Monday, May 8, 2006

Crate Training

When we adopted Luna she was not crate trained.  This was a bit of a hurdle for us because the boys are crate trained and we have not had success in “un-crate training” them.

After many of the boys’ puppy habits were broken, we tried giving them more freedom in the house.  We were very curious to see how the boys would react to their new found freedom so we set up a video camera.  Needless to say it was a complete disaster.  The boys were nervous wrecks.  They paced, they whined, they barked, they barked at each other - it was chaos.  It seems that they just prefer to be in their crate when we are not at home.  It is where they feel safe.

So knowing that the boys need to be in their crate while we are away, I knew that one of the first orders of business for Luna was crate training.  To gauge her progress and see how much she protested we again setup the video camera.  To help ease her into crate training we were only gone for a small amount of time.  The first time we put her in the crate we didn’t even go anywhere, we just stood in the driveway for about 5 minutes.  After we came home each time, we let them out and then reviewed the tapes to see how the little one did while we were away.

Needless to say the first couple times were disastrous.  Luna never settled, she whined, scratched and barked the whole time.  She even started to get the boys worked up and they joined in and started whining as well.

But we kept with it and by the end of the week we had made significant progress.  The boys started to act like their usual selves and went to sleep shortly after being put in the crate.  By them ignoring Luna and her cries, this helped her to settle.  She still protested a bit in the beginning but after only a few short minutes she was laying down and going to sleep.

Now it is safe to say that Luna is fully crate trained.  Not only does she eagerly go into the crate when we leave the house, but she also goes to the crate on her own when we are home.  The little one is not much of a morning person, so on weekdays when we get up for work, the first place she runs is to her crate.  There she can get an extra hour or so of uninterrupted sleep.