Latest / The Puppy Training Podcast / Episode #113 Crate Contentment with Heidi Atwood

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Episode #113 Crate Contentment with Heidi Atwood · The Puppy Training Podcast

• 0:00
  Amy: This is the puppy training podcast episode 113 crate contentmen. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way, this is the puppy training podcast. And I'm your host, Amy Jensen.
• 0:27
  Amy: Hey, everybody, welcome to the puppy training podcast today I have my trainer, Heidi with us.
• 0:31
  Amy: And she's going to talk a little bit about crates and contentment. I know when we first bring dogs home, it can be a little bit of a struggle, you know, number one that puppies stressed. And so there is going to be some whining and some crying, but there's lots of things we can do to help them be content. So welcome, Heidi, how are you today?
• 0:53
  Heidi: I'm doing well, thank you. I just love this opportunity to reach out to so many people. And I want people to know that you all are going through the same issues when you bring a puppy home. You're not alone, and we're here to help.
• 1:07
  Amy: Awesome, do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself how long you've been working with dogs and you know, just your background in canines?
• 1:14
  Heidi: Sure, I'm going to age myself a little bit here. But basically my husband and I haven't been without a dog for over 35 years. And I also don't remember a time in my childhood without a dog. We've been home based small scale breeders of Labrador Retrievers for many of those years. And at one time, we had a herd of seven labs, a beagle and three small children living under our roof. But it was wonderful, our kids all trained and raised their own puppies. And they helped along the way with all the training and care of the puppies. And it was a wonderful thing. They've seen them come into the world.
• 1:52
  Heidi: And sadly, they've also seen them leave us at a very old age.
• 1:57
  Heidi: But to me, a successful ownership of a dog is getting them to that point where they're old, and we've given them the best lives and there's nothing but rewards for that. I've worked with Baxter & Bella for about a year and a half. And I love the opportunity to help people train their dogs in such positive ways.
• 2:20
  Amy: Yeah, and we know our clients just adore you, Heidi.
• 2:23
  Amy: So thanks for all of the work you do here at Baxter & Bella, I know one of the first questions we get with new puppy owners is about the crate, the crate training the house training, the stress levels of those puppies and you know crying and whining and that kind of thing. So what do we mean when we talk about crate contentment.
• 2:42
  Heidi: When a puppy is content in their crate, it will always be a positive experience. A lot of dog owners are under the impression that putting a puppy in the crate is some sort of punishment. If your puppy sees the crate as a wonderful safe place to relax, you won't feel guilty about using that crate to keep them and your home safe.
• 3:00
  Heidi: And of course puppies would choose to be with us and wander around freely 100% of the time.
• 3:08
  Heidi: But if you make the crate a regular part of their day, they even prefer to rest in it at times. For example, I have an 11 year old lab who obviously doesn't need to be created anymore. But if there's a crate around with the door open, she'll go in and take a nap. And that's what I love. It's a wonderful thing. She feels safe and very content when she's in a crate. That way I don't ever have to feel badly about putting a puppy in a crate because I know they're safe. And my home is as well. We all know that curious puppies can get into a lot of trouble. And we never know what they might be interested in if they're bored and able to wander around the house. And I learned the hard way that using a crate is a wonderful thing. Many years ago, my husband and I bought our first lab puppy, and we didn't have a crate they weren't real popular at the time. But we learned that it was the best option. Because it's nearly impossible to fully puppy proof and area for the puppy. We were renting a house and we put our puppy in an extra room that didn't have much in it besides her toys, her bedding and some water. And the first day she ripped down the wallpaper. And the second day she ripped up the flooring. So we had to come up with some other options. And we also had to do a lot of repairs when we left that house. And we just didn't know what she would find to get into and one day she just took a book off the shelf and chewed it up. So really not knowing sometimes what your puppy has even gotten into can be a problem and lead to a trip to the emergency room or they can find dangerous things that you would never think that they would. So really keeping your puppy safe and your home safe.
• 4:56
  Heidi: You can relax knowing that they are fine at your house in their crate, they have toys to play with. They're used to this because we've built up their tolerance of being in the crate, and they've come to find it as a wonderful place to relax.
• 5:14
  Amy: Yeah, I totally agree with you. It's hard to completely puppy proof a house, it just is.
• 5:16
  Amy: And so having these little spaces, you know that the crate and an exercise pin just are great options to help prevent the puppy getting to your baseboards or your like you said, your wallpaper or your carpet and those kinds of things. What are the most common concerns you see as a trainer with families and dogs as they help their dog learn to like crate.
• 5:40
  Heidi: Of course, the crying is hard for people to listen to. As I mentioned before, it's hard to listen to the sad sound of whining, we want our puppies to be happy all of the time. And since it's a normal part of the puppy learning about their new environment, we need to help them learn that crying and barking is not an effective way to get our attention ever. So we go to them when they're not crying, and they're not barking and we let them know that this is the best behavior. We congratulate them. We praise them, tossing some kibble, let them know that not crying in their crate is a wonderful thing.
• 6:18
  Amy: All right, well, you explain for us and those who are new to training a dog, maybe they've never taught a dog how to like a crate, can you give us some tips and maybe some specific examples on how to do that?
• 6:29
  Heidi: Sure. It seems like I use the word gradually a lot.
• 6:33
  Heidi: Because I feel that puppies when introduced to a new item or a new home or new people, anything really gradual exposure helps them get used to things much easier. So I often suggest starting with five minute create sessions, it goes by very quickly. And even if your puppy is crying, you can handle it, it's five minutes. So we because we don't want to go to them during a time when they're making noise. We wait until the five minutes is over. And then we wait for them to have a little period of time where they're calm, even at first it may seem like just a few seconds, but it's something to build off. We go to them, we release them, we reward them, praise them, let them know that they did a wonderful job. And then we also repeat this a few times per day. At the end of the day, those five minutes sessions have taught the puppy that sometimes they're in the crate a super short time. And it's not even worth arguing about it's not worth crying over. And then we reward them for calmness.
• 7:42
  Heidi: Anytime we see them relaxing nicely in the crate, then we can gradually increase the amount of time of those sessions. Let's say the next day we do 10 minutes. See how your puppies doing? Every puppy is different.
• 8:00
  Heidi: So we want to let them know anytime they're in there and their content. Hopefully they'll fall asleep and that's going to count as some wonderful contentment time. And some of the things I suggest doing to make the crate a wonderful place. You can feed them some meals in the crate, hide pieces of kibble for them to discover or favorite toys, get them interested in going in on their own and checking it out. Placing a cover over the crate create some calm, den like atmosphere for them, playing some music nearby white noise running a fan giving them these comforting sounds that also cut down on distractions, they might be listening for the sound of you your footsteps or your voice, giving them something else to drown out those distractions can help. And then I also I have a freezer full of stuff cons when I have a young puppy in my house, so that I can easily grab one and give them something very mentally stimulating, rewarding and fun. By the time they're done with the stuffed Kong, they're tired, and they will most likely have a nap. This can help them prevent that other behavior of barking and getting too excited and focus on focusing on getting your attention and getting out of the crate as well. So I try to make it as nice as possible for them.
• 9:28
  Amy: I love that. Those are great tips and very helpful, And also let them know when they're doing a really great job especially to those who maybe have just never done this before. Don't know what to expect. And I love that you do in their crate by talking to them. I talk to my dogs all day it gradually. I like that word as well because these puppies long. So they know the tone of my voice when I'm happy with are learning and they're progressing on their own little them. And I let them know that and they love it. They wag their journey. And their attention spans in the beginning are fairly short. Right? So teaching them just these little successes tails and they know that I'm happy with them. And that makes and then that becomes larger and larger and larger successes. So them happy as well.
• 9:54
  Amy: great ideas. Okay, as we near the end of this, Heidi, I would love to know a little bit more about you. So what is your favorite thing to train a dog to do?
• 10:03
  Heidi: Well, I'm fortunate that I live in a very rural area. So walking in the woods is our favorite end of the day activity. We have many trails behind my house, lots of wooded, lovely trails to walk on. But I find it very important that my puppy will pay attention to me, even though they're off leash, my dogs are older, they're fine off leash, but I want them to check in with me frequently. So perfect recall, although you know, there's probably never a real perfect recall, if there's a squirrel to pay attention to, that might cause a delay. But having your dog paying attention to you running ahead for a certain distance and turning around and looking to see where I am. That's the pattern we've gotten into, it makes for a very enjoyable walk. So having really good recall is important to me, I want to know that if there is something distracting, I can use my mom's voice and get my dogs right back to me. For example, we were in the woods one time I had one of our younger dogs he was about to and a deer ran right in front of us. And it just caused so much excitement with him, he ran off after it.
• 11:16
  Heidi: He'd never really seen that happen before. And I didn't want that to become anything that he thought was okay. And I called him back and took off, you know, three or four nice loud mentions of his name. But he came back to me and I was so happy with him.
• 11:33
  Heidi: That was a huge test for him.
• 11:33
  Heidi: And that's why I say no recall is 100% accurate. But he came back. And I praised him, I hugged him, I let him know that was the best thing in the world.
• 11:45
  Heidi: So that's very important to me getting my dog to come back to me, no matter the situation.
• 11:49
  Heidi: It's a safety issue. And it's just nice to know that they're paying attention to me at all times.
• 11:57
  Amy: Yeah, we might have to do another podcast on that topic.
• 12:01
  Amy: What would you say is your most commonly asked training question when you're coaching clients.
• 12:08
  Heidi: We were touching upon that today. And it is definitely crate training. We have a lot of seems like a lot of people at the end of the summer heading back to their regular jobs maybe are coming off vacation. And they're a little bit panicked about oh, no, I only have this amount of time to get my puppy used to being home alone again, or for the first time. I had seven sessions this morning, I think five of them were about pre contentment. So it's very important and people are nervous and worried about this. I think it helps if you can relax about it and make this just part of your puppies normal day, don't get yourself worked up about it and cause yourself stress.
• 12:50
  Heidi: Because your puppy is going to sense that as well. So as we work on pre contentment, even if you have to pretend you're calm, do that let your puppy feel that sense of calm, like taking them to the crate, casually, Okay, you go have a nice time, we'll see you in a little bit, close the door with no big fanfare and let them know, this is a wonderful place. This is a normal activity. This is what we do at this time. And I'll see you when you're calm or rested from your nap.
• 13:20
  Amy: Yeah, and I like to add to clients or when I coach them that it's a gift you're giving your dog the gift of being able to be alone, which is huge, right?
• 13:31
  Heidi: And it's realistic.
• 13:31
  Heidi: Nobody can be with their puppy 24/7. We want them to know that they're fine, whether they're with us or we're in another room, or we're able to, you know, be with them, but just maybe talking to them instead of interacting with them. They're fine. If we leave the house for an hour. They're fine if we leave for more than that. So I tell people go ahead, take that shower, read a book, go run your errands, you can leave your house and know that your puppy is safe and happy in their crate because you have helped them create a positive association with it.
• 14:05
  Amy: Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Heidi, I really appreciate your tips and your willingness to come on today. I know that you have fan favorites out there in the Baxter & Bella community. So thanks, everybody for tuning in today. It's been super fun to have it with us. You guys have a wonderful week and happy training.
• 14:26
  Amy: If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other Puppy Training question, visit my site Baxter & bella.com to contact me