Fresh Start Pet Coaching

Torchy sleeping in his crate

I am a huge advocate of crate training dogs. Crate training provides a dog with a safe environment to call his own. I have recently been perfecting the art of crate training. My fiance John and I have two dogs right now under a year of age. John has an extremely high energy Red Heeler puppy named Torchy and crate training has been essential to building a happy life together.

Because John lives in a condominium barking is something that we strive to keep at a minimum. At one point during his crate training Torchy would bark nonstop if he was crated and John was in the room. John is working on his PhD and would often have Torchy in his crate while he was studying and couldn’t keep an eye on him. The problem developed that Torchy would bark at John when he put him in his crate and stayed in the room to study.

So, how do you keep your dog from barking at you when he’s crated and you’re in the room?

Torchy would bark at John because he wanted to be out playing rather than sitting in his crate. Torchy wasn’t content to play by himself, he wanted to play with John. When your dog is crated and you are there with him he barks at you because he is looking for interaction and attention. We had to teach Torchy that: 1. Being crated could still be fun and 2. when in your crate, you need to be quiet.

To teach your dog to be quiet in his crate when you are there with him, follow the process below.

• Have the correct size crate. You want to make sure that the crate you are using is large enough for your dog. He should have plenty of room to be able to move,  lay down, turn around, sit, and stand comfortably.
• Make the crate interesting. You want to make sure that your dog has interesting toys to play with in his crate. Things like squeak toys, kongs, and rubber bones will ensure that your dog can entertain himself while in his crate. You also want to make sure that you rotate out the toys every few days to keep them interesting.
• Remove interaction. Remember that your dog is barking at you because he wants your attention and in this case any form of attention will do, even negative attention. Yelling, scolding, or punishment won’t work. When your dog starts barking at you. Tell him quiet. If your dog keeps barking after giving him the command to quiet get up and leave the room. Leaving the room when your dog barks teaches him that barking gets him the opposite of what he wants. Instead of getting attention from you, you’ve left.
• Reward quiet behavior. If your dog is barking in his crate and you tell him to quiet and he stops barking, reward him! Keep him in his crate and give him lots of praise and treats. When starting out you also want to reward him if he’s simply in his crate being quiet. As long as he is behaving the way you want him to you can talk to him, give him treats, and interact with him in his crate. Gradually you want to decrease the frequency of the rewards. If he starts barking, tell him quiet and leave if he continues barking. This teaches your dog that quiet in the crate = attention and treats.
• Remember to be patient. It will take repetition of this process to teach your dog how to behave in his crate. Your dog will not learn this instantaneously. Your dog may actually get worse before he gets better (which is why we did this during the day, we didn’t want to disturb the neighbors). I distinctly remember standing in the hallway with John assuring him that this would work as he was banging his head against the wall while Torchy barked. We must have left the room at least 50 times before Torchy finally started to get the picture. But it worked. Overall, with focused attention on the process, you should see about 95% improvement within the first few days of implementing this process. The last 5 % will come as you implement this process consistently over the next month.

Are you having trouble with your dog barking too much. If so, contact us today for a complimentary 15 minute consultation.