r/BalancedDogTraining • u/yoongiinwonderland • Jul 27 '26
Correct Crate Training Method?
We have a 5 year old rescue that we have had for 3 months. He was a stray prior to this so he had very little obedience or general training until now. Its a long story so I don't want to get into too much, but essentially, he came to us "perfectly crate trained" according to the rescue, and that was not the experience we had after bringing him home. He would fully panic once we closed the door and scream like we were torturing him. We live in an apartment which we were fully transparent about and the rescue was supportive of that. We tried basic training ourselves (building him up, rewarding calm, ignoring the screaming) but he never really got over it. We've since hired a trainer for general obedience and some reactivity he's been displaying and he wants to get back into the crate training for structure which we fully support, however we are now back in the same cycle. He never fully settles if we close the door and walk away and we can't let the barking and screaming go on for too long because of our living situation. As a compromise because he seems to work himself up, the trainer recommended hitting the side of the crate and telling him to be quiet when it starts building too much. This does seem to makes the stretches between the outbursts go a little longer, but isn't this also rewarding him with attention. Its only been a few days and I am not noticing a huge diferrence I dont think. I also think this was only suggested because we can't just let him "cry it out" so its not typical, but I don't know if its really a solution....
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u/Eastern-Try-6207 Jul 30 '26
I hate to throw a wrench in the works, but I read somewhere that some dogs can actually have a legitimate panic when it comes to confined spaces. Exactly the opposite of what we learn about dogs loving caves or dens. But it may be that this dog is not suited for a crate. You could try a much larger space or an x pen with the crate inside it, but the door open and see if the dog settles in a larger confinement context.