The Modern Guide to Crate Training

A safe space your dog chooses

Most crate advice tells you to shut the door on the first night and ignore the crying. This guide doesn't. It shows you how to make the crate the place your dog walks into on their own, at their pace, from the first night through to the day you don't need the door any more.

New puppy, rescue, or an adult dog starting again after it went wrong: you'll know exactly what to do next, what's normal, and when to move on.

I've been training dogs for over 30 years, and I wrote this the way I'd talk to you if we were stood in your kitchen together.

What's inside

• Is a crate right for your dog? Crate, pen or puppy-safe room, and how long is too long at every age

• Choosing the right crate and size, a crate that grows with your puppy, and the safety checks most families miss

• Six stages to a dog who goes in on their own, with a clear "move on when" check for each, so you're never guessing

• Puppies: the first night, night-time toilet trips, daytime naps, and why there's no puppy pad in the crate

• Rescue, older and worried dogs, and what to do if your dog has had a bad experience before

• Crying decoded: how to tell a need, a protest and a panic apart, and exactly what to do for each

• Real life: children, visitors, more than one dog, crate guarding and the teenage months

• Car safety, holidays, flying, and getting through crate rest after surgery

• Moving beyond the crate, plus eight common problems solved one by one, six myths and your questions

Five pages to print and keep

• A crate set-up checklist

• A 14-day crate plan you can tick off

• A night-time log for the first two weeks

• A "why is my dog crying?" chart for the fridge

• A quick-reference page with times by age and the crate rules for children

Why this guide is different

• It tells you when to let your dog out as well as when to leave them

• It works whether you use a crate, a pen or a puppy-safe room

• It covers the parts other guides skip: rescues, crate guarding, children, crate rest and what to do when it isn't working

• It's built on reward-based training and up-to-date research, with no punishment and no "cry it out"

Who it's for

Anyone with a new puppy, a rescue or an adult dog, whether you're about to start crate training, stuck in the middle of it, or starting again after it went wrong.

What you get

A PDF and an EPUB in one ZIP file, emailed to you straight after checkout. Read it on your phone, tablet, e-reader or computer, and print the pages at the back.