Getting Your Pup Used to His Dog Cage

susanw | Dec 20, 2009 |

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No matter what you are teaching your new puppy, two things are important: one is to start as soon as you can, as the younger the pup is the easier it is for them to learn whatever it is you are trying to teach them. The second tip is to be consistent. Puppies are a little like children: if you flip flop in what you tell them, one time letting them get away with something and then another time not, they will not be properly trained – or happy. And neither will you.

Even though a pup may whine and whimper when you put him or her into their pet cage, it is important not to give in. OF course, it is also important to consider that the puppy may be feeling separation anxiety (that is to say, it is missing its mommy and brothers and sisters). Puppy definitely needs lots of love and hugs and cuddles from you. But when you need to go to work or attend to something at home, put your puppy in his or her cage. It will whimper for a time, but then will stop. And as you keep doing this, the puppy will gradually whimper and whine less and less. It will have gotten use to its own little home and will have no problem going in there at the appropriate times; in fact, you may find that when times are hectic and loud in your house for whatever reason, puppy will be happier in his or her cage than in a loud confusing house.

Another advantage to starting to cage train your puppy early is that it makes it easier to house train them as well. Puppies will greatly enjoy exploring your house – with their teeth and paws. Depending on how dog-proof your home is, you may be in for a fair bit of chewed up shoes and furniture if you are not on top of things from the beginning.

But back to cage training. Now that you have trained your pup to like, or at least tolerate its cage at daytime intervals and at night, you need to find some kind of method for covering the pups cage (if it is an open wire cage) that lets fresh air in at night and keeps the light out when the sun rises in the morning. Puppies need to have some kind of fresh air circulating into their cage, even when they are sleeping, at the same time, puppies get up with the sun and if you would rather not, then puppy's dog cage needs to be dark enough so that it does not see the sun first thing when it rises. You will be glad you did when you find that you are able to enjoy that extra hour or more of morning sleep.