My Puppy Hates His Crate!

Trainers hear this all the time. What puppies really hate is not the crate, it’s being left alone.

There are certain instincts that our domestic dogs seem to retain from their wild ancestors and this is probably one of them. A very young puppy left alone in the wild is lunch for a predator. Scream for your mom to rescue you! And wild moms will definitely do that. What about a puppy’s human mom (or dad)?

Unfortunately you will find advice everywhere telling you to never let a dog out of a crate while they’re vocalizing because you will teach them to bark to get out of the crate. There may be certain instances when that advice is good, like with an adult dog, crate trained, normally happy in their crate, but suddenly putting up a fuss just because maybe you’re working with another dog. (OK, different topic . . . )

But with a young puppy? Never – NEVER – let a baby dog scream hysterically in a crate. Or anywhere else for that matter. It’s OK to comfort frightened puppies! In fact it’s OK to comfort frightened adult dogs too. (But again, different topic.)

Your puppy should learn that when they are afraid they should come to you. And you should carefully build their confidence so they are not so afraid. Don’t just cram a puppy in a crate and expect they will be fine. You have to actually TRAIN them.