wHAT IS CRATE TRAINING!

[puppylove]

I Am Hoping To Get A Shitzhu Puppy. I Had One Years Ago And She Was Fantastic But I Lived In England Then And Had A Garden. I Am Now On The 19th Floor. How Do People House Train In An Apartment Or Don't They. Am I Even Mad To Think About! What Is Crate Training, This Is A Totally New Thing To Me. I Am Home Most Of The Time. If I Do Go Out It Is Never More Than 4 Hours Max And Thats Not Often. I Also Worry If The Puppy Barks Alot Because Of Neighbours. I Don't Want To Be A Person Who Buys A Puppy And Then Sells It On. If I Do This Then Its A Life Time Commitment With All The Ups And Downs. Any Advise On Crate Training, Size Of Crate And Length Of Times In And Out Of Crate.

[Moo]

Crate training is when you use the crate (kennel) to aid in housetraining, separation anxiety. Size of crate should be just large enough for your dog when full grown. When having a puppy, partition the crate so that it is small enough just for puppy to be able to stand up and turn around.

For more information on the subject check the 'Potty Training' thread on page 2 of this forum.

[JennyG3479]

I live on the thrid floor of an apartment building and let me tell you it's not fun getting up at 6 in the morning, crawl down 3 flights of stairs and then crawl back up. I'm sure it will be worse in the winter. We did the crate training. If I was able to be home throughout the day I wouldn't have. We only put her in the crate when we go to work and we did at bed time but now we just leave the door open(to the crate) at night and she sleeps in there. Our crate was too big for her, the vet told us to make it smaller by putting a box at the back. She does great now. The only reason why we keep her in the crate while we are at work is because she chews on everything and by the time we got home we wouldn't have any knobs to our dresser and everything under the bed would be destroyed. I'm sure after she gets a little bigger I'm sure we will let her have the run of the place. I'm sorry if this is too long or if it doesn't make any sense it's really late, I'm going to bed.

[puppylove]

Many Thanks For Pointing Me In The Right Direction! I Shall Read Up On The Pages Suggested. First Time Today That I Found This Site And Joined. It's Gr Gr Grrrrreat.

[erdog3]

I'll bring the pages back up for you, make it a bit easier...I hope, if you need more info just ask. We are only too willing to help, and by the way.
WELCOME TO THE FORUM.