A crate works for housetraining because a puppy will hold on rather than soil the place they sleep. That is the entire mechanism, and it collapses the moment the crate is bigger than the dog needs.
Getting the size right, which is most of the job
The crate should let your puppy stand up, turn around and lie down, with no spare room past that. A crate with a spare end gives them somewhere to step away from, and once they have used that end once they will use it again. People buy for the dog the puppy will become, which is the one purchase decision that undoes the method.
A wire crate with a divider panel solves it, and the MidWest Wire Dog Crate with Divider ships with one included. You set the panel so the space fits the dog you have this month, then move it out as they grow. One crate covers the whole of puppyhood.
Crate size is the whole trick
A puppy keeps their bed clean. Give them a spare room and it stops being a bed.
| Right size | Too big | |
|---|---|---|
| Space inside | Stand, turn, lie down, nothing spare | Room to step away from the bed |
| What your puppy does | Holds on and asks to go out | Sleeps one end, uses the other |
| What it teaches | Bed and toilet are different places | Soiling indoors is acceptable |
A divider panel shrinks the usable space, so one crate covers eight weeks to full grown.
The first two weeks, phase by phase
Rushing the introduction is what produces a dog who screams in a crate at six months. Two weeks of patience buys you years of a dog who takes themselves in there to sleep.
Days 1 to 3, the door stays open
Leave the crate open in a room the family uses, and drop a treat inside now and then without comment. Feed a meal beside it. Let your puppy walk in and out on their own. Do not shut the door, and do not carry them in.
Days 4 to 7, meals move inside
Put the bowl at the back of the crate so your puppy goes in to eat. Once that is comfortable, close the door while they eat and open it before they finish. You are aiming for the door shutting to mean nothing much.
Week 2 onward, short stretches with the door shut
Build from a few minutes to half an hour while you stay in the room, then leave the room for part of it. Take your puppy out to the toilet the moment you let them out, every time, so the two things stay joined in their head. There is more on the timing in what to do when there is an accident.
How long your puppy can be shut in
Take their age in months and add one, and that is about the number of hours they can hold on. A three month old puppy is at about four hours, and a four month old at five. Those are limits rather than targets, and a puppy crated to the limit every day will start having accidents in there, which is the one outcome you are working to avoid.
If your working day is longer than that, a crate on its own is the wrong tool. A pen with the crate open inside it and Amazon Basics Potty Training Pads at the far end gives your puppy somewhere to go that is not their bed. how long a puppy can be left goes through the arithmetic, and crates against pads covers the trade-off.
The mistakes that undo it
Using the crate as a punishment is the fastest way to lose it. A dog sent there in anger learns the crate predicts trouble, and after that no amount of treats buys it back. Send them there for naps and meals and nothing else.
Ignoring a whine is the other one. Early on a whine means a full bladder more often than it means protest, and a puppy left to hold on until they give up will use the crate, which teaches them the bed is a fine place to go. Take them out, keep it boring, put them back.
When a crate does get soiled, strip it and wash everything with an enzyme cleaner such as Rocco & Roxie Stain & Odor Eliminator rather than a household spray. Anything your puppy can still smell reads as an invitation.
When crate training goes wrong
Your dog already soils the crate
Some dogs arrive having learned the opposite lesson. A puppy from a pet shop pen, or a rescue who spent months in a kennel, may have had no choice but to sleep next to their own mess. Their situation trained out the instinct you are counting on, and using a crate the ordinary way tends to make it worse.
Start by taking the crate out of the plan for a fortnight. Use a pen or a small room with a hard floor, and put an approved surface at the far end from the bed so there is a right answer available. What you are rebuilding first is the idea that bed and toilet are different places at all.
Once your dog is choosing the far end on their own, put the crate in the pen with the door open and let them sleep in it by choice. Only then start closing the door for short stretches. This takes longer than it does with an eight week old puppy, and a rescue who spent a year in a kennel may need a couple of months rather than a fortnight.
Feeding in the crate helps here more than anywhere else, because few dogs want to soil where they eat. Two meals a day in there, door open, does quiet work.
When to call your vet
Book an appointment if your puppy soils the crate over and over despite short stretches and frequent trips out, strains without producing much, or has blood in their urine. A dog who was clean in the crate for weeks and then starts wetting it is worth a call too.
Alicia writes this site as a dog owner who does the reading. She is not a veterinarian, and nothing here replaces the one who can examine your dog.
Questions people ask
Should the crate be in the bedroom?
For the first few weeks, yes. A puppy who can hear you settles faster, and you will hear the shuffle that means they need to go out at two in the morning. Move it to wherever you want it long term once the nights are dry.
My puppy cries the moment I shut the door
Go back a step. Shut the door for ten seconds while they eat, open it before they finish, and build from there over a few days. Letting a puppy out mid-cry teaches crying to work, so aim to open the door in a quiet gap rather than at the peak.
Can I put a bed and water in there?
A flat mat is enough at the start, because a thick bed gives a puppy something absorbent to hide a mess in. Skip water for short daytime stretches, and offer it before and after instead.
How long until I can stop using it?
Most puppies are reliable somewhere between four and six months, and the way to test it is in small steps. Leave the crate open and the room shut, go out for twenty minutes, and build up. Going straight from crated to run of the house is how a settled dog starts having accidents again.
Sources
- AKC housetraining guide, on consistency, supervision, schedule and reward as the four things housetraining rests on.
- ASPCA house training guide, on keeping the space small at the start and enlarging it as training takes hold.
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