Dog training

Crate training is an incredible tool for helping your dog to be calm and confident and feel safe and secure by utilising their natural ‘den’ instinct.

Crate training has a myriad of benefits and I’m often heard to say if there was one thing I could choose all dogs to be trained in, it would be crate training.

Crate training is about providing your dog with a safe place where they can go to rest, calm down, eat-in peace or sleep.
The key to effective crate training is to ensure you use your crate for good not evil. OK so not quite that extreme, but you do want to make sure being in the crate always results in a positive outcome for the dog. Your dog should enjoy going in its crate, it should want to go in its crate. Never use the crate for punishment.

That’s not to say the crate can’t be used to help prevent or curb unwanted behaviour – it can. But not as a punishment. The crate is taught as an alternative behaviour.

If your dog is taught to sit in its crate when visitors come to the door it won’t be able to jump on them.
In a multi-dog home, dogs can eat meals in their crates, preventing fights over food or one dog stealing food from another.
When a game of bitey-face goes too far dogs can have quiet time in their crates to calm down.
The list goes on. The benefits crate training provide in the home are endless, but it doesn’t stop there. Crate training can help dogs cope with vet visits, air and road commercial transport and out of home care in emergency situations.

Best of all, crate training is dead easy. Yes, that’s right. It will probably be one of the easiest things you’ve ever taught your dog.

Download Dr Sophia Yin’s guide to crate training (PDF) and get started today!

We recommend using a good quality collapsible wire crate and vet bed like these ones from Vebo Pet.

Huskies & Samoyeds – size L or XL
​Malamutes & Akitas – size XL or XXL
​Puppies – buy the crate size you want to end up with, and use a divider panel to reduce the size whilst your pup is growing.