Crate School is a detailed course version of our popular Confident Crating blog.     This course is based on our own crate conditioning protocol, used now with hundreds of our puppies.   It’s written by breeder/trainers and designed for puppies under 16 weeks and their owners.

Crate School: Confident Crating works exceptionally well when combined with the litter raising protocol, Crate School For Breeders and Fosters, or the blog version, Crate Conditioning for Puppies, an incremental approach.

Designed for puppies leaving the breeder/foster for the  new home, this course builds on itself and the core protocols require a small time and financial commitment of setting up and supplies.   It is designed to work with your puppy’s natural instincts, so while there are elective training exercises you can do to that are very helpful those are not  required for the core goals of creating the desired associations and habits with the crate.   The course is designed so that you can do electives as you wish but with the understanding that bringing a new puppy home is a very time consuming and tiring endeavor so you may wish to focus on core lessons at first.

Of course the plan can be started with puppies up to 6 months or so, but it’s easier to start with a puppy who either has never been introduced to the crate, or who has been raised by a Crate School breeder or fosters and is coming home around 8-12 weeks of age.

While the principles may work well for adolescent and adult dogs this course is not designed for those age groups. 

Nor is this the right material for any dog who has an existing phobia of the crate, panics when confined, or has separation distress or phobia.   These dogs need help from a qualified and trained veterinary behaviorist, or credentialed behavior counselor.