How to Crate Train Your New Puppy

Many new dog owners get the shock of their life when they discover that their newly acquired dogs can give them a host of problems to deal with. Perhaps the most notable problem is the issue of urinating and defecating. If your dog or puppy starts to urinate or defecate in places where they are not supposed to (like carpets), and this becomes a habit, you may end up having to clean up after your dog on a regular basis. For sure, this is an unpleasant task that all dog owners want to avoid.

The good news is, it is not difficult to housebreak a dog once you know how the crate training process works. First of all, you must understand that dogs form behavioral habits. The way habits are formed is very much similar to that of a human being. Once a dog starts associating pleasure with a certain behavior, it will repeat the behavior over and over again. And the habit is formed.

For example, a young puppy, unfamiliar with its new environment, may start urinating indoors. If nothing is done to send the message that this is the wrong behavior, the puppy will continue to do this until a habit is formed. And once a bad habit is formed, it is very difficult to correct the habit.

For this reason, it is always wise to housebreak a dog as soon as possible. Note that there is a right way, and a wrong way when it comes to housebreaking your dog.

Your housebreaking efforts will be considered successful only when your dog eventually learns to urinate or defecate at the right place, and at the right time. So you will need to help the dog remember where and when to let go. One way to do this is to use a crate.

A crate is one of the most commonly used tool to help housebreak a dog. This is because it is a dog's natural instinct to not dirty its own bedding. Initially, a dog may reject going into a crate. If it starts to protest, pay little attention to the dog. Give it a little more time and it will soon make itself comfortable in the crate, and start to treat the crate as its own bedding.

The crate keeps the dog in a fixed location and it will not have to chance to move around the house. In a way, this helps prevent the dog from cultivating any bad urinating habits.

There are times that you don't want your dog to urinate - for example, during your own bedtime. You don't want to be getting up several times during the night just so you can bring the dog out to urinate. This is when you should keep the dog in the crate.

Usually, it is harder for a puppy to go for long periods of time without having to urinate. But as the puppy grows older, and with proper training, this problem will eventually go away.