to relax. That's why people
sometimes don't put TVs in their bedroom, right?
Because it's a space meant for sleeping and for
relaxing. And that's what the crate needs to
kind of be looked at as. Right, because it offers
a predictable place that reduces anxiety when
the dog is alone. Now, when you never leave your
dog alone, Like remember, remember, no matter
what, remember this, your dog only knows what
you taught them. If you got your dog, which a
lot of people do. And so this, this isn't a hundred
percent across the board, but most owners that
we deal with get their dogs when they're very,
very young. Usually that eight -week time frame
is about the earliest that you can take them
home from a breeder and get them their first
shots and all of these things. So eight, nine,
ten weeks old, your dog barely knows how to walk.
It learns everything that it knows from you.
Because unless you've got another dog in the
house that it's learning from, or unless you...
you know, brought its mother dog with it. Like
it's not learning from those things. It's learning
from you and it's patterning from you. So if
we never take the time to teach our dogs to calm
down and we never teach our dogs that it's okay
to be away from us, when are they going to learn
it? Right. So a lot of times, and we saw this,
we saw this across the entire country during
the COVID times where. There was this huge, a
second pandemic, right? Not the COVID one, but
the other one for on the dog space. Excuse me.
On the dog space, it was about these anxious
and anxiety riddled dogs that like super separation
anxiety because everyone was home. Right. All
the time. And your dog was never away from you.
Right. And even if you didn't have a dog when
COVID hit, you got a dog because you were home
by yourself. Huge influx of dogs. Yeah. Huge
influx. And that was something we saw across
the entire country on the demographics. So this
concept of you need to leave your dog alone.
sometimes rubs people the wrong way and they're
like, well, what do you, what do you mean I need
to leave it alone? Like I got the dog to be a
companion for me. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I
totally understand. But is there ever a time
where you're going to go somewhere where you
can't take the dog? Right. Right. We're talking
about regular dogs, usually not service dogs.
You go to a movie at a movie theater, the dog,
where, where's the dog even going to go? Like
you can't, you can't take a dog everywhere. So.
There are places where you are not going to take
your dog. And when you do leave, inevitably,
then what? And not only that, but let's make
a different argument. Do you think that your
dog is ever going to get sick or hurt in their
entire life? At some point, it's highly likely
they're probably going to have to go to a vet.
they ever have a surgical procedure or they hurt
themselves somehow or whatever, it's highly likely
that a vet is going to need to put them in a
crate or a kennel, even just temporarily. Oh,
yeah. So there's a high, high likelihood that
at some point you're going to need to control
the space that a dog is allowed to be in. And
when that happens, you've not really prepared
your dog if you're not working on this concept
of crate training. So that's the dog trainer
side. Now, let's make this a little less bleak
because we're both completely supportive of you
taking your dogs everywhere where they can go.
So there's no problem with that. There's no issue
with that. But I think that we're going to present
a couple of other concepts in here that I think
will apply to more than just crate training.
Because if you think about the crate as just
the crate, I think you may miss out on this second
level to this, which is... Let me see how I can
say this. It is selective confinement. Confinement
and really forced confinement between a human
and the dog can be an immense builder of one,
your relationship, and two, the most highly sought
after factor in dog training. And that is anticipation.
When we train a dog, the dogs that learn fastest
are the dogs where we can help to increase their
anticipation. Because when you increase anticipation,
suddenly you've got a dog that is dialed in and
ready. They are excited to do something. And
now you have a tool that is a huge, huge step
up that you can use to train your dog to do anything.
Yeah. So and we're going to bring up a whole
bunch of other reasons here as we go. But right
off the bat, confinement is not a punishment.
Confinement is a tool and it's a tool that builds
your relationship. It does not break it down.
By you controlling the space of the house and
teaching a dog that sometimes that is their place
of existence is like, well, it's time for you
to go into your crate. That is not a zero -sum
game where you're the winner and they're the
loser. You both can win here. Right. So. I have
like so many things to say. I know. I know. I'm
really trying to stay in order. Yeah. I'm trying
not to say anything. There's really like a hundred
good reasons why you should invest the time to
teach your dog to take its own time in a crate
or a kennel. Just take a nap. Just take a nap.
Just take a nap. All right. So the next one that
I've got written down though is that it helps
puppies and adult So if you, if your dog looks
to you for every bit of confidence in its life,
the moment that you are away from it, it will
be a nervous wreck. It will be an anxious mess.
Yep. And we see that usually that's when we get
the call and we're like, well, We're like, usually
a client calls me on the phone and they're like,
hey, I've got a dog that is destroying my house
when I'm gone. Or I've got a dog that is barking
incessantly every time I leave. But as soon as
I come back, they're fine. Both of those issues
circle back to the fact that that is not a confident
dog. And they're anxious and they're anxiety
ridden and they're they're trying to find their
own confidence. One things in a dog's mouth typically
increases their like self soothing. Right. They
by them having their mouth around something they
feel more in control and stronger in that moment.
Right. So that's usually how we. What is it for
babies when they. What is the, oh my gosh, it's
been so long. I'm a dog expert, not a baby expert.
I don't know. Right, but that is exactly, I always
relate it back to like kids and babies, I feel
like, because it's something a lot of people
can relate back to at some point. Somebody's
interactive. Right, I just can't help you with
this one. I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Self -soothing. So I'll keep going. If you think
of it, you jump in. So on the dogs, right, the
chewing. When a dog has something in their mouth,
a lot of times they feel a little more in control
of that situation. And so that's where that soothing
comes from. So oftentimes when you have a dog
that chews things when you leave or when you're
not there to watch them, it's not that they're
trying to be ornery. It's just that they found
soothing in the concept of having something in
their mouth. And then it kind of gets out of
control and then they're like, oh, wow, I ate
the entire pillow and the pieces are all over
the place. And then you see the video pop up
on Facebook later. The other side of it is the
anxious dog that is now, as soon as their owners
leave, has never had an issue with like barking
at the windows and scratching at the doors and
trying to get out. But suddenly. A dog walks
by and the dog goes crazy because they're behind
a barrier and they are longing for that confidence
complex. And they can get that by reacting to
the external triggers, which is the dog walking
by. They get a huge internal flush of dopamine
and other neurotransmitters increase their self
-gratifying behavior by continuing down that
process and ramping up. And all of that stems
from the concept that the dog wasn't really confident
enough to just let a dog encroach on their area
or let another person, a UPS guy or a mailman
or something like that, come up to the house.
they kind of shed light on your dog's, I guess,
thought process. Yeah. I'm sorry. You were looking
at me like I was missing a major point here.
No. All right. So how, we kind of alluded to
it, but how would you explain to a client that
crates are comforting and they're not cruel?
I think my original analogy of like comparing
it to a bedroom and not a cage, right? It's something
natural for a dog to go in and relax. And yeah,
it is forced relaxation, but also it comes back
down to when you think of like a baby and you
have them out and exposed in a stimulating environment,
they're not going to usually fall asleep. They
start crying. They start whining. They start
doing things to express that they're tired, but
they can't. take a nap they can't turn off they
can't get away from everything that's going on
it's like a whole fear of missing out thing um
it's the same way with a dog so if you if you
take the baby put them in a crib they're like
okay well i'm just gonna go to sleep now there's
nothing going on same thing with a dog you take
them out of that environment you go hey we're
gonna go in here we're gonna take a nap in your
room yeah got it that's that's the only thing
that there is to do And that doesn't mean, excuse
me, that doesn't mean that if you go to leave,
you can't give your dog like a bone or something
to chew on or something to enjoy for a little
bit. But it is time for them to relax when you're
home and you give them kennel time. Yeah. So
I like to explain it or explain a concept that
there's very, very few dogs. that are mentally
prepared to make as many decisions as we typically
put on them or in front of them on a daily basis.
So the very, very confident dogs that are or
would be the natural alpha leader of the pack,
those are dogs that might be a little more prepared
to make... some decisions in the household but
the but most dogs they're not prepared to do
that and they just want to follow most dogs are
really really happy just following a confident
leader they don't want to be that the concept
of every dog should get to choose what toys they
play with or choose what they get to do today
or choose what they're going to eat today those
are thoughts and processes and emotions that
we value as humans and we put them on the dog
and it's not actually accurate because the dog
doesn't want to choose all of those things and
when they have to it oftentimes results in some
anxiety. So the way that we can avoid that is
by making decisions that are educated because
we know our dogs, but making decisions for them
and guiding them, leading them, showing them
what is expected. And when the dog then follows,
Their anxiety goes down because you're leading
from the front and you're explaining and showing
and giving clear expectations. And then the dog's
able to follow that and go, I'm doing the right
thing. And that almost is, I'm not going to say
it's the only thing, but it is a huge, huge percentage,
a huge piece of the pie that when a dog can confidently.
operate within your expectations and they know
that they're doing the right thing you see a
ton of anxiety go away in dogs so if that is
true which all of those things that i just explained
then controlling what the dog gets into and controlling
and keeping the dog from making more of those
decisions that are made without your supervision
is really, really important. We want to limit
as much of those issues as possible. And so anytime
that we can't supervise the dog, I'm going to
highly recommend that the dog goes in their crate.
It's not a punishment. It's an opportunity. Think
of it as a proactive opportunity for you to not
clash with your dog. If they go and make a silly
mistake because they weren't mentally prepared
to make the right decision or they didn't have
the like faculty to think about this and pick
the right thing. Now you're in a position where
now you have to correct them and you'd be like,
I can't believe you just ate that or I can't
believe you just pooped on the floor or whatever
it was. But if we would have just controlled
that, if you just would have stepped up. As the
leader of that pack and been like, I can't predict.
I can't predict with a high degree of certainty
that you're going to make a good choice. So I'm
going to place you in your kennel or your crate.
And then I'm going to come back and I'm going
to let you out. We're going to be best friends.
Without all of that. Like clash. I hope that
that makes sense. That's how I typically the
outline of, of how I try to explain it. Yeah.
It just helps you to avoid so much. Like, like
I'm really struggling for the right word. There's
usually a word I like to use and it's just the,
the concept of just clashing with your dog. And
you're staring at me. You're not helping me.
I can't think of the word that's in your brain
either. I don't know. It's not coming to me.
Well, neither one of us is bad on a thousand
on guessing what the other one was trying to
say. Share a story of a dog whose anxiety improved
through crate training. Definitely Gabe. Gabe.
So her dog, Mr. Gabe, was the most, the world's
highest. Level anxiety talk. The worst one that
I've ever, ever gotten to work with. Still wins
at a word someday. Still wins. Yeah. He's crazy.
Yeah. But yeah, never really went in a kennel
after he was rescued out of the shelter. Kind
of just like stayed in a room or like. Slept
in his little like dog bed all day, but mostly
in like the spare bedroom. Like could not walk
through doorways, could not go outside, would
shake like a leaf. If you know anything, if you
walk towards him, he would just pee on the floor.
Forget some of these things. Right. It's been
a little while. I know. Right. And when I first
got him, actually, he was a couch dog. I brought
him home and he immediately jumped on the couch
and I was like, oh, well. I don't know what to
do with that. Never had a couch dog before. Usually
they just like, I've always taught dogs like
you don't just don't, you don't get on the couch.
And most of the time it's not a problem. My old,
my last dog before Gabe used to never get on
the couch unless I left. And then I'd come home
and his two back legs were still on the couch
as he was stretching off of it. And I was like,
okay, cool. But he always respected the fact
that he wouldn't get on it if I was home. So
Gabe definitely was like, I'm going to sleep
on this couch. I got a new couch, moved it to
a different wall. He never touched the couch
again. He was like, this is the worst couch.
Yeah, the worst couch. He hated it. It was so
different. He was like, I'm never going to touch
it. And then we introduced Crate, and he took
a long time to adapt to it. I remember I put
a bowl of food in there for like two days, and
he was like, I'm not going to touch that. I don't
need it. And I was like, he's going to get hungry.
He's got to get it. And sure enough, he did.
But he could stretch so far. He's like a spaghetti
noodle. He could stretch so far that he didn't
even have to get all the way in the crate to
get the food. So he got it. But I think the day
that he realized that you could close the door
and nothing could touch him. It was like 100%.
He was like, this is my house. I live here now.
Put me in any kind of box with a door and I love
it. And fast forward now. Right. It's not just
the crate, right? He goes in any. We have, we've
got metal crates. We've got big four by four,
like four foot by four foot wire, like kennel
setups. We've got. We've got travel kennels.
We have big ones, small ones. He goes in all
of them. He jumps to second and third story stacked
crates. He does. Right. He loves those. And he
goes in them even like if he hears a noise or
there's something that he is worried about or
something he's scared of. He's like, which door
is open? Instead of him. Right. He will look
for one of the kennels to just go into. Yeah.
And he'll just lay down and chill. He's like,
yep, I'm good in here. Because it's never, ever
been a punishment. It's always been safe. It's
always been, hey, nothing has ever gotten me
in here. And so it's become something that he
relies on to deal with his own anxiety. Common
misconceptions owners have about crate use. The
punishment thing. That's the biggest thing for
me. The punishment or... The concept that, oh,
well, but the dog's going to be sad because like,
I don't want, I wouldn't want to be stuck in
the crate. So I don't want to make my dog go
in there. Right. And so it's also like the fact
that when the dog gets in there, like they're
going to whine. Right. But that doesn't last
forever. And if you let it out because it whined,
he or she, I say it because I don't know. But
if you do it because they whine. Right. They
will whine every time because you're going to
let them out. Because you taught that to them.
Right. And so it's an entire process, kennel
training, right? Yeah. Yeah, you might have to
put on some noise -canceling headphones. Right.
I mean, we've got... There's no shortcut to this
either. Right. There's really not. We've had
a dog that... We do this over and over and over.
...has screamed for like three, four days in
a row going in and out of the kennel. And it's
like, I don't want to be in here. I don't want
to be in here. Cool. Yeah. But... you have to
right there's always like a moment where an owner
needs a kennel whether they will admit that they
need the kennel or not but they will need a kennel
and their dog will not be used to that yeah absolutely
um all right so let's see here right my brain
has been going down different rabbit holes here
um Crates as management and leadership tools.
So the crate really sets a boundary and it prevents
bad habits from developing. So this is what we
were kind of talking about on the last episode
of like the triangle. And by crate training,
you prevent the bad habit of dog peeing on the
floor or dog pooping around the house. By confining
the dog, and then creating this environment where
the dog doesn't want to soil their own space,
they will be less likely to not go outside, to
go to the bathroom somewhere else, right? Including
in their crate, as long as we don't make it too
big. But those specifics we already covered last
week, so I'm going to try to stay on track. I
talked about already, I talked about how by confining
your dog and using a crate, a lot of times you
can just avoid those crazy moments where you're
like, oh my gosh, why did you do this? Whatever
that is, whatever that looks like, I've heard
a lot of them. When that happens, inevitably,
my question to owners is, why were they out?
Why were they left out? And almost always, it's
rarely, well, because I was going to be gone
for 12 hours in a row. That's almost never what
I hear. Usually it's like, well, they've never
done it before. Or, well, I just feel bad putting
them in there. Or, well, I guess I just, I didn't
think that this would happen. All of those things
kind of revolve around the same concept, which
is we're really thinking about the crate like
you would think about the crate, but you're not
a dog. Yeah. And so we've really got to focus
on like what we're dealing with. We're not talking
about a hairy human on four legs. We're talking
about a dog. And dogs, if taught that there's
no negative connotation to this space, dogs will
really enjoy that. And they can really enjoy
that. And we can cultivate that. And we can use
that to even bolster our relationship with the
dog. So don't feel like... You should never feel
like you're a bad dog owner because you crate
your dog. Right. That's just not how the dog
thinks about it. Yeah. All right. So it stops
destructive behaviors when dogs can't be supervised.
We really nailed that one down. The next thing
is that it teaches impulse control by structuring
when they have freedom and when they don't. You
think about this a little differently. Instead
of being like, cool, you have ultimate freedom
in the house. And then when you go in your crate,
that's when you're in jail and you have no freedom.
That is the negative connotation that we're talking
about and encouraging you to not instill in your
dog. If you thought about it differently, like
the crate is your normal, the crate is your baseline.
And then sometimes you get to come out and interact
with everything and you get these freedoms. It
might lead you to a different thought process.
Now, once again, I'm not saying that the dog
has to live in the crate, but if you instill
it in short bursts, it can do a lot to increasing
the value, of the freedom in the house so that
you can even use just the regular freedom of
it, of the dog being able to meander around the
house as a rewarding activity. Yep. All right.
And the last thing with this is that it reinforces
the owner's role as leader by controlling access
to space. Almost all the time. When we're dealing
with a dog with resource guarding or dealing
with a dog that sees their place in the pack
as being above the owner. That dog does not either
does not often spend time in a crate or has had
a like definitive issue with going in a crate
in the past. Yeah. almost all the time um so
this is where this is why we're harping on this
and it may sound like we're just like just beating
the horse right the dead horse yeah yeah that's
the phrase right right i said it wrong i'm sorry
um hey how do we incorporate how do you incorporate
create time into structured daily routine so
how do we do it at top dog training So we do
it kind of like, I don't know, I relate it always
go back to kids and babies, right? It's like
a lot of those examples. I know because it just
makes a little bit more sense when you think
of it this way and can relate it back to like
humans. Even though we always encourage you like
don't put your emotions on your dog, like you
can still find those correlations for sure. So
we do nighttime, always in a crate. Right. Travel
kennel or the big four by four kennel, depending
on the dog. But always sleeping in a crate. We
don't let the dogs like free sleep anywhere.
We don't do like in the bed, in the bedroom,
any of that. Always in a crate. And then we do
morning letouts. We do back in the crate really
quickly for breakfast routines. And then we're
out and kind of working. We do middle of the
day nap times. just like babies um and then we
do like a little afternoon session in there before
dinner and with dinner um and then it's back
out again and then back in at night time for
sleeping right so the concept is in and out right
in and out in and out in and out yeah um and
and it happens it happens throughout the day
with to create those breaks yeah right it's not
about well i'm just gonna put them in there so
that then i can you know go to the store it's
like i'm sitting right there but this is a structured
rest right that is a concept that i think a lot
of people just don't get it's not about well
i mean i so i got asked um i got asked one time
An owner was pretty frustrated with dogs that
were just peeing and pooping in the house all
the time. And they were like, well, at what point
in this training do I finally get to just like
let my dogs out around the house so that they
can just, you know, be dogs? I'm like, well,
that depends on the dogs that you have. You might
not have the dogs that get to do that. Yeah.
Because every dog is different. There's some
dogs that they never have to be in a crate one
time. Right. Yeah. But we're a dog trainer company
and we have, we're, we're putting this podcast
out for people that if you've got a, an amazingly
trained dog, you're probably not listening to
this podcast. Yeah. If your dog's never needed
to be in a crate. If your dog is never needed
to be in a crate, you're probably not the demographic
that's listening to this. Right. Or you've certainly
not like solicited professional dog training.
Yeah. Because there are dogs out there that just,
maybe they just don't need that. Right. That's
fine. We get asked that a lot with like reactive
dogs. And it's like, well, when can I let my
dog play with other dogs off leash? i mean probably
probably never depending on the dog it just depends
but it depends on the dog you have a reactive
dog right and they're like well i want to i want
to keep it i see other people right but is that
dog reactive yeah has that dog needed any kind
of training right is that dog genetically sound
we don't get so many questions right and we don't
get to this isn't just kicking the can down the
road and being like well you either get the dog
no we can definitely make positive changes but
When your dog, what we're trying to address is
the answer to the question of, well, when does
the dog finally get to do this? That's kind of
up to the dog. Right, but it doesn't, crate training
doesn't even come down to that. It's like we.
I'm going down the reactivity road now in my
head and I'm like answering questions. Right,
and we talk about crate training in the instance
that you need to travel with your dog, right?
Almost all the time, if you put your dog just
like randomly in a car, they're all over the
car, right? It's also not the safest. Like you
could have your dog in a kennel and it could
be laying down and it could be comfortable and
a lot safer. Traveling on an airplane, going
to the vet's office, like you said. boarding
them somewhere if you think they're not going
to be like in some sort of kennel on their own
in a different environment you're wrong you're
throwing them right into the deep end of the
pool without giving them any kind of like lesson
on how to swim which could potentially be an
incredibly life -altering and traumatic event
right when the dog is hurt And already having
a terrible day going to the vet is not the time
to try to talk it calm and put it into a crate.
It's exactly how we talk about like muzzling
dogs. It's like you don't throw a muzzle on a
dog when you're in a 911 situation and it's like
red line. That's the first time. Right. It's
not the first time. So, right. I think what you
were. You were saying that's not the time to
try to teach. Right, that's not the time to like,
yeah, try to just like put it on and be like,
hey, let's do this. Right. And so we muzzle train
our dogs and we crate train our dogs for that
specific event. Yep. Because at some point something
bad could happen. Right. And that's the time
when you want to be able to just slide a muzzle
on so that a doctor, a vet, a somebody can. manipulate
a broken limb or something like that without
getting bit and without creating a whole bunch
of other issues so um yep that is a segue try
not to go down the road too far but on the reactivity
part what i was trying to say here without going
all the way down the road is that the dog is
going to control when you get to not lead them
anymore right because the dog and and i say that
really even carefully because there's really
never a time when you're never when you're not
going to lead them but the concept of like having
to intrusively lead every interaction that the
dog has during the day should eventually subside.
And when that is going to happen, I cannot answer
for you. It is not a certain point in training
where suddenly you're able to do that. It comes
down to the dog and it comes down to, do you
trust the dog? Do you trust the dog to make those
decisions that you would make yourself, make
appropriate decisions? Like don't chew up the
door. Don't chew up the trim on the wall. All
right. Positive association and consistency is
the key to all of this, right? So introducing
the crate in the right way is incredibly important.
So now we're going to talk about that. So number
one, never force a dog inside. Use food. Use
their toys. Build value. One of the ways that
we do that, right? So we food lure. I like to
get a dog right off the bat. I just got another
dog that started a program just a couple days
ago. And the first day, we start crate training.
And it's cool. Let me take a little bit of food.
And let me just hold the food into the crate
until I can get the dog to just move their head
in. Just enough to sniff. And then I'm not going
to make them go into it. I'm going to feed them.
I'm going to pull my hand back towards them and
reward. And I'm going to mark that the same way
that we've talked about a whole bunch of the
past. I'm going to mark it and reward. And then
I'm going to do it again. And I'm going to do
it again. And then I'm going to hold the food
just a little bit further. And I'm going to get
that one paw in. And as soon as that one paw
goes in, they're like, oh, wow, I got another
treat. And they start to see, oh, wow, the crate
didn't suck me in. And the door didn't just slam
on there. Nothing pulled me into the crate. And
then we slowly increase that. And we get two
paws. And we get three paws. We get four paws.
And maybe we take the whole door off of the kennel,
if you've got a kennel that can do that. Or the
kennel just stays open. Make sure that the door
doesn't swing closed and tap the dog as you're
doing a lot of this because that will weird them
out. So it's a slow building block process. But
there's no shortcut to this. Once we can get
the dog reliably in and out of the crate, then
I start rewarding the dog while they're in the
crate more than once. Then two times, then three
times, then four times, then five times. I start
to build this duration while the dog's just having
a great time. It's like, oh, wow, I get so much
attention, so much good stuff inside here. It
makes them naturally relate more pleasurable
things to being in there. And then we let them
out. At some point, we eventually increase the
amount of time that we're able to do that. And
then we increase that duration. One minute, two
minutes, three minutes, four minutes. Right.
And I think one good thing to like a good tip
is also like. put a bowl of food in there like
first thing in the morning and close the kennel
door and just leave it there right you can leave
it there all day with the kennel door closed
the dog is going to constantly if you have the
kennel in the environment where they are like
in the living room um the dog is constantly going
to be like man i wish i could have that food
man i wish i could have that food And then by
the end of the day, just open the door and let
the dog kind of casually go in and eat the food.
It doesn't have to be this big entire thing.
Like you can build that anticipation to go into
the crate. And I think that works wonders for
some dogs. And different dogs are going to react
differently, right? They're not all going to
be like, yeah, I'll go in there for food. Right.
First time off the bat. sometimes you're going
to have to build it up and it's going to take
a lot longer time. But it really is super dog
dependent. And I think that's the thing that
some people lose track of is sometimes we'll
get a dog that's like never been in a crate,
right? And most of the time when we start with
a dog that's never been in one or never really
like stayed in one, we will start them in a kennel
in the living room. Right? Because one, they
can see us. They're like, oh, they're still right
there. And then maybe if the dog is having a
really hard time, you can move it into the bedroom.
Because then it feels closer to you at nighttime.
Because nighttime is when a lot of people struggle.
And they're like, well, my dog is screaming.
Right? But when you have a baby, it's screaming
also. Like you have to think of it that way.
Like the dog needs support through that. especially
if it's like an eight week old puppy, right?
It's like away from its siblings, its mom, like
those are really big emotions that the dog is
going through that it can't like show you. But
it's a big thing for a puppy. And so even if
it's not a puppy, the dog is experiencing something
new being away from people. And that may be hard.
So start closer to you and build it out from
there. And I will say some dogs do better if
they can't even see you. You know, when we first
brought Dexter home, like it was, okay, does
he do better in the bedroom where he can see
us? Okay, that worked great for the first couple
nights. Now let's try moving him away from us.
Does he do better? Does he do worse? Is it manageable
to where we can build out the fact that he's
moving greater distances away from us? And ideally,
you know, you don't want to hear a dog like he
slams around in his kennel and kicks his legs
everywhere like a gorilla. And so it's like you
don't want to listen to that at night. So obviously
the bedroom is not ideal. And so you have to
figure out what works best for you and the dog
and change it up. Don't be afraid to change it
up, but also don't change it up too frequently.
Right. It's like you have to give the dog time
to adjust. And yeah, it might whine and cry,
but that's a natural. thing for a dog to do and
you have to let them like get and gain that independence
and sometimes it takes some big emotions to like
do that but I promise you like there's dogs we
have that have never touched a crate or been
made to stay in a crate when somebody is around
and those are the hardest ones because they're
like no no I just want to be with you I just
want to be with you I just want to be with you
I can see you but I just want to be with you
and it's like cool we're a weekend Still like
dealing with like some whining and some like,
oh, I don't want to be in here still. But it's
it's the progress that's been made in a week
when the dog could be like a year old, two years
old, still never been in a crate. But for some
reason now people are like, I need to I need
the dog to go in a crate and be OK. Almost right
with the thing that we see all the time. And
then, Jen, I'll get to your question in just
a second. I see it a lot, and this isn't me headhunting.
I'm not coming after you. I am empathetic. However,
there's no magical process that dog trainers
get dogs to love their crate that dog owners
couldn't do. Right, we put on some headphones.
We put on some headphones. We try some things
until something clicks and it's like, oh, this
is it. And when the dog stops whining, we let
it out. Yeah. But when the dog is whining, that
is not the time to let the dog out. Nope. You
have to own it. Yeah. You put the dog in there.
And it is now testing you. Yeah. And it's like,
I'm going to make this really unbearable. Right.
It's like a kid screaming in the grocery store
for candy. It's like, I'm going to scream louder
until you buy it. But when you let the dog out
of the kennel, you are offering the candy to
that kid. Right. When they are thrown a fit in
the middle of the aisle, that is the same thing.
And we just can't do that. There's no amount
of force that you have to put on your dog. It's
completely force free. You're just checking out
and ignoring the behavior that you don't want.
And then you're rewarding the behavior you do
want. There is no better way to do that. So now
the only caveat to that, the better way to do
that is to introduce it right at the beginning.
Yeah. Before those bad habits start. Right, yeah.
But once the bad habit is there, the bad habit's
there, you can't go differently. I mean, you
can pay a professional dog trainer to do the
work for you, but that is the same process. We're
not, like, casting a spell on this dog. We're
just sitting with a dog. We're sitting next to
the kennel. And letting the dog whine. And then
when the dog stops whining, we reward. Yeah.
That's how you undo it. All right. So Jen said,
so she said sometimes she needs a kennel for
herself. But sometimes Chenoa will get in her
kennel with the door open instead of her place.
Nothing wrong with that. So there is a concept
that you create. There's a more advanced concept
where you kind of control that space and then
only allow the dog to go into their kennel at
certain times. for chenoa specifically i don't
i don't see that being an issue um so there's
nothing that i would recommend with that yeah
it's totally fine most of the time that comes
down to like a problem when it's like a multi
-dog household because then dogs can just go
into whatever kennel whenever they want and it's
like i i don't ever usually like vouch for a
dog having specific things in a multi -dog like
household like toys or like whatever right that's
this dog's right yeah that's this that's their
ball it's like it's my ball and we share we all
share it and if we're not going to share it we
won't play with it but when it comes to kennels
like i said i relate a kennel back to a bedroom
and that should be their private space to go
and relax they shouldn't ever have to worry about
another dog invading that space or or trying
to argue with them over that space so that is
one of the things that i do always like tell
people is don't let dogs like swap kennels it's
if it's their kennel it's their kennel put it
on opposite sides of the room if you have to
to like differentiate but when our dogs come
out of their kennels like we close the doors
yep for safety because the way our kennels are
set up and two because we don't want dogs just
like randomly going into those kennels yep i
was ready to jump in and then i swallowed air
the wrong the wrong way um jen also said only
recently has chenoa whimpered about going into
her kennel but she settles down and then snores
um I would say that a lot of times that can be
fixed with just a little extra time or extra
repetitions of going in their kennel. Yeah, that's
like a teenage dog phase right there. It's like,
I don't want to. It's like, well, the rule has
been that rule and it's still the rule. And then...
Still Jen. Jen, you got a lot to say tonight.
So the, which is totally fine. I'm just razzing
you. The baby scenario is a true schedule. I
do that. I sit. in my recliner due to my mobility
after playtime with chenoa she goes into her
kennel for about two hours then out to potty
and then play time and interaction time yeah
uh that's like the triangle um so now this is
me talking so that's the triangle that we always
recommend right uh being the top of the triangle
is the kennel or crate time then they go straight
outside they go potty and then that way they
can come inside and immediately start their interaction
time, that is the highest statistical chance
that they are not going to have an accident,
they're not going to have an issue with potty
-based behaviors. And then at the point where
we, and when we're working on potty training,
at the point where we get done with that interaction
time, then they go back into their crate so that...
they start to expand and work the muscle that
then allows them to, to hold it longer. Um, and
then we repeat the process. Um, so yeah. And
then she said then, uh, onto a two hour kennel
time during child pickup. Yep. So that's great.
If you can't, uh, watch her and you can't observe
her or supervise, uh, crate is definitely a great
thing for her to, to go into. And then she said
Steve only goes to her kennel in order to taunt
her. So if you have that where one dog is like,
oh, I really want to come out. And the other
dog is not really respecting this space around
the kennel. I would probably restrict the other
dog from getting near that crater kennel. Yeah,
because we do like rotate dogs out in and out
of kennels. It's one to work with the dog to
get rid of that like FOMO, right? The fear of
missing out. It's like we want a dog to be able
to sit in a kennel and not whine or bark at another
dog, like working through a training session
outside of the kennel. And then we will put that
dog that just trained in the kennel, bring the
other dog out. And it's kind of teaching the
rule of like, like taking turns, right? It's
like, wait your turn. it's generally what the
concept is in like a multi -dog household yep
so i the questions i had for that section uh
was what's the step -by -step method for introducing
a puppy to the crate and i talked through that
with the whole one paw two paw three paw four
um how do we troubleshoot whining or barking
the crate you wait it out yeah it takes a long
time there is not a magical way um there are
um Air duster. So there's a bunch of these methods.
It's really dog dependent. Right. It's 100 %
dog dependent. I'm going to give you three or
four options. Some of these are popular in some
dog training circles. Some of them are frowned
upon. I'm going to let you make your own decision.
However, a couple of options. One, a can of air
duster. Not at the dog, but just to make a loud
sound, which can interrupt the pattern. Number
two, a squirt bottle of just water. Some dogs
will that will kind of shock the system and be
like, oh, I can't believe he's. What was that?
And once again, it's not in order to spray it
in the dog's face or anything like that. You
can oftentimes not even hit the dog at all and
just. Just spray like at the kennel. And it's
something that just breaks the dog's pattern.
You can a jar or a little cup or something of
pennies or small pebbles or rocks, something
that you can jingle. There are a whistle with
a nothing that's like too crazy loud, not a dog
whistle or anything like that. you know, creates
a big aversion issue, but just something that
is noise dependent, something that just like
breaks the dog's concentration and kind of resets
the dog. Um, other things are, um, uh, vibrating
remote collars, um, a little vibration. Some
dogs find vibration incredibly aversive. That's
probably not the dog that you want to use that
on. Uh, some dogs don't care about vibration
at all. Uh, that's also not the dog that you
want to use it on. So it's very dog dependent,
but, um, some dogs, I, my, my Dutch shepherd
works very, very well with vibrate. It doesn't
shake his head or anything, but you can tell
that his little ear perks up and he's like, Oh,
that's, that's my dad. That's my dad saying.
Stop it. That means no. Right. That means no.
So those are a whole bunch of options that you
can use to just break the pattern. But the end
all be all the most appropriate technique is
ignore it. Yeah. And don't reward it. Yeah. Because
sometimes like so we go to no. Right. Sometimes
it's just going no. and verbally correcting the
dog. Sometimes that works. Sometimes negative
attention is still attention. Right. I was going
to say, we had one dog that every time I would
go, no, they would bark more. Yeah, right. And
it was very quick. And so we sit here and I'm
giving you all these ideas, but then you might
have one of those dogs. You might have that dog
that you do all these things and you're like,
well. That guy's crazy. He doesn't know what
he's talking about because none of that stuff
works. Right. It's possible. We had another dog
that that none of that worked. You know what
worked the best was just completely removing
their ability to see anything that was going
on outside of the crate. Yeah. Right. So just
placing something like a screen in front of the
crate, not, you know, blocking the crate from
airflow or anything, but just angling it. And
placing a screen a couple feet off so that they
couldn't see anything. And then we didn't talk
to him. We didn't say no. We didn't say anything.
Right. So that was like with Dexter. Like when
we first brought him in, we were like, oh, cool.
Let's put him in the bedroom. And then let's
put him like out of the bedroom and further away.
Because like I said, some dogs work better when
they can see you. And some dogs work better when
they can't. Yep. Absolutely. All right. So that
is a bunch of the troubleshooting. techniques.
Last one I've got written down. Thank you everyone
for bearing with me. I really try to keep these
just under an hour. We're going over. We're at
an hour and four minutes. How do we teach owners
to keep the crate a positive tool for the long
term? Do not use it to punish the dog. What that
means is that if you're using it because the
dog just pooped on the floor and you need the
dog out of there, you've got to step up and control
your emotions. And you've got to hide the fact
that you are so pissed and you got to be like,
come on, buddy, let's go over here and then put
the dog away. Now that's separate from however
it is that you're going to react to or correct
the potty training thing. That was a different
episode. I give you a whole bunch of options
for that on the last episode. But what I'm getting
at here is that. Dog chews up wall. You grab
the dog by the collar and toss him into a kennel
and slam the door. You messed up. That is now
showing the dog that when they're being punished,
that's where they're going to go. You can't do
that. And I know that it's frustrating. I know
it's incredibly frustrating to come home and
I've done it. I've come home and I've been like,
oh man, I messed up. And by me messed up, I mean
my dogs chose the wrong thing. Right? It happens.
And it happens to us too. And that can be incredibly
frustrating. But separate your emotions from
that moment because you are now faced with a
moment to either lead your dog or to simply react.
And I'm going to. I'm going to try to empower
you here through my voice right now to please
own your emotions, their human emotions, and
then lead your dog, guide them to what you need
them to do. All right. Let's see. I'm just scanning
through there. All right. So the only thing I
got left is listener projects. So we'll hit those
in just a second. I'm going to open this up to
two questions here. I get my Jeopardy music.
See, just waiting for the lawsuit from Jeopardy.
All right, so if anybody's got questions, now
is the time. Go ahead and unmute your mics and
we'll handle. Hey, guys, it's Heath. Hey, Heath.
So my question is, how do you know or how do
you determine, I guess, What size crate is good
for your dog? So we recommend kind of the blanket
statement of the dog should have enough room
to turn around in the crate and have enough room
to sit and the top of their head should not like,
they shouldn't have to like hang their head,
right? They should be able to sit up in the crate.
Gotcha. So those are like the two major measurements.
And then obviously the third measurement is like
the dog should be able to lay down without having
to like curl up in a tiny little ball. Yeah.
Yeah. We've been obviously doing a lot of kennel
time with Luna since she's been back. And so
that's, there's one thing we've been looking
at is like, I wonder if she just needs just maybe
just a hair bigger crate than what we have currently.
Yeah. And so that's another thing is like that's
minimum size. But if the dog is older and doesn't
have a problem with like pottying in the kennel,
we'll give them a much larger space than we would
like a puppy. Right. So if I have no concern
of her like using the bathroom in a kennel for
for several hours, but I am. more apt to give
the dog more room to kind of like walk around
in the kennel and like kind of have their space
if they're an older dog and they're there they
have no problems with being in the kennel but
a lot of times it's it's no issue as long as
they have the potty training down that's a really
good point so that recommendation was was me
right into dog trainer potty mode yeah but luna
specifically um uh heath is luna's owner and
luna is a Very, very, very good and highly potty
trained. So I don't think that she had in her
entire program with us. I don't think she had
a single accident. So definitely not a potty
training is a risk that we would worry about.
For my dogs, I measure from their chest to the
base of their tail. And then I add about six
to eight inches on that. And then that's usually
about where I go for length of the kennel because
they'll usually that allows them to kind of like
sprawl out a little bit, but still have, you
know, be nice and cozy. If it's if it's too big,
then. That can sometimes not feel as soothing
as we have kind of let it to be. Yeah, Luna slept
in one of our larger travel kennels for the most
part. And it was one of the, what is that brand?
Creek kennels. Rock Creek. Rock Creek kennels.
It's a metal kennel and it's actually for anxiety.
It has like. different hole positionings in the
crate and everything like that it's metal had
a pad in it we typically give pads softer pads
to dogs in the travel kennels if they won't chew
them up or or ruin them and destroy them so she
always had a pad on the bottom of hers but they
do make Lots of kennels for higher anxiety dogs.
And it's all about like the positioning of how
much they can see. But that is the one that she
spent most of her time in. I'd say it was probably
like four times maybe the size that like she
would need at like a minimum. But she tends to
like curl up in a little like ball or lay flat
on her side. So dogs that I know like to sleep
like that, I typically go for a big enough size
to where they can lay on their side. you know,
stretch their legs out entirely. Yep. Awesome.
Thanks so much guys. Yeah. Yeah. No problem.
All right. Anybody else got a question tonight?
I do. I do have one question. Steven Harmon.
Hey Steve. Hey, hello. So my question, it doesn't
come from the crate training. I guess it's just,
it's going to go into like more of your overall.
uh training and stuff and you just mentioned
something off offhand but when you have a dog
that you tell him no and he doesn't really respond
to no and he kind of gets a little bit more agitated
not actually in a bad way just a little bit more
playful i think in the game um what is the best
way of going about uh that is it do we introduce
the bottles do we introduce the vibration collars
at that point or what's the best bet So it depends
on why they're ramping up to no. Sometimes when
a dog starts to learn, and so with your dog being
as young as it is, when a dog starts to learn
what no means, you start to get an increase in
frustration when the dog's being faced with,
this is what I want, and you're telling me I
can't have it. That excitement, right, where
the dog starts to ramp up is really based in
frustration. And so there's a couple of different
things that we can do. One, we can kind of control
the whole situation with a leash right off the
bat, right, with that drag line and us just kind
of grabbing up that drag line and being like,
no, no, we're going to. How about down? We're
going to work on down. And then we can just kind
of reward that like calm energy. Anytime we can
reward for calm, we want to do that. And that
will help to counteract some of that. If the
dog is just like, no, no, I'm going to initiate
this game. What I recommend that you do is based
on your time and if the situation is appropriate,
I recommend that owners initiate their own game.
Right. Rather than playing the game that the
dog wants to play, you take control of the whole
situation and and embark on a different adventure.
So that could be, hey, actually, we're going
to go for a walk or, hey, actually, no, we're
going to play this game over here with this with
this object or no, we're going to go in the backyard
or no, we're we're going to go. Now's some place
time or crate time or whatever. Whatever it is,
I just recommend that you own that decision and
don't meet the dog at their level when they're
just responding in a frustrated manner to you
controlling your house. It's 100 % very much
just a frustration. Yeah, I feel that. I feel
that it is very much just him getting frustrated
that, wait, now I can't do what I want to do.
Exactly. And going back to the crate training,
so what if, like, he gets the zoomies, so I tell
him no, he gets the zoomies, he thinks it's a
game, and then he nips a little bit, not hard,
he's a little puppy. Would it be okay if I calmly
took him and put him in the kennel at that point?
No discipline or nothing like that. Should we
go back to the crate training on that part? So
if it's the zoomies, he's nipping, I can't really
get him to play another game or I can't really
get him to settle. Should that be when I just
say, okay, buddy, let's go relax? Yes, 100 %
yes. As long as you introduce that in a calm
manner, you won't have an, you won't. create
a bad habit you just can't be like ah you you
bit at me or you you know you nipped at me and
then you grab him and you kind of force him into
a kennel instead i just recommend that you just
take 10 seconds interact with him just enough
that you've kind of taken the control of that
situation and then you're like you know what
i've got an idea let's go into our crate absolutely
thank you so much but yeah you can definitely
use that is the best times to use a crate for
confinement right is like cool dogs ramping up
and like that's not appropriate for this situation
so we're going to institute some additional confinement
so that then the dog can self -soothe and calm
themselves down rather than you trying to like
have to force them to. All right. Thank you so
much. No problem. No problem. All right. I'm
going to close it down if we don't have anything
else. Give it about 10 seconds here. All right.
I think that's it. So, um, thank you everybody
for tuning in tonight. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being engaging and, uh, asking your
questions. Um, as we are getting back on schedule
here, uh, we had missed a couple of weeks, but
we're back in the swing of things. We'll get
these out pretty much every week. Um, Wednesdays
is when we do our recordings Wednesdays at 7
45 PM, just for everybody that's listening. This
is a kind of our, targeted time um anyone who's
tuning in after the fact uh feel free to leave
us a comment leave us a like and uh leave us
a review let us know how we're doing or what
you want to what you want to see um i think that's
all i got brianna you got anything no that was
a great one no all right guys we'll sign off
from here good night