Crate Training: Setting Your Dog Up for Success, Safety, and Well-being

Bringing a new puppy or dog into your home is an exciting experience, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. One essential aspect of responsible dog ownership is crate training. While some may see it as confining or restrictive, crate training provides numerous benefits for both you and your furry companion. In this article, we will explore the importance of crate training, including its benefits for behavior, housebreaking, and overall well-being. Additionally, we will delve into the potential hazards and dangers of not providing your dog with the structure and guidance that crate training offers.

1. Safe Haven and Comfort: A crate serves as a den-like space where your puppy or dog can retreat when they need a break or some alone time. Dogs have an instinctual desire for a cozy and secure space, and a crate fulfills this need. When introduced properly, a crate becomes a safe haven where your dog can relax, sleep, or seek solace during times of stress, ensuring they feel secure and protected.

2. Housebreaking Made Easier: One of the primary reasons crate training is essential is it’s significant contribution to successful housebreaking. Dogs have an innate instinct to keep their sleeping area clean, and crate training takes advantage of this instinct. When properly sized, the crate becomes a temporary living space that encourages your dog to hold their bladder and bowels until they are taken outside. By establishing a routine and gradually increasing their freedom within the house, you can effectively housebreak your dog while minimizing accidents and frustration.

3. Prevention of Destructive Behaviors: Leaving a dog to figure out what they shouldn't do can lead to destructive behaviors that cause havoc in your home. Dogs explore the world with their mouths, and without proper guidance, they may chew on furniture, shoes, or other valuable items. Crate training allows you to control your dog's environment and limit their access to potential hazards, reducing the likelihood of destructive behavior. Over time, as they learn proper manners and gain maturity, you can gradually expand their freedom in the house.

4. Protection from Household Hazards: Leaving a dog unattended to figure things out on their own can expose them to a multitude of household hazards. Dogs are naturally curious and may explore areas that pose risks to their health and safety. Without proper supervision, they may ingest toxic substances, chew on electrical cords, or get entangled in potentially dangerous objects. Crate training provides a controlled environment, limiting your dog's access to potential hazards and reducing the risk of accidents or injuries.

5. Avoiding Aggressive Interactions and Accidental Escapes: If left unsupervised, dogs may have negative encounters with other household pets or even with unfamiliar animals or people who enter your property. This can lead to aggression, fights, or even legal consequences. Additionally, a dog left to roam freely without proper training and boundaries may find ways to escape from the house or yard, putting themselves at risk of getting lost or involved in traffic accidents.

6. Separation Anxiety and Stress Reduction: Leaving a dog unattended without any structure can contribute to the development of separation anxiety and other stress-related behaviors. A crate, when introduced correctly, can help alleviate separation anxiety by providing a secure and familiar space for your dog to feel calm and relaxed when you're away.

7. Veterinary and Grooming Benefits: Not crating your dog can lead to difficulties in managing their health and grooming needs. Untrained dogs may become fearful or anxious during veterinary visits or grooming sessions, making it challenging for professionals to provide necessary care. Crate training helps familiarize your dog with confinement and handling, making veterinary visits and grooming sessions less stressful for both your dog and the professionals involved.

Crate training is an invaluable tool for setting your puppy or dog up for a successful, safe, and well-adjusted life. From providing a safe haven and aiding in housebreaking to preventing destructive behaviors and reducing anxiety, crate training offers numerous benefits for both the dog and the owner. Additionally, crate training protects your dog from household hazards, avoids aggressive interactions, prevents accidental escapes, and facilitates veterinary and grooming procedures. By understanding the potential hazards and dangers associated with not crating your dog, you can make an informed decision that promotes a secure and harmonious environment for both you and your four-legged companion. Remember, patience and consistency are the keys to successful crate training, ensuring a lifelong bond and the well-being of your beloved pet.

Why Is Professional Dog Training Important?

If you have furry family members, you know their behavior impacts your household as much or more than your partner and kids. Your dog needs to be able to live in your home comfortably, safely, and happily, and one of the best ways to accomplish this important goal is through professional dog training.

A professional dog trainer helps you understand your dog better and keeps you accountable for your role in your dog’s behavior and doing what is best for them. Here, we take a closer look at why having your dogs professionally trained could be the most important thing you do for your fur babies.

Give Your Dog Its Best Life

Professional dog training helps your dog understand which behaviors are acceptable and desired and which are not. Teaching your dog proper boundaries and socialization allows them to share more of your life and have more positive experiences.

For example, well-behaved dogs can generally have more freedom in the house and come on more outings with you and your family. While an out-of-control or anxious dog doesn’t make for fun family trips or long walks in nature, a trained dog that understands boundaries can get out into the world more and join you for more adventures—allowing you to give your fur baby their best life.

Better Understand Your Pup

Dogs, like humans, can be complex creatures. They have a particular social pack order and understanding of the world. Professional dog training helps you not just correct or modify your dog’s behavior but truly understand it. This understanding gives you the appropriate context for making behavioral modifications or requesting different behavior from your dog.

Working with a professional dog trainer helps you gain more experience and knowledge about your dog and can even help you with your future dogs. Understanding your dog’s behavior and how to work with them allows you to make positive changes that will result in a happier life for both you and your four-legged friend.

Keep Your Fur Baby Safe

Professional dog training is about more than having a dog who’s a model citizen. It’s about keeping your fur baby safe and out of trouble. Getting your puppy, adolescent, or adult dog trained can make them safer for you and your family to be around at home, outside or around neighbors, or even at a busy restaurant while you’re enjoying dinner.

Working with a professional to train your dog can:

• Help your dog feel more safe and secure since they know what is expected of them.

• Reduce your dog’s stress and anxiety.

• Channel your dog’s energy into focusing on tasks and commands.

• Improve your dog’s social skills and reduce reactivity around other animals or people.

• Build a stronger bond between you and your pup.

• Minimize the risk of harm by teaching your dog to come to you when called or stop a harmful behavior.

• Make vet visits, grooming appointments, and vacations easier. 

Are You Ready to Invest in Your Dog’s Future?

Whether you’re a first-time pet parent or have had dogs for years, it’s never too late to get started with professional dog training. If you’re ready to invest in your dog’s best and brightest future, contact Nova Pack Dog Training to ask a question, schedule an in-home evaluation, or learn more about our training process.

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of A Behavior Problem

Behavior problems with dogs aren't anything new, but the treatments today are. Veterinarians, groomers, pet store employees, friends, family, and neighbors will tell you "how well-behaved" their dog is since they put them on medications to stop them from being an untrained dog. While medications can help MANAGE certain behavioral issues, it's important to understand their limitations and potential side effects.

There are several types of medications commonly prescribed to dogs for behavior problems, including:

Antidepressants: These medications are used to MANAGE anxiety, fear, and other related behaviors in dogs. Examples of commonly prescribed antidepressants for dogs include fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and clomipramine (Clomicalm). These medications work by regulating the levels of certain chemicals in the brain that affect mood and behavior.

Anti-anxiety medications: These medications are prescribed to reduce anxiety in dogs and can be beneficial in cases of separation anxiety, noise phobias, or generalized anxiety disorders. Examples include benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax) or tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline (Elavil).

Sedatives: Sedatives are used to calm dogs in specific situations or for short-term use. They are often prescribed to MANAGE situational anxieties such as travel or veterinary visits. Commonly used sedatives for dogs include acepromazine, dexmedetomidine (Sileo), and trazodone.

Behavior-modifying drugs: These medications target specific behaviors and can be used in conjunction with behavior modification training. For example, medications like clonidine and buspirone are sometimes used to address certain types of aggression or hyperactivity in dogs.

But the issue isn't the medications themselves; it's the fact, and I do mean fact, that just like the old school training methods of decades ago, the pills, tablets, injections are just suppressing the problems, not addressing them.

We have this idea as human beings that we can take a pill and feel better instantly, which in the case of a headache could be true. Although when it comes to something like depression, a pill alone won't do the trick. You need to do a lot of work with a professional who knows what you're dealing with, how to address it correctly, when medication can help, as well as when the risk of adding an anti-anxiety medication could be a fatal mistake.

When it comes to us, we can understand that a pill will make you feel weird, different, better, or worse for periods of time, dogs simply can't. They have no way of knowing why suddenly they feel funny, drunk almost, and sometimes that can lead to the dog biting more randomly, and more severely when the issue of fear, aggression, defensiveness is just medicated.

I am not a proponent of medicating dogs for behavior problems at all, but I am not a veterinarian. Do some dogs I see benefit, sure, to some extent, but I haven't seen a fearful biter or a forward aggressive dog look worse when no medication is given, and the dog is given clarity in their lives, rules, boundaries, and building upon the relationship with their humans having mutual trust and respect.

If you and your veterinarian have already put your dog on medication, I am not saying to just stop giving it; that can be very dangerous to go cold turkey. But if that solution works well enough for you, stay the course. I'm just giving my opinion based on experience with many dogs, having worked with trainers and behaviorists who trained dogs for decades, who never had the option of medications and never needed them anyway. Train the dog, learn why they have the issues they have, whether it’s genetic, or learned behaviors, and improve yourself to help the dog get better.