Crate Training: Knowing It, Loving It, Doing It

All right, folks. Today we’re going to discuss crate training.

I’ve had many of you tell me that your dogs hate their crates. And sometimes it gets so bad that you’re willing to risk leaving that dog out to get into God knows what, destroy God knows what, or potentially hurt itself just to avoid the fight over the crate.

But, folks, if you understand the basics we’ve already discussed, this doesn’t have to be a fight.

If you understand how to load your marker—and your marker is actually loaded, meaning I click and that dog comes flying to me with wild abandon—then I can begin using that marker to shape behavior.

And this is independent of the dog’s age.

We’ve posted position-marker videos, Klack Klack videos, position-box work, and even BOSU ball videos where you’ve seen that through deliberate marking and positive reinforcement, we’re able to guide a dog toward an activity using a marker system.

Well, guys, we’re going to do something very similar with the crate.

Start by Free Shaping the Crate

I typically start these crate games with puppies.

But if I get an adult dog that has no clue about the crate—or already has issues associated with the crate—I’ll go right back to the beginning and free shape the dog in.

I’m not going to immediately start fighting with the dog.

I’m going to put the dog in a relatively small room with the crate available, and I’m going to wait.

Maybe the dog investigates the crate.

Click → food.

The dog moves away, thinks about it, and eventually goes:

“Okay, what did I do over there that got me reinforced?”

It goes back.

Maybe this time the dog’s nose goes into the crate.

Click → food.

Then maybe:

One paw → click → food.

Then:

Two paws → click → food.

Then eventually the dog gets all the way in.

And pretty quickly the dog starts figuring out:

“Oh. This is the activity. Getting into this thing is what gets me reinforced.”

That’s shaping.

We’re reinforcing successive approximations toward the finished behavior rather than physically putting the dog into the crate and hoping it eventually accepts it.

Build Duration

Once the dog understands that getting into the crate is the desired behavior, we start building duration.

Initially, the dog goes in.

I wait a couple seconds.

Click.

The dog comes out and collects its reinforcement.

Then we do it again.

And gradually, I’m asking for longer periods of time inside the crate before that release occurs.

But I can also start bringing reinforcement to the dog—something we call room service.

The dog goes into the crate, remains there, and instead of always having to come out to collect reinforcement:

I bring the reinforcement to the dog.

Now we’re building value not only for entering the crate, but for remaining in the crate.

Know What Your Markers Mean

This is important and something I struggle with in implementation.

If your clicker specifically means:

“Exercise finished. You’re released. Come collect reinforcement.”

don’t click and then suddenly give room service inside the crate.

You’re going to confuse the dog.

If you have a continuation marker, this is a great place to use it.

Your continuation marker tells the dog:

“Yes. That’s correct. Stay right there. Reinforcement is coming to you.”

Because eventually I don’t want a dog sitting in the kennel vibrating, staring at me, waiting for:

CLICK!

and then exploding out of the crate to come get its food.

I want stability in there.

I want the dog to understand:

Staying in here pays too.

That’s where room service becomes particularly valuable.

Then We Close the Door

Once I’ve got the dog voluntarily going into the crate and comfortably spending some time in there, we start working with the door closed.

And, folks, this is where people get into trouble.

The dog starts barking:

Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.

And somebody says:

“Just let him cry it out.”

I don’t recommend the cry-it-out method.

The problem with simply putting a dog into a situation it cannot escape and allowing distress to continue is that we risk creating exactly the opposite emotional association from the one we’re trying to build.

If that dog is:

• Frantically attempting to escape.

• Drooling.

• Spinning.

• Biting or attacking the crate.

• Engaging in destructive behavior.

• Injuring itself.

we’re not looking at a dog calmly learning that the crate is a safe place.

We’re looking at significant distress.

And the more the dog rehearses that state in the kennel, the greater the risk that the kennel itself becomes associated with discomfort.

The Learned-Helplessness Concern

This is also why I’m cautious about simply relying on:

“Eventually he’ll figure out that barking doesn’t work and give up.”

If an animal repeatedly experiences an aversive situation that it cannot control through its behavior, we can create conditions associated with learned helplessness.

I don’t want the dog learning:

“Nothing I do matters.”

I want the dog learning:

“My behavior matters. I know what behavior works here, and that behavior produces desirable outcomes.”

That’s a very different training picture.

Reinforce the Behavior You Want

So let’s say I close the kennel door and the dog starts barking.

Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.

I’m not going to run over there while the dog is actively barking and start shoving food into the kennel.

I’m going to wait for an approximation of the behavior I actually want.

Maybe initially that’s only:

One second of silence.

Great.

Quiet → mark → reinforcement.

Remember: we’re shaping.

I don’t expect a dog that currently gives me two seconds of quiet to suddenly give me 45 minutes.

I reinforce the approximation I have, and then I gradually build from there.

Your Presence Can Become Part of the Contingency

Here’s another thing we can do, particularly with a dog that values our presence.

Let’s say I’m in the room and the dog starts barking.

I dramatically leave.

The dog goes:

“Wait a minute. Barking made you go away. I don’t want you to go away.”

The dog becomes quiet.

I come back.

Now we’ve created a very clear behavioral picture.

When the dog is quiet:

Good things come toward me.

When the dog barks:

Good things go away.

We potentially have two contingencies operating here.

Positive Reinforcement

Quiet → food/attention added → quiet increases.

Negative Punishment

Barking → access to attention/handler removed → barking decreases.

We’re not simply waiting for exhaustion.

We’re teaching the dog what behavior works.

Treat & Train: A Professional Trick

Another professional trick is using a Treat & Train or another remote food-delivery system.

You can actually pipe the reward mechanism with PVC into the crate so that food is delivered directly into the kennel.

This gives you incredibly precise timing.

The dog gets quiet:

Beep/marker → food immediately appears in the kennel.

Now I don’t have:

Dog gets quiet → I notice → stand up → grab food → walk across the room → approach kennel → finally deliver reinforcement.

By then, the moment I intended to reinforce may be gone.

With remote reinforcement:

Quiet → immediate marker → immediate food.

That’s a much cleaner contingency.

And because the reinforcement is being delivered directly into the kennel, we’re also continuing to build room service into the dog’s reinforcement history.

Good things aren’t merely happening after the dog comes out.

Good things are happening in the crate.

Extend the Periods of Quiet

Once we’re getting quiet behavior, we start extending the intervals between reinforcement.

Maybe initially we’re reinforcing very frequently.

Then perhaps:

One minute of quiet → reinforcement.

Then:

Five minutes → reinforcement.

Then:

Ten minutes → reinforcement.

Those aren’t mandatory jumps or a rigid schedule.

Watch the dog in front of you.

If you increase the criteria and suddenly everything falls apart, you’ve probably asked for too much too quickly.

Back up.

Get success again.

Then build forward.

Eventually, when the dog is reliably quiet, we can begin moving toward more intermittent and variable reinforcement.

Now I might randomly walk past the kennel and dump food through the side.

Maybe reinforcement happens after a relatively short interval.

Maybe the next interval is longer.

The dog doesn’t know exactly when reinforcement is coming.

It just knows:

“Good things happen when I’m hanging out calmly in here.”

The Crate Itself Starts to Predict Good Things

After enough repetitions, something important starts happening.

The crate develops a positive reinforcement history.

The sights, sounds, and context associated with going into that kennel begin predicting desirable outcomes.

Food happens there.

Rest happens there.

Safety happens there.

The dog knows what to do there.

The environment becomes predictable.

And through that repeated history, the crate itself can begin to acquire positive conditioned value.

That’s what I want.

I don’t merely want a dog that tolerates its kennel.

I want a dog that sees that crate and goes:

“Hell yeah. Good things happen in there.”

You may eventually have dogs voluntarily choosing to go lie in their crates because that environment has such a strong reinforcement history.

Knowing It, Loving It, Doing It — Then Build the Language

And this brings us back to something we’re going to talk about repeatedly throughout this course.

I don’t need to stand there saying:

“Crate. Crate. Crate. CRATE!”

to a dog that has absolutely no idea what the word crate means.

The dog doesn’t have the language yet.

First, I’m going to build the behavior.

The dog is:

Knowing it.

Then I’m going to build value for the behavior.

The dog is:

Loving it.

And now the dog is reliably:

Doing it.

Once the dog is knowing it, loving it, and doing it, now we start building the language.

I can predict that the dog is about to enter the crate, so as the dog commits to that behavior:

“Crate” in conjunction with the dog entering → click → food.

Again:

Dog begins entering → “Crate” → dog completes the behavior → click → food.

At this stage, I’m not saying “crate” and expecting the dog to know what I’m talking about.

I’m deliberately pairing the word crate with the behavior the dog already understands.

Through repetition, we’re building an association between:

The word “crate” + the behavior of entering the crate.

Now the dog starts developing the language.

After enough repetitions, we can begin moving that verbal cue earlier:

“Crate” → dog enters → click → food.

And now we’ve transitioned from pairing a word with a known behavior to having that word begin to function as the cue for the behavior.

That’s why the order matters:

Knowing it → Loving it → Doing it → Name it.

Don’t give language to a dog that doesn’t understand the activity yet.

Build the behavior first. Then build the language around the behavior.

What About Pressure?

Now, folks, I’m not saying that pressure can never eventually be incorporated.

With an appropriately aged and mature dog that clearly understands the desired behavior, there may be circumstances where we eventually layer very low levels of appropriately conditioned pressure for reliability or proofing.

But here’s the distinction I want you to understand:

Pressure should not be how the dog learns what the crate is.

The dog needs to understand the behavior first.

And if we’re ever going to incorporate pressure, we have to be extremely careful about the association the dog is making.

I don’t want:

“The crate caused pressure. The crate makes bad things happen. I don’t like the crate.”

I need the dog to understand:

“My behavior controls the pressure.”

That’s the fundamental concept behind properly conditioned negative reinforcement.

If pressure is ever incorporated, the dog needs to understand exactly what behavior causes that pressure to terminate.

Otherwise, we risk creating an environmental association with the crate itself.

And now we’ve made the original problem worse.

So:

Teach it first. Build value for it. Build the language. Put it under stimulus control. Then proof reliability if necessary.

Don’t Jump Straight to a Bark Collar

And please don’t immediately jump to:

“The dog’s barking in the kennel. Put a bark collar on it.”

A bark collar may suppress vocalization, but that doesn’t automatically tell us we’ve addressed the underlying training problem.

Before we start worrying about suppressing barking, we have to ask:

• Does the dog actually understand the desired behavior?

• Have we built value in the kennel?

• Have we trained for duration?

• Or did we simply progress too quickly?

Folks:

Train the behavior before you start worrying about suppressing the symptom.

“But I Don’t Have Time”

And inevitably somebody is going to tell me:

“I just don’t have time to do all this.”

Okay, folks. If you don’t have time to train it, then realistically your options are:

Hire a professional to help you train it, or let the dog run amok.

And because leaving a dog loose that isn’t safe to be loose isn’t a solution to a crate-training problem.

Somebody has to train the dog.

And, folks, if you’re deliberate with your timing and reinforcement, it often does not take very long for a dog to begin understanding what you want and developing a completely different relationship with the crate.

The Crate-Training Progression

Remember the progression:

Load your marker

↓

Free shape investigation of the crate

↓

Mark successive approximations

↓

Shape voluntary entry

↓

Build duration

↓

Introduce something we call room service

↓

Gradually close the door

↓

Reinforce quiet and calm

↓

Use removal of attention strategically when appropriate

↓

Gradually extend periods of quiet

↓

Move toward intermittent and variable reinforcement

↓

Build a powerful reinforcement history inside the crate

↓

Knowing it → Loving it → Doing it

↓

Build the language: “Crate” in conjunction with the dog entering → click → food

↓

Move the cue earlier: “Crate” → dog enters → click → food

↓

Put the behavior under stimulus control

↓

Only then consider whether additional proofing is even necessary

The kennel shouldn’t be a battleground.

It shouldn’t be the place where the dog gets shoved in, screams until it gives up, and spends hours rehearsing distress.

I want the crate to become both a trained behavior and a conditioned environment where the dog understands exactly what is expected and has a long history of good things happening.

Folks, make the dog love its kennel.

Start heavily in positive reinforcement.

Shape the behavior you want.

Reward calm.

Build duration deliberately.

Use room service to build value for staying in the kennel.

Once the dog is knowing it, loving it, and doing it, start building the language by pairing “crate” with the behavior the dog is already performing.

Then, once that language has meaning, move the cue earlier and allow it to begin controlling the behavior.

And create a dog that doesn’t merely accept being crated, but knows exactly how to succeed there.