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Copyright ©2001-2011SilvestreCreations Scarlett on the sofa above. No cages for her! Cage Training
©2009Jon&Beckie I just love this photo of Izzy in her house cage, thanks Jon for taking it and sending it over. She is a completely cute dog! I am asked time and time again if crate training a puppy is necessary. We never used to have house cages at all, as they were not widely available, and they were expensive. Also I was never quite sure if containing a dog in such a limited space was a good idea. For years we would hear "oh they are cruel". After being persuaded to buy one by a friend/breeder, we never looked back and all our puppies are crate trained now. When we have a litter of puppies they are kept in our home in a large puppy pen with panels similar to the crate, so they are already used to being contained. This is the first stage of crate training. Crates should be used to keep your puppy safe while you are out of the home. Or while you are sleeping or not able to keep an eye on the puppy. Maybe you work from home and preoccupied. You can go out and not worry about your dog, you can go to sleep with out worrying he is getting into mischief. Having heard of many stories of owners who have taken pets from us with out crating, and the dog has chewed through electric cables is enough of a reason to crate the dog. Crate training is a valuable aid for house training the puppy. Although we do advise you buy a large house cage, we advise buying one with a re-moveable divider inside. These are available now from: http://www.doghealth.co.uk/dh.htm With the re-moveable divider you can make your house cage smaller whilst your puppy is tiny. Restricting space will help reduce his mess in the cage. If he does not mess you can make the area larger and larger until he has the whole crate to himself. We recommend putting bedding one end and newspaper the other so he mess's on paper. It is easy to pick up. Remember to take your puppy out often to the toilet. If you leave puppy in there all day long he can not help messing in the cage. I do not believe any animal should be caged all day long, every single day of its life. A dog and in particular the gundog group need adequate exercise. A crate should be big enough! Do not house your dog all the time in a cage that is too small for it. A dog should be able to stand up and not stoop. You must clean the accommodation often with the correct cleaning agents. The bedding must be clean. It must not be in a draft area, or in direct sunlight. A dog's accommodation must be adequate size, be clean and not to be over heated, to be in the guide lines of the 5 freedoms of animal welfare. 1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour. 2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area. 3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment. 4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind. 5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering. What happens if you leave a puppy in the house to have free running of the house, in one word "mess". Well it is not a nice picture I can tell you, as dogs do not know they should not stand in their own poop, or run over the house once they have done it, or jump on your furniture, and it is amazing how one little poop will cover a kitchen floor, walls. Crates are pretty useful too to prevent unwanted chewing, and all puppies chew. They start to really chew quite a lot from 7 weeks onwards. But putting the puppy in the cage and giving bones and toys he is allowed to chew what you want him to chew. When he is out of the crate you can supervise what he chews. This will teach him very quickly what is acceptable and what is not. We believe dogs in house crates are less destructive. Dogs love dens, in the wild they would have a home/den where they would go to each day. The domestic dog is no different he needs a place which he can call his own. So if raised properly he will eventually enjoy his den. Not all people like dogs, and if you get family come around you can pop your puppy/dog into the crate and your dog is out of the way. Buy a crate that will fit your dog when it is an adult, also one that will fit your house. Sometimes you can have a smaller size. A dog should not stoop when standing in a house cage, so buy a big enough cage. You can also buy fabric cages which are light weight, so if you have to tow a caravan they are easy as they do not add to the weight.
http://www.doghealth.co.uk/newpage12.htm
How to Crate Train your Dog. Buy your crate well in advance of bringing your puppy home as you will need it before the puppy comes home. To set the crate up its pretty easy, they come folded like a suitcase with a handle, you can carry it to the room you want it to be in and open it all up. Fix it so it cant collapse and put in the bedding. Set it up in an area which is out of the way but your puppy can see you. A puppy likes to wake up early in the morning in the summer because dogs wake at Dawn. You can not take out of the dog its instincts. But to help your puppy sleep for longer you can cover the cage at night with a blanket. If it is extreme hot weather you could cover the cage with a space blanket to keep the cage cool inside. Did you know you can buy crate fans for hot weather ? Do not go out leaving your dog in a crate if it is extremely hot weather. Just like you would not leave your dog in a car, you should not leave your dog in a crate if it is in direct sunlight. Same goes for a draughty area, a dog should not be left in a draft area. Place the crate when house training just inside the doorway area so you can take the puppy straight outside. When house training, it is very important to take your puppy outside for a wee very often in the first few weeks, so place your cage so that it is a quick exit. A dog will get wet and dirty outside, and you can easily train your dog to run into the cage, and your floors will keep cleaner than if he runs through the house to get to the cage. First Day home: Open the cage door and put his bedding inside, also place a chew or toy. Leave the door open and encourage him inside the cage by feeding him in there. Let him wander in and out as he pleases. As the day goes on, if he goes sleepy lift him inside the cage and shut the door. At night shut the door. He is going to cry. Do not let the dog crash on the sofa in the first few days as your dog will think that he can sleep on the sofa at night and cry all the more. Second day home: Open the cage door and allow him to run in and out, however you need to close the door and let your puppy cry in the cage whilst you are going about your daily chores. Ignore the pup, but if he goes quiet and seems to play contented you can open up the door and let him out. It is to be expected that your puppy will cry a lot in the first two weeks. Eventually the puppy will be able to be left in the cage with out crying, and also you will be able to let the puppy into the house more and more. I would never say that a dog is totally out of a crate, I do know many people take their cages down after 18 months, but we keep ours erected as it is such a good place for our dogs to crash whilst drying their feet. We recommend Pro Fleece bedding for the crate, its warm, any fluids pass through, and it keeps dry on top. Its thick and it washes easy and dries quickly. This is the link to the site we recommend. What treats do we recommend? We use hide chews, bones, kong, rope toys, or nyla bones. We do not use cuddly toys as they will de-stuff them. If your puppy does not want to go in the cage and night and cries all night. The secret is to put the puppy in the house cage during the day time, so the puppy gets used to the crate at day as well as night. Separating yourself just at night from the puppy they do not understand why this has happened. So if you can do it during the day time whilst you go about your daily business they will then get better at night. Once they have got better at night you can then let them have longer periods outside the crate during the day time. Let us know if this page has helped you. Rachel Savage
This
site is designed by Rachel at Silvestre Gundogs Uk Weimaraner and Hungarian Vizsla breeder
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