An Easy Way to Help a Dog Scared of the Crate

For this in-home Omaha dog training session we worked with 9 month-old Boxer mix Tucker, sharing tips for a dog scared of the crate.

Like many new dog owners, Tucker‘s parents showered him with love and attention when he was younger. But since they are retirees, Tucker didn’t get much experience being home alone when he was a young pup.

While loving your puppy is never a bad thing, not helping them practice being alone is a very common mistake new puppy owners often make. We share a few tips in our puppy socialization classes to help puppies practice being alone so they don’t develop separation anxiety.

Practicing being alone when the puppy is young it’s really important if you want to make sure that they don’t develop separation anxiety. Unfortunately, many puppy parents don’t get their puppy this practice which is why we get so many request for our separation anxiety treatment program.

Dogs who have separation anxiety are prone to chewing up things as a way of trying to alleviate their stress. When this happens most people start putting their dog into a crate to prevent them from destroying their house. But if you don’t properly crate train your puppy, putting them inside of one you can end up with a dog scared of the kennel.

This is a very common problem among new puppy parents or young dog owners. And the solution that seems to make the most sense; locking the dog in a crate when they leave – actually makes the situation worse.

The good news is this is an easy problem to fix if you use positive crate training methods. Teach teaching a dog to not only go into the crate, but enjoy it, is really important so that the dog looks at the crate as a safe place as opposed to a punishment.

But before I could show Tucker’s parents how to help a dog scared of the crate, we had to cover a few fundamentals.

We introduced a marker word and then I used a hand targeting exercise for them to practice their technique and timing. Tucker is a smart dog and picked these lessons up quicker than his parents. But they were determined, and after a little bit of practice, they were getting outstanding results.

Since separation anxiety is an offshoot of insecurities, I showed the guardians an easy trick that will help boost Tucker’s confidence, help him practice listening to them, teach him manners and build up his respect for his humans.

This is one of the easiest dog training tips I share with my clients. It’s something I like to call celebrating. I suggested the guardians remind each other to “celebrate” anytime they see Tucker offering a desired behavior on his own.

Throughout the session I noticed that Tucker was offering some cut off signals that his humans weren’t picking up on. We spent a few minutes going over body language, affirmation signals as well as cut off signals so they can read Tucker and how he feels about things.

With the fundamentals out of the way, we were ready to get cracking on some positive crate training to help Tucker feel relaxed and comfortable in the crate.

How to Help a Dog Scared of the Crate

Anytime I’m working with the dog who’s afraid of something, I always look for opportunities to break the activity down into smaller, bite-size steps. Positive crate training is no exception.

But in this case I also needed to help Tucker create what’s called a positive emotional response. I needed him to want to go into the crate. That usually starts with motivation. My task was to find out how to make Tucker WANT to go into the crate.

Fortunatley I developed an easy technique years ago and pulled it out of my bag of dog behavior tricks, then added it to the positive crate training exercise I use when a dog is scared of its crate.

If you have a dog that doesn’t like the crate or you just want to teach a dog or a puppy that the crate is a safe and good place to go, check out the free positive dog training video below.

By breaking things down into small steps, creating positive associations and going at Tucker’s pace, it didn’t take long to get him to not only go into the crate, but to sit down calmly and linger without protesting or trying to get out.

This was quite an accomplishment for Tucker who was so scared of the crate he broke out of several before and refused to go into thsi new crate before our in home Omaha dog training session.

Dogs breaking out of crates can be an incredibly dangerous thing to do. This is because the way dogs escape is to push on the door with their head and then try to squeeze their way out when it bends away. Unfortunately many dogs who try this get stuck and some can actually expire.

By first creating a situation where Tucker wanted to go into the crate, then adding in positive associations and removing the one thing he didnt want, closing the door, it was easy to change the dynamic from a dog scared of the crate into a dog wanting to go inside on his own.

The two great things about this technique to help dogs scared of their crate is that it is super easy to do and also profoundly effective. You just need to make sure that you’re watching for your dog’s cut off signals, moving in small steps, providing them plenty of reinforcement and stopping when (preferably before) the dog reaches its limit. Following those steps makes it easy to help a dog scared of the crate.

I recommended the guardians practice this positive crate training exercise three or more times a day in short, 2 to 4 minute practice sessions.

I also recommended that they leave treats inside of the crate with the door open anytime that Tucker leaves the room. This is another easy positive crate training tip that works for you even if you arent in the room.

Once Tucker looks at the crate as a positive thing, they can start closing the door and increasing the duration while they stay in the room. Practicing when you don’t need it is the best time to practice anything, especially when you’re trying to help a dog scared of the crate.

To help a dog scared of the crate get over their fear you need to go slowly and in stages:

• Going into and out of the crate until its easy
• Waiting for the dog to go in voluntarily and linger before starting to close the door
• Closing the door progressively, at the dog’s speed
• Desensitizing the dog to the sound of the latch closing
• Increasing the time the dog stays inside the crate while being calm

Seeing Tucker transition from a dog scared of the crate to one who wanted to go inside and linger was awesome. Just another example of how easy and effective positive crate training can be.

It was also great to see how happy Tucker’s guardians were with his progress. They kept on commenting how surprised they were that he went into the crate so easily using our positive crate training method.

If Tucker was able to make this much progress in one in home Omaha dog training session, we cant wait to hear how well he does in a week or two. Cant wait to hear from his humans that they no longer have a dog scared of the crate.

Tucker has a few other dog behavior problems his guardian wants some help with and he’s also signed up for our November puppy classes, so we will certainly be seeing more of this handsome puppy down the road

But for now, it’s nice to know that we were able to help a dog scared of the crate get over his fears through some easy positive crate training.