What is a home den ?
The home den is not just a bed or basket where the puppy sleeps. It is much more than that. Your puppy’s first den was the place where he first opened his eyes, where he was suckled by his mother, and where he slept with his siblings. As far as your puppy is concerned, this den is a place of absolute safety, even when his mother is not there. It is important to acknowledge that when you bring your puppy home, he will be leaving his home den behind.
One of your first priorities will be to recreate a den in your home as quickly as you can – a place where your puppy feels safe. This is easier said than done, because many of the attributes of a home den, familiarity, scent and sounds, cannot be manufactured. There are, however, some features of a home den that all puppies have a preference for, and you can help your puppy settle in by making sure these are available for him.
What does a home den look like?
Your idea of a great place to sleep and relax may be very different from your puppy’s. A puppy likes small, dark, enclosed spaces. He is not bothered about the structure or the contents of the den, he is not overly impressed with fluffy blankets and designer duvets, and he has no natural fear of being confined; nor does he share our aversion to the gaol-like presence of bars.
Puppies chew anything and everything. So for his own safety, a den needs to be free from hazardous material that could be torn up and swallowed. Most breeds of dog are physically quite hardy and by eight weeks old, a healthy puppy can regulate his own temperature indoors without the need for extra heat, so you don’t need to place his den against a radiator or provide a heat lamp. However, his den does need to be sufficiently airy, and free from draughts and damp. And in the summer it needs to be out of direct sunlight and in a room that stays reasonably cool.
Should you use a dog crate?
Although the use of dog crates is now widespread in the UK and beyond, you do still occasionally hear people say that they think it is cruel to put a dog in a crate. Indeed, when dog crates were invented, I thought them an appalling idea. How could we put our friends in a cage!
Our own feelings about bars and cages are very much bound up in the value we place on liberty. A new puppy may cry and try to get out of a crate if you place him inside one and walk away. This is because puppies have a strong need to be near their grown-ups, not because they have any objections to having their liberty removed. It is likely that dogs do not have any understanding of an abstract concept such as freedom, and all the evidence points to dogs being perfectly happy in a crate that is used appropriately.
The advantages of crating
A puppy that has a crate to sleep in may feel at home sooner than a puppy that simply has a bed or basket placed out in the open space of a room in your house. You can make the crate cosier and more den-like for a small puppy by placing a blanket or old towel over one end. An appropriately sized crate represents that small confined space that puppies find so attractive and helps the puppy to accept this as his new home den.
Puppies have a strong instinct to keep their den clean. This means that within the limited capacity of their immature bladder and bowels, a puppy will not attempt to relieve himself in a small crate. He will wait until you take him outside. This is a massive help in establishing good house-training habits.
A crate will also help to keep your puppy safe when you cannot supervise him.
A family home is full of hazards for a small puppy, from small items that might choke him or substances that might poison him, to being trodden on by clumsy humans or electrocuted when he chews through the refrigerator cable. It will also protect him from the wrath of family members as he will have less opportunity to destroy their prized possessions. In busy households, at busy times of the day, the crate is a place of safety and gives the puppy a safe space where he can relax when all around him is chaotic.
The disadvantages of crating
There is no doubt that crates have the potential to be abused. Dogs can be neglected and shut in them for far too long. It is probably true to say that this also applies to the alternatives to crates, although the small size of the crate amplifies this problem. Apart from at night, a puppy should never be left in a crate for long periods of time. The risk that he will become isolated and neglected, and fail to bond properly with his family, is too great.
If you decide to use a puppy crate, you will need to be disciplined about letting the puppy out frequently and not relying on it too much. Another downside with a crated puppy is that you will have to get up in the night to take the puppy out, until his bladder can hold a full night’s urine. This may take from a few nights to a couple of weeks.
Now let’s look at other ways of managing your small puppy in the absence of a crate.
Alternatives to crating
A puppy pen consists of a number of interlinking wire panels, usually five or six panels in all. It does not have a base and so should be placed on a washable floor. You put the puppy’s bed in the pen, and cover the remaining floor area with newspaper or puppy pads. Most puppies will wee on the paper and not in the bed. There can be problems with puppy pens. Some puppies will rip up and play with the newspaper you have so carefully arranged, and wee or poo on the exposed floor beneath – a habit that you will need to break him of later. Your puppy might pull his bedding out of his basket onto the newspaper to play with, and it may then be dragged through anything that he has deposited there. Your puppy may also step in, play with, and possibly eat, his own faeces, which will not endear him to you, and which can also become a habit.
House-training a pen-raised puppy can take longer than crate training, and you will need to be vigilant about keeping the floor of the pen clean. Of course, some puppies don’t attempt to rearrange their pen and it is a system that works well for some families. One advantage to you of a puppy pen is that, because you can leave water down and he has somewhere to relieve himself, you can leave him for longer than you could if he were crated. This aspect of puppy pens is not necessarily an advantage for puppies because it can encourage owners to leave them alone for too long. For some reason, we seem to feel better about leaving a dog alone for a long time if we give him more space to be lonely in. It is important to remember that the dog doesn’t care about space. He only cares about being with you.
Remember, to make the small puppy feel safe, it is best if his bed has some kind of roof. A small plastic carry crate with the door open placed inside the pen will suffice. A cardboard box on its side can work, although some puppies will destroy this within minutes.
A dedicated room for the puppy is another alternative, and this can work if you have a suitable utility room opening onto your kitchen. But again, you may have house-training problems, because the puppy will learn to empty himself indoors and you will then have to teach him not to. As you can see, this is not a straightforward decision. Overall, I feel that the advantages to the puppy of using a crate greatly outweigh the possible disadvantages, which can be avoided by thoughtful use.
Choosing a crate
Most of the benefits of the crate are dependent on it being small enough, so that the puppy will quickly accept it as a den, and most importantly, will keep it clean. If you buy a crate that is too big, your puppy will wee at one end and sleep at the other, just as he would in a puppy pen.
Your puppy needs to be able to stand up in his crate without banging his head on the roof, and to turn around easily, or lie down on his side. A crate should have this much space and not much more. This means that you will need two crates. One for the first four months or so of your puppy’s life, and another to last him until he is adult. Many dogs will need to be crated at night for up to a year to ensure they remain clean and dry in the house, and until they have outgrown any enthusiasm for chewing through your chair legs. So the second crate must be purchased with your puppy’s adult size in mind. Some larger crates can be fitted with a divider that you can take out as the puppy grows; or it may be possible for you to borrow a small crate to last him for the first few months.
Accepting the crate
For the first few days, your puppy may well cry whenever you leave him alone. Initially, this crying will simply be because he feels unsafe. But if you inadvertently reward him for crying, he will rapidly learn to cry deliberately in order to get your attention.
The more times the puppy enters his den and nothing upsetting happens to him, the better. We can achieve this through frequently feeding the puppy inside the crate, and leaving little surprises in there for him – a cube of cheese or a chunk of roast chicken will go down well. An additional important factor in helping your new puppy to feel safe is making sure that he knows where his den is and that he can get at it easily and quickly whenever he wants to. This means initially restricting the puppy to a small part of your house, close to his den.
It will take up to a week for your puppy to feel safe in the den you have provided for him. The more frequently he experiences being in the crate under pleasurable circumstances, the sooner he will accept it as his new home. Make his den a happy place, feed him often there, leave tasty Kongs in there for him to chew, and don’t be tempted to shut him in for long periods of time. The crate should be his place of safety and not his prison. Little and often is the key to success.
As your puppy grows and matures, his need for a small den will diminish. Over the next few months he will grow to regard your entire house as his den. And when this process is complete, you will have a fully house-trained dog that is in every sense a part of your family.
One of your first priorities will be to recreate a den in your home as quickly as you can – a place where your puppy feels safe. This is easier said than done, because many of the attributes of a home den, familiarity, scent and sounds, cannot be manufactured. There are, however, some features of a home den that all puppies have a preference for, and you can help your puppy settle in by making sure these are available for him.
What does a home den look like?
Your idea of a great place to sleep and relax may be very different from your puppy’s. A puppy likes small, dark, enclosed spaces. He is not bothered about the structure or the contents of the den, he is not overly impressed with fluffy blankets and designer duvets, and he has no natural fear of being confined; nor does he share our aversion to the gaol-like presence of bars.
Puppies chew anything and everything. So for his own safety, a den needs to be free from hazardous material that could be torn up and swallowed. Most breeds of dog are physically quite hardy and by eight weeks old, a healthy puppy can regulate his own temperature indoors without the need for extra heat, so you don’t need to place his den against a radiator or provide a heat lamp. However, his den does need to be sufficiently airy, and free from draughts and damp. And in the summer it needs to be out of direct sunlight and in a room that stays reasonably cool.
Should you use a dog crate?
Although the use of dog crates is now widespread in the UK and beyond, you do still occasionally hear people say that they think it is cruel to put a dog in a crate. Indeed, when dog crates were invented, I thought them an appalling idea. How could we put our friends in a cage!
Our own feelings about bars and cages are very much bound up in the value we place on liberty. A new puppy may cry and try to get out of a crate if you place him inside one and walk away. This is because puppies have a strong need to be near their grown-ups, not because they have any objections to having their liberty removed. It is likely that dogs do not have any understanding of an abstract concept such as freedom, and all the evidence points to dogs being perfectly happy in a crate that is used appropriately.
The advantages of crating
A puppy that has a crate to sleep in may feel at home sooner than a puppy that simply has a bed or basket placed out in the open space of a room in your house. You can make the crate cosier and more den-like for a small puppy by placing a blanket or old towel over one end. An appropriately sized crate represents that small confined space that puppies find so attractive and helps the puppy to accept this as his new home den.
Puppies have a strong instinct to keep their den clean. This means that within the limited capacity of their immature bladder and bowels, a puppy will not attempt to relieve himself in a small crate. He will wait until you take him outside. This is a massive help in establishing good house-training habits.
A crate will also help to keep your puppy safe when you cannot supervise him.
A family home is full of hazards for a small puppy, from small items that might choke him or substances that might poison him, to being trodden on by clumsy humans or electrocuted when he chews through the refrigerator cable. It will also protect him from the wrath of family members as he will have less opportunity to destroy their prized possessions. In busy households, at busy times of the day, the crate is a place of safety and gives the puppy a safe space where he can relax when all around him is chaotic.
The disadvantages of crating
There is no doubt that crates have the potential to be abused. Dogs can be neglected and shut in them for far too long. It is probably true to say that this also applies to the alternatives to crates, although the small size of the crate amplifies this problem. Apart from at night, a puppy should never be left in a crate for long periods of time. The risk that he will become isolated and neglected, and fail to bond properly with his family, is too great.
If you decide to use a puppy crate, you will need to be disciplined about letting the puppy out frequently and not relying on it too much. Another downside with a crated puppy is that you will have to get up in the night to take the puppy out, until his bladder can hold a full night’s urine. This may take from a few nights to a couple of weeks.
Now let’s look at other ways of managing your small puppy in the absence of a crate.
Alternatives to crating
A puppy pen consists of a number of interlinking wire panels, usually five or six panels in all. It does not have a base and so should be placed on a washable floor. You put the puppy’s bed in the pen, and cover the remaining floor area with newspaper or puppy pads. Most puppies will wee on the paper and not in the bed. There can be problems with puppy pens. Some puppies will rip up and play with the newspaper you have so carefully arranged, and wee or poo on the exposed floor beneath – a habit that you will need to break him of later. Your puppy might pull his bedding out of his basket onto the newspaper to play with, and it may then be dragged through anything that he has deposited there. Your puppy may also step in, play with, and possibly eat, his own faeces, which will not endear him to you, and which can also become a habit.
House-training a pen-raised puppy can take longer than crate training, and you will need to be vigilant about keeping the floor of the pen clean. Of course, some puppies don’t attempt to rearrange their pen and it is a system that works well for some families. One advantage to you of a puppy pen is that, because you can leave water down and he has somewhere to relieve himself, you can leave him for longer than you could if he were crated. This aspect of puppy pens is not necessarily an advantage for puppies because it can encourage owners to leave them alone for too long. For some reason, we seem to feel better about leaving a dog alone for a long time if we give him more space to be lonely in. It is important to remember that the dog doesn’t care about space. He only cares about being with you.
Remember, to make the small puppy feel safe, it is best if his bed has some kind of roof. A small plastic carry crate with the door open placed inside the pen will suffice. A cardboard box on its side can work, although some puppies will destroy this within minutes.
A dedicated room for the puppy is another alternative, and this can work if you have a suitable utility room opening onto your kitchen. But again, you may have house-training problems, because the puppy will learn to empty himself indoors and you will then have to teach him not to. As you can see, this is not a straightforward decision. Overall, I feel that the advantages to the puppy of using a crate greatly outweigh the possible disadvantages, which can be avoided by thoughtful use.
Choosing a crate
Most of the benefits of the crate are dependent on it being small enough, so that the puppy will quickly accept it as a den, and most importantly, will keep it clean. If you buy a crate that is too big, your puppy will wee at one end and sleep at the other, just as he would in a puppy pen.
Your puppy needs to be able to stand up in his crate without banging his head on the roof, and to turn around easily, or lie down on his side. A crate should have this much space and not much more. This means that you will need two crates. One for the first four months or so of your puppy’s life, and another to last him until he is adult. Many dogs will need to be crated at night for up to a year to ensure they remain clean and dry in the house, and until they have outgrown any enthusiasm for chewing through your chair legs. So the second crate must be purchased with your puppy’s adult size in mind. Some larger crates can be fitted with a divider that you can take out as the puppy grows; or it may be possible for you to borrow a small crate to last him for the first few months.
Accepting the crate
For the first few days, your puppy may well cry whenever you leave him alone. Initially, this crying will simply be because he feels unsafe. But if you inadvertently reward him for crying, he will rapidly learn to cry deliberately in order to get your attention.
The more times the puppy enters his den and nothing upsetting happens to him, the better. We can achieve this through frequently feeding the puppy inside the crate, and leaving little surprises in there for him – a cube of cheese or a chunk of roast chicken will go down well. An additional important factor in helping your new puppy to feel safe is making sure that he knows where his den is and that he can get at it easily and quickly whenever he wants to. This means initially restricting the puppy to a small part of your house, close to his den.
It will take up to a week for your puppy to feel safe in the den you have provided for him. The more frequently he experiences being in the crate under pleasurable circumstances, the sooner he will accept it as his new home. Make his den a happy place, feed him often there, leave tasty Kongs in there for him to chew, and don’t be tempted to shut him in for long periods of time. The crate should be his place of safety and not his prison. Little and often is the key to success.
As your puppy grows and matures, his need for a small den will diminish. Over the next few months he will grow to regard your entire house as his den. And when this process is complete, you will have a fully house-trained dog that is in every sense a part of your family.
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