Step-by-Step Crate Training for Your Dog

Crates are valuable tools for puppies, especially when it comes to potty training and preventing your pup from chewing the furniture. A crate can also provide an adult dog with space for relaxation and time away from stressful situations. Plus, crates make for safe traveling with your dog.  With so many benefits to crate training, it’s well worth the effort. You might wonder how long dogs can stay in crates or what size crate is most appropriate. However, the biggest struggle is often how to crate train a dog in the first place. Learn this valuable skill with step-by-step crate training instructions below.

In This Article

Step-by-Step Crate Training

When teaching your puppy or dog to get comfortable with their crate, try this method. Getting more familiar and comfortable spending time in their crate will help your dog create positive associations with it.

1. Awareness: Help you dog feel comfortable with their crate
2. Exploration: Encourage your dog to enter the crate
3. Getting Used to It: Close the crate door with your dog inside
4. Familiarity: Build up the time your dog spends inside their crate slowly
5. Training: Teach your dog to enter their crate voluntarily
6. Positive Associations: Make the crate your dog’s happy place

Help Your Dog Feel Comfortable With Their Crate

Before ever going inside, it’s essential that your dog feels good about their crate. After all, it’s a strange new object. With the door tied open, try the following techniques to positively reinforce your dog for going near their crate:

Encourage Your Dog to Enter the Crate

Once your dog feels relaxed around the crate, it’s time to lure them inside, again with the door fastened in a fully open position. Take it slow and heap on the rewards. You want your dog to look forward to entering their crate thanks to all the positive associations they have formed with it. But note that, whenever your dog is in their crate, you should remove their collar. Collars can become a danger if they get stuck in the bars.

Start by enticing your dog to pop their head inside. Next, place the lures farther and farther back until your dog is putting their whole body into the crate. You can use various rewards as lures. For example:

• Feed your dog inside the crate. Start with the bowl in the doorway, then move it farther in at each subsequent meal.
• Toss treats inside the crate.
• Play games like fetch that involve entering the crate. Toss a ball or toy just inside the door, then, once your dog happily retrieves it, aim farther back each time.

If you’re using a clicker or marker word, mark your dog as soon as they enter the crate. Then toss another reward inside to reinforce that position. If your dog stays inside, continue to click and treat. If they exit, toss another reward into the crate and start again.

Close the Crate Door

Only start closing the door when your dog is enthusiastically entering their crate. But take this step extra slowly. A loud bang or a bump from the door can instantly reverse all the positive associations you worked so hard to build. Repeat step two, but this time, while your dog is inside the crate, you’ll begin closing the door. It can help to keep your dog busy by placing a handful of treats on the crate floor during this process. Remember, patience and consistency are key.

First, move the door toward a closed position by only an inch or two. Then immediately secure it fully open again. If your dog seems unfazed, try moving the door a few more inches. Continue in this way until you can gently close the door entirely. As soon you shut the door, mark, then toss treats inside to reinforce your dog for being in the enclosed area. Then open the door again right away. Don’t latch the door until your dog is happy to see the door swing shut.

If your dog is noise-sensitive, the clank of the door closing and latching might trigger anxiety. Countercondition and desensitize your dog to the sound by keeping it quiet, then slowly increase building the volume while pairing it with something your dog loves, like cheese or chicken.

Build Your Dog’s Time in Their Crate

Now that your dog is at ease behind a closed door, begin to build how long they’ll stay inside. Start with a few seconds and slowly build duration. Always reward your dog while they’re in the crate by passing or tossing treats through the bars. Time inside should be treat-party time, and as soon as your dog leaves, the rewards should stop. You want your dog to get excited about confinement because that’s when the good stuff happens.

Next, it’s time to add distance. As you do, reduce duration. Successful dog training involves working only one dimension at a time. So, while your dog is inside their closed crate, take one step back for one second. Then return to the crate, reward your dog, and open the door so they can leave. If your dog is comfortable, walk farther away, one pace at a time. Eventually, you should be able to leave the room before you return.

At that point, you can begin to build duration again. Alone time training will help this phase go more smoothly. It’s also important not to make each repetition harder and harder. Intersperse short, near sessions with longer, more distant ones, so your dog never knows how far or how long you will be gone.

You might wonder how long dogs can stay in crates. Certainly, no longer than they can hold their bladder, and that will depend on your dog’s age. Leaving a puppy alone is different from leaving a house-trained adult dog crated. But even then, it shouldn’t be all day, every day.

Teach Your Dog to Enter Their Crate Voluntarily

Ideally, you want your dog to enter their crate when asked. Never force them inside; use a lure instead. Eventually, you can fade the lure and teach a hand signal or verbal cue such as “crate” or “kennel up.”

When you can reliably anticipate your dog will go in their crate, say the word or give the gesture just before your dog is about to enter. Then treat as usual. Over time, they’ll associate that cue with entering the crate and receiving a reward, so you can ask them to enter when needed. However, continue to reward them for entering at least once in a while to maintain those positive associations.

Make the Crate Your Dog’s Happy Place

Your dog’s crate should serve as their personal happy place. Never use the crate for punishment. If you need to give your dog a time-out in their crate, calmly encourage them inside and reward them for entering.

To keep your dog excited about crate time, try the following:

• Leave surprise treats inside the crate for your dog to find on their own. For example, a food-stuffed toy or a bully stick.
• Keep your dog occupied while inside. As long as it’s safe for your dog’s play style, consider leaving a snuffle mat stuffed with kibble or treats inside. Or try a lick mat attached to the wall.
• Keep the crate door tied open when not in use, so your dog can enter and exit at will with no fear of the door.

Additional Crate Training Tips

Never release your dog from their crate when they’re whining. That teaches your dog that crying is the ticket to escape. Instead, wait for a few seconds of quiet, then reward your dog inside the crate and open the door so they can leave. Whining means you’ve asked for too much too soon. Move back in your training to where your dog is comfortable, then start working through the steps again.

The exception is potty training. If you’re crating your puppy overnight, let them out when they whine or fuss, as they most likely have to go to the bathroom. If your dog seems panicked or won’t stop crying, they might have separation anxiety. Stop crate training immediately and seek the help of a professional dog trainer or behavior consultant.

Be aware that crate training can take as little as a day or as long as several months. It all depends on your dog’s personality and past experience with confinement. Be patient and take it slowly and in time, your dog will be happy to call their crate home.