Crate training your CSV?

[yukidomari]

Thanks! I'm wondering more about their acceptance and not so much the ability to learn what 'crate' means.

I've been following your posts on Luna and crate training, I don't think our neighbors would like 30 minutes of a CSV singing at 10PM every night! That's what I'm really worried about..

[GalomyOak]

All of mine are crate-trained. Anthea was a bit like Luna - Corgan trained fairly easy. Anthea is a very vocal dog - she barks more than any of my others, and gets VERY talkative at feeding time. Bongo, Ice and Roni were all super easy. Crate training with my dogs usually involves riding in the crate in the car quite a bit at the beginning...not ever giving them attention or letting them out when they make noise - only when they are quiet. They do figure out quickly that you will let them out if they are noisy - which can take a bit longer to turn around.

At night I crate my dogs away from me when they are puppies - I will usually crate another dog right next to them. I've found that the more they hear me bumping around at night, the more they will try to get my attention. I am fortunate to have a basement in my house for this. When we are at training, the GSDs and Malinois are usually much noisier than my guys.

[Enid Black]

Well, Yukidomari, you could teach to the puppy to stay in the crate during the day, at least at night he/she should not complain too much... besides "tossing a cookie" in it, I've heard of putting in there an old piece of cloth or a piece of tissue with your smell, so that the puppy does not feel abandoned ^^ (strangely enough, it is a technique I heard some people uses to teach to small children to sleep in their bed :P). Anyway the puppy should not see the crate as a punishment but as a quiet and safe place where to stay. You can start guiding te puppy inside and leaving the crate door open, and just when the puppy is quiet inside, trying to close it...

I just want to say that these are methods I read about because I have no Vlcak (yet!), but on Fennel's books and on some other forums they worked

I think yukidomari is asking more whether CsVs in general take to crating well, or if it's a difficult process for the breed as opposed to other dog breeds, not how to specifically crate train. From what I understand from Marcy's post, though, it sounds like it's more down to the individual dog whether it goes smoothly or not, as opposed to the breed itself being one way or the other.

[Mikael]

I did let the crate open in the house, whit a puppy bed inside.
No training needed, when he went in and fell to sleep I did close the door.

I had a BIG crate indoors "Dog Man, Grand Danois" it was like a living room for a puppy. I had a smaller one in the car, I started to just go to my father to let him off in the mornings when I went to work = 400meters.

There was newer no problem whit the crate, but he was very car sick as a puppy

Best regards / Mikael

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Ps, for Swedish owners and readers ( I had Hronec in a crate 2007 only at night as a puppy, and I know that from Jan 2008 it is not allowed in Sweden to have dogs sleeping in a crate.)

>>>http://www.sjv.se/presskontakten/pre...380004648.html

This is what it say translated to English if somebody that do not speek Swedish wants to know...

"Dogs and cats must not be kept in the cage except at certain specific times (at shows, trials and tests, training for competition, in connection with hunting and during transport)." Ds.

[soniakanavle]

I had no problems crate training Flint, in fact he took to it surprisingly easy! I just fed all his meals in his crate so he learned to like it right away. Sure there was some crying at night those first days when he was a tiny puppy but he grew out of that quickly and nowadays he loves his 'den' and will even go sleep in it when the door is open (though he does still prefer to sleep on my bed.)

And funny side note, I had never needed to crate my German Shepherd, but after she saw my CsV in there all the time she started going in it on her own and would growl at him if he came near haha. So I don't feel bad when I do have to crate Flint, but he's free in the yard/house most of the time anyways.

[rivals]

I recently heard about those laws in Sweden, and I think it's really interesting. Crating is such a common thing to do here in the US. I don't think we could go without it actually, since my husky has somewhat bad separation anxiety and my pit/border collie mix is a crazy little 15 month old who tries to get into everything.

[yukidomari]

The Swedish law is interesting! Thanks Mikael. Here it's commonly prescribed to house break puppies easily, for traveling, and for when you're at work and the puppy isn't safe to be alone in the house yet (chewing everything, etc).

Course it's generally not recommended to crate a dog longer than just a few hours at any 1 period, so if I have to crate to go to work, usually I stop by at lunch or hire a dog walker to come by. Course you can also take them to puppy day care.

Thanks for sharing all the experiences! I really appreciate it. It looks like it's more of an individual thing.. good! Hopefully we won't get a screamer. We had to apologize to the neighbors and leave notes on the door that it was not a baby in distress with one of our dogs when she was young. :/