Guest Post by Dr. Jessica Bradford. Dr. Bradford is a small animal veterinarian with 20 years experience in private practice, and a contributing writer for wooddogcrate.com. She shares her life with four dogs, so she can see first hand the many benefits of crate training.

If you are going to expect your dog to spend any length of time in their crate and be happy to do so, you have to make it a safe and pleasant place for them.

Firstly, give your dog something comfortable to lie on. This will be much nicer than a cold plastic or metal floor. If they are a senior citizen and are a bit stiff and sore, they will particularly appreciate a soft bed.

Having said that, some dogs like to chew their blankets and if this applies to your dog, it will be safer to give the soft bedding a miss. The floor won’t be as comfortable, but they won’t get an upset stomach from swallowed fabric.

Toys are always good to put in your dog’s crate so they have something to play with. These toys must be kept very special, so keep them out of your dog’s reach, and only let him play with them while he is inside the crate.

It’s a great idea to put some chew toys in the crate with your dog. Make sure these toys are durable, and aren’t easily destroyed by a sharp set of teeth. A Kong filled with yummy treats will keep your dog occupied for hours. Soft toys and teddy bears are cute, but not at all appropriate to leave in a crate with your dog if they like to chew things.

Every dog crate should contain a water bowl, and it should be checked regularly to make sure there is still water in it. It’s a good idea to buy a bowl that is easy to attach to the side of the crate, so it doesn’t get knocked over.

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This is a fabulous, fun mental exercise; it’s great for bonding and to build confidence in dogs that lack it. This game is especially good if your dog feels uncomfortable with a specific family member.

• Start hiding a ball or favorite toy in plain view (behind you) while sitting on the floor and telling the dog to “find it”.
• Then put on a jacket or a sweater with a hood and hide the toy on you while the dog is watching, put the dog’s favorite item it in your pockets, in the hood, up the back, get him excited and then tell him to find it.
• You can use a treat as well if the dog is not interested in toys presently.
• Once he knows the game, tell him “stay”, and then leave the room, hide it on you and return to sit and let the dog go at it.

The main reason for hiding it on you in the beginning, is that it makes the dog eager to interact with you physically (he will sniff you from head to toe, shove his nose in your pockets, down your neck, push up the back hood to get the toy).

With a shy or fearful dog you don’t need to make a move to touch the dog, allow the dog to do all the contact.

Before you know it, the dog can find several toys by name in difficult hiding places- upstairs on top of a door frame, on top of dressers or tables, under quilts and pillows, in the laundry basket, under the bed, or anywhere!

Go try it out!

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You need to invest a fair amount of time and energy to train a really reliable recall. One reason why owners are having problems with recalls is because dogs learn contextually, also called” place learning”. Lack of generalization is acutely evident in the recall. The park is a very different context than the home environment where most training sessions take place. Another explanation is that the dog does not associate the word “Come” with the act of returning to his owner. Remember, dogs do not learn words as cues very easily and are most likely responding to context and visual body cues when they follow your requests. It is possible to teach your dog to respond reliably to a verbal request, but it must be done in a specific sequence for the dog to learn.

Another reason is that the bar is simply set too high. Maybe you have practiced coming when called in your quiet, fenced back yard but nowhere else. A recall in a small, familiar space with little or no distraction is the equivalent of a Kindergarten recall while a recall at a public park or in the woods is the doggy equivalent of a Ph. D. There are many “grades” in between that must be mastered before attempting a higher level recall. The most common reason a dog may not return when called is that it’s never been rewarded. Worse coming may have led to punishment in the past. It doesn’t matter whether this punishment was intentional, such as yelling at your dog for coming too slowly, or unintentional, such as only calling your dog at the end of a play session, clipping on the leash and leaving the park or calling your dog and throwing him right in the bathtub, the result is the same. The dog has learned that coming to you when you call for him generally means bad news for him or at the very least, the end of fun. If your dog does not like to come to you when called it is a sign there is something amiss in your relationship or that your dog does not know what you would like him to do when you call him.

The good news is the solution is the same regardless of the reason your dog doesn’t come when called. Thoroughly teach him and then reward him for doing it. Reward him by letting go play again. It can take up to the age of 18 to 24 months to achieve a really reliable recall.

I integrate my recall training with every pleasant thing I care to offer my dogs. Dinner is a good one, handing out fresh bones to chew on. I set myself up so the dogs are away from me and interested in something, then I call and they fly to me. I have to actually work at trying to sneak away from them in the forest. I call them for a game, for a walk, for a car ride or for a cookie. Take advantage of all the opportunities right at your fingertips. You will be amazed how many recalls you can do in just one day.

Play come games, – dog games helps to create a good association to form a reliable recall, which is one of the things every dog needs to know. Every person in the family takes turns calling the dog and rewards when she comes. Rewards vary from person to person, and can include enthusiastic attention, a ball toss, food, and a toy and so on. The dog has to go to the person who called her, otherwise he’ll be ignored and no rewards happen. The dog learns to come to every family member and the game tires her out. Engage in chase games where your dog chases you.

Never call your dog to come if you can’t enforce it. Manage with a long leash, but avoid reeling your dog in as much as possible. Instead, step on the leash to prevent him from going where he wants to, wait until he gets bored, looks at you and (hopefully) comes when you call with an upbeat voice.

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Does your dog need a little help in the obedience category? (I know mine do!!) There are still a few spots left in the upcoming Basic Obedience at Ottawa K9 School.

One class starts Sunday Feb. 28th, at 11am. They also have a class starting Tuesday March 9th.

Sign up by visiting their website.

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A dog’s adolescence is the time when everything starts to fall apart, unless you make a concerted effort to see it through to the stability of adulthood.

Your dog’s adolescence is a critical time. If you ignore your dog’s education now, you will soon find yourself living with an ill-mannered, under-socialized, hyperactive animal. Here are some things to watch for.

• Household manners may deteriorate over time, especially if you start taking your dog’s housetraining and other good behaviour for granted. But if you taught your pup well in his earlier months, the drift in household manners will be slow until your dog reaches his sunset years, when housetraining sometimes tends to suffer.
• Basic manners may take a sharp dive when puppy meets adolescence. Lure/reward training your puppy was easy: you taught your pup to eagerly come, follow, sit, lie down, stand still, roll over, and look up to you with unwavering attention and respect because you were your pup’s sun, moon, and stars.
• But now your dog is developing adult doggy interests, such as investigating other dogs’ rear ends, sniffing urine and feces on the grass, rolling in unidentifiable smelly stuff, and chasing squirrels.
• Your dog’s interests may quickly become distractions to training, so that your dog will continue sniffing another dog’s rear end rather than come running when called. (What a scary thought, that your dog would prefer another dog’s rear end to you!) All of a sudden he won’t come, won’t sit, won’t settle down and stay, but instead jumps up, pulls on-leash, and becomes hyperactive.
• Socialization often heads downhill during adolescence, sometimes surprisingly precipitously. As they get older, dogs have fewer opportunities to meet unfamiliar people and dogs. Most owners have established a set routine by the time their dog is five or six months old.
• If your adolescent dog does not get out and about regularly and only a few unfamiliar people come to the house, his de-socialization may be alarmingly rapid.
• Dog-Dog Socialization also deteriorates during adolescence, often at an alarming rate, especially for very small and very large dogs. First, teaching a dog to get along with every other dog is difficult. Groups of wild canids — wolves, coyotes, jackals, etc. — seldom welcome strangers into their midst, but that’s exactly what we expect our dogs to do. Second, it is unrealistic to expect a dog to be best friends with every dog. Much like people, dogs have special friends, casual acquaintances, and individuals they don’t particularly like.

Establishing leadership, creating rules and boundaries will pave the way through adolescence.

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