How to act when my puppy is let out of her crate

Hi all! I'm in the process of crate training my shih-poo and I've been getting some conflicting information that I'm hoping you can help me out with.

I've been told that when we let her out of the crate we should praise her a lot (depending on how good she's been), but I've also been told that I should ignore her for the first couple of minutes or not a big deal about it, because then she'll associate being IN the crate with bad things and being OUT of the crate with fun and praise.

I was just wondering, what do you think is the best method?

Thank you!

 

I'd take her out and take her outside...watch her from wherever you can and ignore... let her potty and THEN praise the heck out of her...

when going in I'd TREAT her and praise her a ton when she goes in... My dogs have all responded to that pretty well... They always have times when they're not in the mood and would rather come with you...but they like their crates...sometimes when I'm doing laundry I lose my Honijade only to find her chowing a nylabone in her crate! I treat still from time to time to keep things spiced up...LOL...

I'm glad you're crate training... It's always good to make sure your pet knows theres a safe place to be when mom's not home... I can't imagine the nervous breakdown my female pit would have if she didn't have a crate to feel safe in...

 

I agree. I would'nt make a big fuss upon letting her out of the crate.

 

You want your puppy to accept her crate as a normal part of her routine. Being crated shouldn't be a big deal, and being released from the crate shouldn't be a big deal, either. If you make it a big deal, she'll probably start fussing to be let out, and you don't want that.

Just take her out of the crate, take her outside to potty, or to her papers if you aren't taking her out to potty, and make THAT a big deal.

 

Crate training, making a fuss or not.

I totally agree with 'shineillusion', if you make a fuss of her and give a lot of attention when you first let her out of her crate your teaching her that exiting the crate is like playtime, she will start to anticipate the attention and could or probably will start to bark and scratch at the crate to come out, just keep going in and coming out of the crate very low key like its not a big deal.