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Training Video: How to crate train a puppy

Updated 20 February 2025

Read time: 2 mins

Pooch and Mutt's expert trainer, Jon, is here to take us through step by step, how to crate train your puppy.

Crate training is a form of puppy training that can be tackled on day one. It's certainly not the easiest, and requires lots of patience, determination and potentially some earplugs! That said, a structured and strategic crate training schedule will provide a helping paw, and both you and your puppy will be sleeping soundly in no time.

Crate training your puppy: Top Tips

Dogs are denning animals, and crate training taps into that instinctive behaviour.
Crates give the puppy a cosy safe place to retreat to and provide us with a way to keep them safe and out of trouble.
The best way to crate train your puppy is to let it happen relatively organically over a period of time.
Make sure the crate is an adequate size and situated in a quiet area. If you can, situate the crate near the door that leads to the toilet area.
Be sure to put comfortable bedding in the crate and some safe chew toys.
Leave the crate door open and, little and often, engage your puppy in a happy but calm quiet manner, luring and throwing treats into the crate.
Don't force your puppy in the crate and always finish these sessions before your puppy gets bored.
If your puppy falls asleep somewhere, pick them up and put them in the crate, leaving the door open.
Top tip: Randomly throughout the day, when your puppy isn’t watching, put a treat or new toy in the crate. That way, they can find it later when they take themselves there. This will encourage them to go to the crate.
Once your puppy is comfortable with their crate, you can change your training sessions so that you add closing the crate door for very brief periods of time.
Once your puppy is used to the door being closed, you need to move onto leaving the puppy in the crate for random but slightly longer periods of time.
When you close the door of the crate, don’t engage with them. No talking, touching or looking. We want the puppy to learn to focus on the toy filled with treats and not us.
When returning to let the puppy out of the crate, don’t overly praise, fuss or reward the puppy. Everything about the crate is calm, including coming out.
Covering the crate with a blanket will also help them settle.