Do you want to know how to stop your puppy from barking in the crate? Does your puppy keep you up barking at night? If so, this video will help you stop crate barking, whining and separation anxiety! Keep in mind that most people use the words kennel, crate and cage interchangeably. We generally use the word crate, but the other words mean the same thing to us!

Teaching your dog how to walk into a crate and stay in there calmly needs to be worked on from the first day you get your puppy! Barking in the crate can occur for a variety of reasons. The two main causes of crate barking are separation anxiety and excitability. The good news is that most puppies that bark in the crate don’t have separation anxiety issues, they are just telling you that they want out! Regardless of why they are barking, this video will help you fix their issues!

The first step to stop your dog from barking in the crate is teaching them the heel command. It may seem unrelated, but trust us, it helps! For more information on the heel command, please watch this video!    • Puppy's First Walk! What to Do and Wh...  

The heel command allows us to give your dog a mental and physical job, ultimately making them tired and mentally calm! A tired dog is a good dog! Heel is also used to teach your dog to walk into the crate calmly, and used if your dog ever gets too worked up in the crate! It is a great reset button!

Once you teach your dog heel, you are ready to start the crate process. The more training you give your dog before you start this process the better! In this video we used treats to help guide this puppy into the crate. Whether you use treats or for how long you use them depends on the dog. Overall, we do not want to rush this process and we need to make sure we are working at a pace that makes sense for your dog.

Once your dog has gone into the crate a few times, we will slowly start expecting more of them. This next step is to make sure your dog is learning the crate command. You can use whatever word you like here, but make sure you are consistent. We use heel and some leash pressure if needed to help guide the dog in. One of the most important parts is to make sure the dog is not bolting out when we open the door. The reason all of this is important is that it is teaching your puppy to feel calm in the crate rather than excited in the crate.

Once you have built a good foundation of positive experiences with the crate, we are ready to slowly build up time. If we did our job well, your dog should be doing better at this step. As we build up time, we want to start correcting any chewing, thrashing, excessive whining, or barking. We believe in the word no, followed up with the leash or collar correction if needed. The correction itself is not meant to be hard, it is just meant to break their focus and catch their attention, but we need to be stern and consistent. If the correction is not breaking your dog’s focus and they continue to carry on, then you can use the heel command to calm their brain back down.

One thing to keep in mind is you should try and make the crate a positive experience. We recommend giving your puppy something to chew while in the crate, but be mindful if they are heavy chewers. Some of our favorite things to give dogs to chew while in the crate are antlers or the Toppl West Paw. To see our review on the West Paw Toppl watch this video!    • Dog Trainer Reviews: West Paw Toppl T...  

One last thing to consider is the right sizing for your dog’s crate. For more information on the correct sizing for your dog;s crate, please watch our picking the right size crate video!    • How TO and How NOT to Size a Dog Crate!  

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Heel Your Dog!
01:16 Crate Acclimation
05:44 Teaching “Crate” Command
08:30 Using “No” And Corrections
11:07 Using Heel To Calm
13:57 Advancing
14:18 Should I Put Something In The Crate?
15:05 Should I Ignore My Dog When They Bark?
15:34 Should We Correct Whining?
16:17 Is This Realistic With A Young Puppy?
16:47 What Size Crate?
17:10 How Do Work On The Crate Away From The House?

#dogtraining #puppytraining #cratetraining