Along with destructive behavior, crate training your dog can be an effective way of also house breaking them since they most often will not soil the area where they sleep.

Right along those same lines comes the tasks of reducing separation anxiety which will often cause a dog to bark constantly when the owner is not present, as well as training a dog to calmly travel - both in the car and by airplane.

Some of the main aspects to be aware of when beginning to train your dog or puppy (by the way, the age of your dog hardly matters) are size of the crate, placement within the home of the crate, and finally your dogs crate routine or schedule. This is what I'll be going over now.

Does Size Really Matter?

Hey, get your mind out of the gutter, size of the dog crate I mean! This is usually the part that people get wrong right off the bat. The answer is actually yes, the size of the crate does matter. There are a few reasons why the size of the crate is a factor. First, the dog needs to get to know the crate as a place that NOT for punishment, but should eventually learn to enjoy being in the crate and feel a sense of comfort in it. Therefore, for an adult dog, there should be plenty of room for them to sit, stand, and stretch out in the crate. The dog should feel comfortable in their crate.

For a puppy, you should separate the crate so that there's only enough room for the things mentioned, and not extra room. This is because again, dogs usually will not go potty where they sleep, so making the puppies area only big enough for personal space, and not potty space is very important in house training.

Placement of Crate

When crate training a dog, you want the crate to be as much as a social area as possible so that the dog doesn't connect the crate with loneliness and separation. So, it's important to move the crate around with you, or the family, so that the dog always feels as though they are being made apart of the action.

Now maybe most important to the whole process is the routine that you set for your dog with the crate.

This will be important to both letting the dog get used to the crate as well as actually making him feel a sense of comfort with it. You should give the dog a safe chew toy and his very own blanket to have in the crate. Never give your dog food or water in the crate. You don't eat in bed do you?

Anytime you have to leave the dog by itself, put them in the crate. As well, in the beginning you should leave the dog in the crate for 1-2 hour intervals at a time. Never longer than 4 hours, especially for puppies, because this is beyond the amount of time that they can go without defecation.

Basically, making the dog crate training a positive experience for the dog is most important. Remember to never use the crate as a punishment tool, and very soon the dog will be so in love with its crate that it would take a bulldozer to get it away.