Has anyone ever successfully crate trained a (nearly) adult dog?

[Dee in MI]

We got a new dog from the pound. He's a sweety, but he has a few things to learn, and a few things he may never learn. He's a husky, and they love to dig. He wants to dig my carpet. That's just not gonna work. And he's only mostly housetrained. He'll do the deed outside, but he doesn't know to tell us that he needs to.

 

He's just under a year old. I don't think he's ever seen a crate. But I'll rest easier if we can get him crate trained. Any advice?

 

Indiana

[Janet in Toronto]

We have a 3-5 year old terrier (he's a rescue, so we're not certain of his age) that we recently introduced to a crate. It wasn't for potty training (he's something of a camel, our boy Wilson) but for barking and annoying visitors to the house. We're working on those issues with a trainer, and she suggested that a crate would be a great way to get him to calm down and give him a safe place to relax. It's been three months, and now when we say "bed", he runs over to the crate and lies down. Even when he's in full panic/barking mode, it immediately calms him down. We couldn't be happier.

[Dee in MI]

How did you do it? We've been gentle, but we kinda can't leave our house until we have a safe place to put him, so we'd like to hurry this along. :)

[Janet in Toronto]

We left the door open for the first couple of weeks, and fed him inside the crate. We put lots of comfy blankets and on the floor, and gave him all his meals and treats, in the crate. But he was still free to come and go. Then we started shutting the door for short periods of time. ONLY let him out when he was calm-submissive. Slowly the periods when he was in the crate got longer, and sometimes we would leave the house for a short period of time (say, under half an hour) and then return and release him (again, only when calm-submissive). Now he can stay there overnight or for extended periods of time (a couple of hours) during the day if necessary.

[LKMN]

Lots of positive rewards and high value treats.

 

Never let the dog out of the crate when fussing or barking. If the dog fusses in the crate try covering it with a sheet or blanket to make it more den like.

 

You can use the crate pretty effectively overnight by putting the crate next to your bed or the bed of the person the dog is most connected to. Make sure the dog is good and worn out, properly pottied and ready for bed. This is the easiest time because everyone is sleeping so the dog will too.

 

Good luck.

[Dee in MI]

So it's going to take some time. Thank you for the hope that it can be done!

[Janet in Toronto]

If the dog fusses in the crate try covering it with a sheet or blanket to make it more den like.

 

 

Good point...our crate is in our family room and has a blanket covering all sides except for the door. It actually is the right height to be an "end table" beside our sofa with a tray on top. The crate is very cozy and inviting, and he very quickly calm down/drops off to sleep inside.

[Mom2GirlsTX]

Working with rescues over the years, I have crate trained numerous dogs (big and small) who have never been housetrained. I have my latest project, a boxer who was covered in mange (both demodex and sarcoptic), severe kennel cough, and digs and chews everything in site. I have been working on her for 4 months and it is really working! It doesn't matter if they like the crate, you need to use it. The crate is their safe place, their place,, the place no kids or other dogs are allowed in. They eat there, they sleep there, but most importantly every time that crate door opens to let them out you lead them directly to the same spot to pee/poop every time.

This little girl I'm working on is a challenge, she was a stray for many months and skiddish. She didn't want the crate, I had to literally (but gently) push her in the first few times. I leave her in typically 2 or 3 hours at a time, and then lead her outside, tell her DO YOUR BUSINESS, she does, we have a cheer fest of YAY YAY YAY, and then I play with her outside with the tennis ball for 10 or so minutes, then let other boxer loose who runs her ragged. The time loose has extended, it used to be 30 minutes before back in crate a couple of hours, now we are at 2 or 3 hours loose before we go back in crate a couple of hours. We are working for slowly less and less time in crate. please remember most don't take this long ,Ive seen dogs get it completely in a few weeks, but this girl is not the smartest (but she is sweet!) and this is taking longer than usual.

 

I believe it does not matter if the dog is old or young, it is easier to train a puppy in some ways, but an older dog has a large strong bladder that a puppy doesn't have. Dogs are creatures of habit, if they have a bad habit, you find a good one to replace it with.

 

I'm not saying this is easy, it does take work and typically I get them trained in about 3 months, this one is nearing 4 months and she still peed 1/2 outside this morning and 1/2 inside (first mistake in 4 weeks) because it is raining very hard. I simply pulled her back outside in mid tinkle out into the rain and stood with her and praised her outside.

 

Hang in there, creating a good dog takes work, just like molding a good kid takes work :001_smile:

[Dee in MI]

So should I force him in? Right now we have him going in the crate to find treats. And we feed him and pet him when he's in there. But if we walk away, he'll follow us. He investigates it, but he won't go in there to relax.

[Retired]

of energy that must be walked off. This will stop the digging. My husky at that age would be walked at least 2 miles. They usually will BM during the walk. They will only kennel train with lots of physical exercise. These dogs were made for work. The pound end up with them because people will get them and can't calm them down. They just need a lot of walking. I had one husky on a very large cable running line, he broke it. They are small but strong. He needs a place to run. I have a friend that takes husky that apartment and subdivision people can't keep. They need lots of running and exercise room or someone who is willing to walk them several miles daily.

 

The will train well but take allot more attention than other breeds

[Dee in MI]

We're prepared for that. I'm a runner, so he'll run with me. And we're walking him often. But his stamina is currently limited by kennel cough. If we need to, we plan to build a kennel run, since I understand that an invisible fence is worthless for a husky.

 

I don't assume he'll ever completely stop digging. But I assume that he'll stop digging my carpet :) Meanwhile, though, we're watching him closely.

[LizzyBee]

He's just under a year old. I don't think he's ever seen a crate. But I'll rest easier if we can get him crate trained. Any advice?

 

 

We crate trained dogs at that age. We just bought kennels, set them up with the doors open, and threw their blankets inside. They walked right in and laid down. They used to race each other into the smaller one. When we left, we'd put the kennels in the living room and leave the TV on for them. I was very surprised at how easy it was.