· By Minou Tpain
Author: Denise Partlow
Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas
You will repeat each one of these steps until he’s doing it happily and willingly. For some you might have to repeat just two or three times and others you might have to repeat 50 times. Do not move to the next step until the one before it has been done successfully (happily and willingly).
That means you may not get through all of the steps in one session. It might take you 3 days or 3 weeks.
-puppy walks in, reward, he gets to walk right back out (remember to repeat each step frequently)
-(same as above) but then you toss him another treat while he’s still in there to create duration of him staying inside and he comes right back out
-(same as above) close the door for a second, open it right back up, give him a treat and let him out
-(same as above) close the door completely for a second or two, open it, give him a treat, let him out
-(same as above) continue to increase the amount of time that you keep that door closed
-when he can successfully stay in there with the door closed for a good 15 seconds then you can start adding in movement where you stand up, you sit back down, open the door, reward him, he comes out (This will help to prepare him for you walking away)
-(same as above) now you can stand a little longer
-(same as above) walk back one or two steps, come right back to his crate to give him a treat and let him out
-(same as above) start to increase the distance that you walk away from the crate, you can try walking backwards or you can turn around and walk away. But you have to go slowly here, only add in maybe one step each time.
-once you can do this successfully then you can start disappearing out of sight like going around the corner or into another room but again just for a second and come right back. You will eventually work your way up to being out of sight for longer periods of time.
And that’s pretty much it! You will have to work through it, it takes a long time but this is what will help your dog to understand that he’s not going to stay in there forever.
