Easy and Effective Dog Crate Training Tips

For this Omaha dog training session we worked with Reggie, a one year old Pit Bull / Lab mix. His guardians set up a behavior training session with us to do some dog crate training and learn how to stop a dog from chasing a cat.

Reggie certainly displayed an excited energy when I arrived for the session. I spotted something his guardian was doing that was actually amplifying Reggie’s excited behavior. I pointed out this common mistake to the guardian in the video below.

Reggie was quite nosy with myself and my bag as soon as I sat down with his guardian to discuss his dog behavior problems and how we could help them. He repeatedly stuck his nose deep into my bag and occasionally into my crotch.

It wasn’t hard to see why he did this, any time Reggie got close to his human, she immediately petted him. While petting a dog is a good thing, anything your dog is doing when you pet it is what you are rewarding. So when the dog invaded her personal space and she petted him, she was training him to invade people’s personal space.

I went over our Petting with a Purpose method to help add a little structure to this repeating activity. If the guardian regularly pets him with a purpose, Reggie will soon learn to respect personal space. He will start asking for attention by sitting in front of people.

Dog Crate Training Tips to Overcome a Fear of the Kennel

Another issue we helped his guardian with was Reggie’s fear of the kennel. Many people think they can just put a dog into a kennel without any practice or prep work. This works for some dogs. However, for others, not teaching them that the kennel is a good place can make them afraid of it.

To help this energetic dog get over a fear of the kennel, I pulled out some high-value treats to start building up a positive association with it.

Training a dog to be calm in the crate is easy. It just takes time, practice, and tasty treats. Following the crate training instructions in the video will help Reggie see the crate as a good place.

How to Stop a Dog from Chasing a Cat

Next up was Reggie’s desire to chase after the cats. What the guardian described to me was behavior that I would classify as curious, not aggressive. This behavior usually started as soon as Reggie heard the sound of the baby gate to the cat room being opened.

Any time you have a dog who is reacting to something, its usually done in steps. Each step in the process results in more and more excitement or increasing the intensity of their reaction. If you continue without addressing the change in behavior for each step, you end up with a very excited dog.

To help Reggie stay calm, I used desensitization and counterconditioning. This way, he would not get excited when he heard the baby gate open. You can watch this process in the video below.

I was quite pleased at how quickly this approach helped modify dog behavior. It is important to remember that this is just the first step.

You will need to repeat it many times. Gradually increase the sound or movement’s intensity. Keep doing this until the dog stops reacting multiple times in a row.

When we tried the counterconditioning technique with the cat in the room, Reggie was very anxious. He also wanted to explore the cat. This is a good example of why we need to focus on the steps before letting the cat out.

After that, we can work with the dog while he sees the cat. We should keep enough distance so the dog doesn’t get too excited.

The guardians can help Reggie succeed by giving him good exercise. After that, they should provide him with time to recover before working with him again. Reducing a dog’s extra energy before behavior training can help make the process faster.

We finished the session up by filming a roadmap to success segment that covers all the highlights from the session. Check out the free dog behavior video below.