Crate Training Your Lab Puppy – How To Avoid Separation Anxiety With Your Dog
I know you can do it buddy
I know you can do it no no he says
that’s where your hand went good oh hi
good boy
[Music]
hey guys Ethan here with standing stone
kennels and we are back with another
sprig training series training video we
are talking all about crate training
today now there’s a couple different
things that we need to discuss to begin
with
first of all crate training is extremely
important but there’s a lot of different
ways that you can look at that term and
what it actually means so for our dogs
it’s not like we’re now magically
starting to work on crate training with
him the reason that we’ve incorporated
this in this stage of his training now
is because he’s ready to start being
introduced to the queue itself to learn
how to go into his crate up until this
point we’ve more or less helped him into
the crate and that’s it there’s no
expectation that I can say from across
the room
go into your kennel and stay there so
that’ll be what we’re teaching today but
first we want to cover why crate
training is important a couple things
that people struggle with maybe and then
how to work through those as well as for
those of you that we lose after 30
seconds we’re giving one of these bad
boys away you lucky ducks this is the
lucky kennel and because you’re watching
this video you have an opportunity to
win this kennel and their new mat that
comes in the kennel to give your dog a
not only safe spot to stay but also a
very comfortable place to lay so to
begin with we talk about why crate
training is important let’s face it dogs
being in crates keeps your stuff safer
when you’re gone and the puppy’s safer
that’s both traveling and just when
you’re at home now
to begin at the very beginning steps of
crate training we need to have an
understanding of what size of crate that
the dog needs you need a
puppy appropriate sized crate to begin
with and then you’re going to grow the
crate size as the dog grows so again
they don’t have specific ages or dates
or to the hour of which you know who you
guys are of when you need to change the
crates but you need to be able to tell
that your puppy is able to go in lay
down stand up but not have excessive
amounts of room don’t go on buying it
and going big or going home and getting
the largest crate you can find and
saying the dog will grow into it if you
do that they’re going to pee and poop
and one into the kennel and then sleep
in the other and that’s going to cause
lots of issues with not only your house
training but your crate training so get
a size appropriate crate now sprig has
graduated through multiple different
sizes you can in the beginning stages go
to Walmart Target pet stores get those
less expensive clamshell crates they’re
going to work great but when you start
considering traveling with your dog in
the crate you can look on the internet
you can find how those clam shell
cheaper crates actually do in accidents
we all know how important our dogs are
to us so protecting them while you’re on
the road involves putting them in a safe
place it’s also you know some of us
allow the dogs to ride in the cab with
us you gotta think about just allowing
you how important seatbelts are to us
crates kind of help keep those dogs safe
if you have a quality heavy-duty crate
the dog may be banged up a little bit
but ultimately they’re gonna be fine
well not in the crate whether or not in
the kree excuse me they may end up
getting thrown from the vehicle or even
worse something that we don’t need to
really talk about anymore but size is
appropriate and then also quality is
appropriate when you plan on traveling
we saw these guys come out they are
super super nice crates
you’ve got durability I mean you can
stand on the sucker it’s got handles to
pick it up and load it tie-down straps
all of the things that make durability
and easy usability for travel with
dog now we’ve talked about size Sprague
is getting bigger so we have able to
upgrade him to this guy and he’ll be
able to stay in this crate for quite
some time almost through maturity with
him he should be a medium size dog he’s
not gonna be huge and this is gonna be a
great size for him he’s ready for it now
some puppies at 16 weeks like Sprague is
now are not gonna be ready for quite
this size of kennel it all depends on
your dog’s level of Clement cleanliness
and how they’re doing through this
process sprigs been super clean so we’ve
been able to upgrade him to a larger
size give him a little more room now if
we took a step back started to have an
accident or two we’d have to evaluate
maybe we need that smaller crate still
but we need to have realistic
expectations so when you are with your
dog you cannot say I need you to stay in
this crate for ten hours and not have an
accident when they’re little itty bitty
puppies you know we all have jobs but
you signed up for getting a puppy
so make the arrangements figure out how
to take your lunch or get a friend to be
able to let your young puppies out so
they can go to the bathroom midday it’s
at a minimum they need to go to the
bathroom we need to have realistic
expectations for them to be successful
so we’ve talked about the importance of
size and durability as well as having
realistic expectations of what they can
be expected to do and then the next
thing is a lot of people and mostly the
last thing that we’re going to talk
about about crate training is we hear a
lot about anxiety issues my dog hates
the crate my dog hates when I leave and
then we start bringing breaking that
down and when do they go in the crate
well they just go in the crate when I
leave and that’s probably one of the
biggest mistakes that I think people
make they want to spend all of the time
with them while they’re home which is
good dogs need out time they need
exercise they need structured training
they need free playtime but they also
need crate time they need to understand
that that is a safe place and that is a
good place to be while you’re there and
while you’re away again with realistic
expectations and making sure that you
are putting enough time into training
and development and exercise to keep
their brains and their bodies in good
condition so now that we’ve talked about
this we’re going to start teaching
Sprigg how to go into the kennel on cue
good boy
now this kennel is pretty cool this door
actually going to come all the way off
which is going to make the introduction
to this process easier there’s a couple
little clips right in here and then it’s
spring-loaded so you can pull that off
now why is that gonna make it easier
because it’s not gonna open and close
while we’re trying to teach him how to
go into the kennel now if you’ve been
watching along with Spriggs progress
you’ve seen we do a lot of his training
sessions with his meals and the
beginning of his sessions I talked about
this
he’s almost frantically working not
really listening to what I’m saying just
trying to figure out how to get food so
we actually started today’s session with
feeding him half of his meal before we
began filming now he is focused but
drastically less frantic so it’s
sometimes you got to take a look at your
session and see what the dog is doing
and how you can make it better for them
and giving them better opportunities to
learn so we’re gonna start this by
warming him up just a little bit good
job there’s a target sit good boy good
here good good we’ve got his focus now
we’re going to move toward the crate and
we’re gonna figure out what the best way
is to help introduce him to movement
toward okay now I took advantage of that
that little hand movement that I made
almost inadvertently got him to move
toward the crate and I marked that you
can mark positive reinforcement training
you can use your clicker to mark stages
of a new behavior they’re learning I
marked him getting near the front of the
door so again we saw that same thing now
up until this point we’ve been
training and we talked about that but I
haven’t had an expectation of him going
in on cue or going in on his own all
we’ve done is grabbed him by the collar
helped lead him into the kennel and then
closed the door that is a good start
he’s pretty good at going in and if I
were to grab his collar and leave him he
wouldn’t bite me he’d going but I want
him to start to develop this behavior of
good now I don’t know how well exactly
you guys can see that but I’ve marked
the first time I marked he put one paw
inside the kennel this is how powerful
this tool is now he’s tried it twice so
he’s just figured out now that marking
that putting his feet right in the
opening then he turns and looks to me so
we’ve taught him that that is the first
step of going into the kennel little bit
of body movement hand gestures good can
help now what I see is going to be a
struggle already as he wants to keep eye
contact with me and focus on where that
treats coming from so going all the way
in is gonna be a bigger commitment for
him we’re getting pretty close to that
good now to explain exactly what
happened there he put those front paws
in and I held the clip and then he tried
again what do I need to do try harder
doing that
and welcome back guys the camera had a
little technical difficulties battery
died so we are back with you and we’re
gonna continue the Sun so right before
we cut off he learned he’s learned now
that putting his paws in we were marking
that marking that marking that and we
got about five six reps and then he went
to do it and I didn’t mark it and he
went I need to try harder which is what
that positive reinforcement training can
do it can develop a dog that really
likes to learn and likes to train and he
said how do I figure this out because I
know I has something to do with this
kennel so he made it more of a weigh-in
and I marked that process of him moving
in so we’re gonna show that again a
little bit of gestures body gestures
from me movement toward the crate is
helping him so we’re gonna continue to
do that okay
lost just a little bit of momentum but I
think we can get it back here pretty
quick
so that was that halfway in halfway out
thing so we’re gonna mark that like I
said we lost a little bit of momentum
and we’re gonna regain that here just by
marking a couple just by marking a
couple times so marked as soon as this
feet hit the pad and we’ll get him move
in that direction good there we go good
starting to move that direction good
come on get all the way in there come on
I know you can do it buddy I know you
can do it no no he says that’s where
your hand went good oh hey good boy we
need to give him a little bit of a
jackpot a few more kibble there
something
said you heard a little more verbal out
of me I don’t do a whole lot of that but
that was exciting so hairball I hear
about that there it is good his feet
moving good job he still wants to keep
focus on me there you go good another
whole handful show him that was really
good that’s what we wanted good give you
all the way in there good job let’s see
if we can get a couple more reps good
boy good boy good boy
now this is what the next stage would be
good now that he’s pretty consistently
understanding all the way in is how
we’re getting rewarded kennel we can
start to incorporate that cue now you’ve
already heard us use the cue kennel for
place good job kennel good boy I’ve
already heard us use that cue dogs are
placed in situationally oriented and can
figure out very quickly that kennel
means any place that we want them to go
good job so it’s okay if that means
loaded into the truck it’s okay if it
means to go into the crate it can be to
go onto a dog bed and what it’s gonna do
for us is simplify the amount of
vocabulary that we have to use when
communicating with our dogs now if you
have the truck good if you have the
truck the dog bed the dog box all of the
things next to each other and you say
kennel he’s gonna pick one that’s gonna
be the one situation where things can
get a little bit confusing but Haughton
is that the case so kennel can be used
simplifies our vocabulary makes it
easy for them now everybody that is
watching we have this awesome lucky duck
brand kennel to give away with one of
their pads right here that’s removable
this thing is super durable I’m gonna
tell you right now we have used a lot of
different pads that are designed to go
in crates and everything gets destroyed
this one is out lasting by about five
six hundred percent over every pad that
we have ever used before we’re gonna
continue to test but so far it’s awesome
the average pad lasts one of our dogs
about two maybe three hours and this
thing is killing it we’re going on a
week of use with this thing multiple
dogs that stayed in it everybody seems
to be comfortable as well as not
destroying it so crate for you pad for
you if you can follow simple directions
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[Music]
you
