Kennel Training Your English Cream Retriever Puppy

Teaching your puppy the skill of being calm when kenneled or in a crate is important and useful. The sooner you can begin kennel training your pup, the better. Take the time to work on this skill consistently when you bring your pup home. It will help you with potty training. If you can work on this skill the first few days you get your pup, you will quickly be able to discern when the pup is whining to go out vs a pup who is whining to whine. This is important, because you only want your pup to whine, when they need to alert you that they need to go out. Kennel training and potty training go hand in hand.

It is best to utilize a kennel that can easily be moved from one room to another.If you are in the kitchen doing the dishes or cooking, use this time as an opportunity to work on the skill of being calm while kenneled. Utilizing a portable kennel makes it easy to transfer the kennel to any given room that you need to be in, while you may not be able to have eyes on your pup, you can listen and work on kennel training while getting your work done.

• Have your kennel ready with a blanket laid out on top of the kennel, so you can quickly cover the kennel when its time to do so
• Tell your puppy "kennel" while you place them in the kennel, every time you kennel them
• As soon as your puppy begins to whine or bark, immediately cover the kennel
• Timing is everything when training pups, if pups barks once or twice and you cannot get to the kennel before three seconds is up, do not cover the kennel, they will not associate being covered with their whining/barking at that point
• Once your puppy quiets down for at least several seconds, uncover them.
• Continue to repeat this process till they catch on .
• Puppies typically pick this up very quickly

Kennel Training at night

It is best to have spent some time working on kennel training through the day, and have followed a feeding schedule so you know that when you put your pup in the kennel for the night, you know if they do or don’t need to go. When you kennel them for the last time, and it’s bed time, cover the kennel completely When they have begun to respond to the kennel training during the day, it helps you to know when they do whine after kenneling them for the night, that they may really need to go out. If they whine after kenneling them for the night, take them out to potty, even if it is a few times in a row. If they do not relieve themselves and continue to whine after being kenneled, simply cover the kennel and walk away. Attention is attention, it does not matter if it is negative or positive, it is attention. Completely ignore your puppy if they are whining.

Your puppy will quiet much sooner if you completely ignore them, When you don’t ignore them, it resets their will and want to get out of the kennel and their efforts to let you know that.

Thank you for reading! Sharon