He’s used to seeing you non-stop and having full access to your home and all of your belongings. Now you’re putting him in a cage and leaving the house. Of course he’s screaming! One of the most important elements of crate training is making sure your puppy feels safe and happy in his crate. It should be his home-inside-home, a special place just for him, but also a place that doesn’t cut him off from you. To help him make the adjustment to his new “den,” you can give him a few reminders of you.

Find a pad that fits the bottom of the crate and that will cushion him and give him a nice place to sleep during the day. Now for the weird part. Place the pad in between your sheets while making your bed in the morning. If you can handle it, sleep with the crate pad in your bed. When a week has passed, the pad should have absorbed enough of your specific odor that it’ll remind your puppy of you even when you’re not around. Place it in the bottom of his crate, along with some carefully selected toys (we’ll get to those). To help him realize that the crate is a positive place, offer him a treat once he’s inside and praise him lavishly. Don’t worry if he doesn’t eat the treat right away – he’ll probably eat it later, and the important part is that he’s making the connection that the crate is a good, safe place.

Crate train in short spurts at first. Have your puppy stay in the crate for 15 minutes each night while you’re home and visible. The next week, increase it to 30 minutes while you’re in another room. Continue increasing it incrementally, each time praising him when he both goes into the crate and when he comes back out. If you work full-time and need an immediate solution to puppy woes, you can try using the crate during the day, but never leave him in the crate for longer than four hours at a time or eight hours total in one day. Crates can also help facilitate housetraining, so keep reading.