Should I crate train my dog?

It seems like an innocent enough question: Should I crate train my dog? Or is there another option?

Well, do a deep dive into social media, and you’ll discover a lot of HOT opinions on this topic. But, you know me, so you know we’re going to tackle this logically and compassionately.

Or, if this is your first time finding this site, hi! Welcome! This is a kindness-first, let’s-learn-together zone. So, buckle up and let’s dig into the question of crate training.

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First, let’s establish a definition of crate training

Maybe I should start with what crate training is not:

Do not use a crate to reprimand or punish your dog.

Do not use a crate for long hours (we’ll talk about this more in a bit) or in lieu of training your pup.

NEVER use a crate negatively or punitively. Ever. Period.

With that aside, and with the understanding that we will get into much more detail below, here’s how I think of crates and crate training:

Your dog’s crate should serve your dog’s well-being.

That means something different for every family, but your dog’s crate should provide her with safety and security, with a quiet space to chill if needed, with a place to keep her out of trouble if needed, and with a place to ensure the safety of your dog, your other animals, or guests that might come into your home.

Plus, your dog’s crate serves a necessary role in case of an emergency (tornado, hurricane, earthquake evacuations, for example) or in the case of a medical situation (crated calmly at the vet’s office, crate rest to recover from surgery, heartworm treatment, and so on).

We will get into those in detail in later sections, but I want to start with that as our foundation. A crate provides for your dog’s well-being in all kinds of circumstances, and a crate is never ever used punitively or excessively.

So, should I crate train my dog?

The answer, of course, is it depends. It depends on your family, your home, and your dog. That said, there are a few key reasons why I think every single dog should be crate training. Let’s dig into those first:

The benefits of crate training

1. There’s no place on earth safe from natural disasters. Being able to safely, quickly, and calmly crate your pet in case of a fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, and so on is an enormous benefit. Read more on emergency preparedness for pets.
2. If your dog needs to be crated for a procedure at the vet and he is already trained to be calm in a crate, it will help him stay calm for his procedure.
3. Same for recovery from a medical situation. If your dog can already rest quietly in a crate, it’ll make recovery so much easier. We learned this the hard way when our shepherd, Lucas, lost a leg to cancer. He wasn’t crate trained, and everything was much harder than it had to be.
4. Any dog with stranger danger or reactivity can be crated safely when workers or visitors are in the home. In cases where your dog might bite or could bite, safety is the most important thing. Being acclimated to a crate makes these tense situations easier.
5. Your dog suffers from anxiety. A crate provides a safe, comfortable space to keep your pup calm.
6. It’s safer for travel. If your dog goes on trips with you, he’ll be safer crated in the car, and most hotels require a crate.

Ultimately: safety and comfort are the main benefits to crate training.

The drawbacks of crate training

1. Overuse. People can confine their dog for unreasonably long periods of time. Not OK.
2. Misuse. Never, never stick your dog in his crate as a punishment.
3. Training gaps. If your dog is crated for long periods because of behavior issues, work on the behavior issues so you can confine your dog for less time. (Excepting bite and reactivity issues, as mentioned above.)

Is it OK not to crate train my dog?

Yep. Of course.

Crate training is not a requirement. I believe, though, that even if you’re not going to utilize a crate, your dog needs to be crate trained for the safety reasons mentioned above. Have a crate. Make sure your dog feels used to it. You’ll be ready if you ever need it.

How to crate train your dog appropriately

Hold this principle in mind: You want your dog to want to enter his crate.

Start here:

1. Set up the crate and leave it open. Allow your dog to sniff and explore. Whenever your dog steps into the crate, praise and treat!
2. Build up your dog’s time in the crate with fun activities. For instance, stuff this guy with peanut butter and kibble, freeze it, then deliver it to your pup inside the crate.
3. Increase duration by small increments. Huge jumps in time scuttle progress… be patient. Go slowly.

A few tips:

• Sneak treats into the crate so your dog “finds” them periodically. What a fun surprise!
• If you’re crating overnight and, therefore, can’t build duration slowly, devise a reasonable schedule. Reasonable for your dog, not you. (; You shouldn’t expect more than six overnight hours, at least in the beginning, so figure out your bedtime and your morning alarm accordingly.
• Every so often, feed your dog her meals in the crate with the door open.
• Give your dog food puzzles and Kongs inside the crate to build those positive associations.
• Experts agree: Do not crate your dog with a collar on. Obviously in the case of a weather evacuation or a vet visit, that’s entirely different and your dog needs to wear a collar. This advice speaks to unsupervised crate time: collar off.
• Keep the crate clean! Vacuum it out and wipe it down regularly.
• Consider tracking your crate training journey with this free printable training tracker.

Should I crate my dog overnight?

If your dog isn’t yet housetrained, overnight crating is an excellent way to prevent accidents. Again, no more than six hours, though!

If your multi-animal household requires supervision, crating can keep everyone separate and safe while you snooze.

In our case, when we adopted Penny, she was a total unknown. We didn’t know if she was housetrained, if she chewed up furniture or drywall, if she chased cats, and so on. The cats–who always sleep in our bed–were uncomfortable with her at first. Crating her overnight allowed the cats to continue their usual, comfy sleeping routine without risking their (or Penny’s) safety.

John lets her outside and then crates her before bed, usually between 11 and midnight, and one of us wakes Penny up when Violet comes downstairs around 5. Sometimes Penny doesn’t get up, though, since she can’t hear us moving around, and she stays asleep until closer to 7 when it’s breakfast time. The cats happily snooze away in our bed and everyone feels safe. Everyone is safe.

That said, if your dog is housetrained and doesn’t chew stuff up or cause mischief, and you want your dog to sleep cuddled up to you, then by all means! Enjoy!

For many, many years, Lucas and Emmett slept snuggled with me while puppy Cooper–who was determined to tear apart our house and poop behind the TV every chance he got–snoozed away in his crate. Once Coop’s training issues were resolved, we stopped crating him overnight, and he joined the herd in bed.

Alternatives to crate training

There’s a dog training group I belong to on Facebook that prohibits the use of crates except in very specific circumstances. Their stance requires a person to make an enrichment space that includes lots of, well, enrichment but excludes the confinement. While that is an alternative, it’s not reasonable for all families. It can cost a lot to get the infrastructure in place. There might not be enough room inside someone’s home to accommodate something spacious. Plus, there’s a huge assumption about the knowledge of the human that most typical dog owners simply don’t yet have. It’s an option, though.

Another choice is a baby gate blocking off a doorway. This is an awesome choice if you have the space. This isn’t the right choice for us because our goal is to keep the cats happy and safe (and Penny happy and safe from the cats…) and they can easily leap over a baby gate.

Big X-pens or play pens can work for the right floor plan and combination of humans and animals, but if you have small kids who can circumvent or cats who can leap, it might not be the right choice.

Choose the right crate for your dog

Pretty much all dogs can be alright in a wire crate like this one or this (super affordable) one. The trick is sizing it appropriately. Don’t cramp your dog!

We have this crate for Penny, and I love the two door choices. It means we can position it anywhere in our bedroom and not lose easy access to the door.

Some dogs prefer a more enclosed style like these hard-sided crates, which are also super convenient for travel and vet visits.

There are also lots of furniture-style crate options, too. Look how nice this is!

I’ve seen a ton of built-in options, especially under-the-stairs builds, but that’s neither a fit for my house or my budget!

For bedding, even a simple towel should be adequate, especially if your dog will chew up or destroy a big bed. That becomes a safety / choking issue, so err on the side of safety than what we consider comfort. (Penny has destroyed two plush donut beds from Costco, so she’s down to a crate mat for safety’s sake.)

Lots of people get crate covers. If your dog is anxious, it could be a wonderful way to block his view of stressors, though I’ve never used a crate cover and so don’t have any first-hand experience to share. That said, I have always kept the crate in my bedroom, so my dogs always felt “with me” overnight anyway.

My take / experience

I’ve mentioned our dogs, past and present, throughout, but here’s the gist of how our crate training went for them and the different scenarios we faced:

We adopted Emmett in 2005. The adoption coordinator counseled us against crating him and suggested baby gates instead. We did that… but then ended up having to crate train him as an adult when we moved to Louisiana and needed to prepare for a hurricane evacuation.

Lucas, our shepherd, lost his leg to cancer. After amputation, he needed intensive, supervised crate rest at the vet’s office for several days. Thankfully, we’d prepped him for his crate so that didn’t add to the stress.

Cooper… oh, Cooper. If you’ve been around for a while, you might remember this situation: Cooper’s Great Escapes. Sigh.

Fast forward to our current situation with Penny. We adopted her a few months ago from a hoarding situation. She’s deaf and partially sighted. We know nothing about her history, really, and it’s our obligation to keep her safe, to keep our cats safe, and to keep the humans in our household safe.

So, we crate her.

We crate her overnight for about six hours. We also crate her when we leave. In part, it’s for the cats’ comfort and in part it’s to keep Penny safe because there’s so much about being in a house she’s afraid of. She’s never crated for longer than those overnight periods. It works for us.

Someday, we’ll start to lessen her crate time, but we’re in no rush, and she actually prefers to be in there–likely because of how new and different everything is living inside instead of out and she gets scared often–and will frequently go rest in her crate all on her own. We leave the door open so she can come and go as she pleases, and she does.

Every family and every dog is different.

Find what works for you and your pup.

Let me know what questions you still have about crating or crate training in the comments below! I’m happy to help if I can!

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably enjoy my forthcoming book, For the Love of Dog, from Regalo Press in February 2025. It’s chock full of the latest research in canine cognition combined with stories of my dogs to bring the data to life.

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