Crate training is definitely in a separate difficulty level than housebreaking a naturally born housebroken dog. Especially when Laifu’s first experience with a crate was a 9 hour journey to Kingston, including two car rides, two airplane rides, a long and lonely 3 hours of transfer in Toronto, and no food or water during the process. You can imagine she’s not fond with the crate. Some people may find crating dogs to be a cruel thing to do, but I am convinced (by websites) that dogs naturally want to eat and sleep in a secure area, like inside a crate. And through proper training, dogs will love their crate!
Almost all articles on crate training use the technique to train dogs slowly over a week or two. Usually this is the process: trick the dog to go into the crate with treat, and then lock the door for 15min. Stay with the dog during the time he/she’s inside the crate, and let the dog know that you’re very proud of him/her when she is allowed to come out. Next time, do the same for 20min. Eventually, after a week or two, one can leave the dog inside the crate for hours and dogs will be fine. The interweb, with its abundant resources, is often contradicting. This is why: Many websites also suggest that dogs should be trained to stay in their crate overnight. So.. in day1 that I have only trained her to stay inside her crate for 15min, how do I make her stay there for the whole night? The answer is it’s impossible and dogs will make all sorts of crying noise to get out. Those websites have two suggestions to help owners cope with dogs crying overnight in the crate.
1. Put the dog in a room far far far away so what you hear is minimal
2. Put on ear plugs
In addition, I’m also NEVER supposed to give in when they cry. You see what I mean? The little sense of security I created for the dog when she is able to stay inside the crate for 15min seemed to be easily ruined by the overnight experience, and I am back to square one the next morning. But who knows, maybe those are NOT contradicting training techniques, we just need to experience it to find out.
Laifu was rather quiet the first night, most likely because she’s tired from travelling. The second night was a nightmare for me. I was up at 2:30am to play with her (which i should not have done), while Jason somehow was able to ignore the dog crying non-stop (i’m starting to think that he secretly put on ear plugs or something). I was determined that I wouldn’t wake up at 2:30am again this morning, so I again turned to the interweb for help. Do you know what I find? There’s pet music specially for dogs! Don’t laugh just yet, like the Jig-A-Loo commercial, some tracks work like a charm! It sounds like a ridiculous idea but Laifu stopped crying instantly when I played “Squeakey Deakey”. You have to listen to it to understand! I would actually buy the album but Laifu didn’t like “You are a good dog” or “scratch my back” as much. She also quiets down with dog songs from www.petsmusic.com.
You never know, that could be a good business in the era where people care and spend excessively on their pets!
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