Crate Training With A Soft Crate

[ButerflyGirl]

Ok, so I have got our Boof (almost 6 month old Koolie x Rottweiler) a K9 Royale crate and he seems to approve of it, will happily go in there when toys are thrown in there or treats are in there and will sleep in there but I'm not sure how to go about "locking" him in there. I know it should be done in small doses to start with, so that he doesnt associate it with bad experiences, but I find that if I try to zip it up he is straight out of there, and at 26+kg he is not a little puppy.

He has never been crate trained before.

Any advice???

[Red Fox]

Maybe close him in there when he is sleeping and see how he goes. Or give him a Kong to keep him occupied when he is closed in.

If Boof sees his crate as 'his' area he should be fairly calm about having the door closed anyway

[Bonbongirl]

We crate trained our Lab at approx 1 yr old. We did it a little at a time taking several weeks before we closed the door and when we did we would give her a kong with frozen treats inside (it takes her about 20mins to eat) and just close it up for 5 mins, then 10mins etc. Now she will happily sleep in there all night. She is very food orientated so as long as she was distracted by food we could close the door so try giving something really yummy

[Mym]

Have a watch of this:

Not sure how clickerdogs put this up but it will save you buying the dvd. It is a great way to build value for the crate and it is fun to train.

She does say that you should aim to use a wire crate, so that it is easier to open and close the door but I trained one of my dogs with a soft crate.

[J...]

Have a watch of this:

Not sure how clickerdogs put this up but it will save you buying the dvd. It is a great way to build value for the crate and it is fun to train.

Clickerdogs is Susan Garrett, and it's only a 1 min preview of her Crate Games DVD - not the whole thing.

[Mym]

LOL, I saw it there and thought it was 1.05 hours!

I have this DVD, I think it is money well spent.