What It Is
Crate training is the process of teaching a puppy that a crate is a safe, comfortable, voluntary resting place — not a punishment, not a cage, not a storage unit for inconvenient puppies. Done well, the crate becomes the dog's den: the place they choose to go when they're tired, overwhelmed, or just want to be left alone.
We follow Will Atherton's approach, which emphasizes one principle above all others: the crate should never be associated with negative experiences. The door stays open until the puppy is voluntarily going in. The door closes only when the puppy is calm. Duration builds only as fast as the puppy is comfortable. There is no "cry it out" phase in this protocol.
The reason we start crate training at 5 weeks rather than waiting until the puppy goes home is simple: if the puppy's first experience with a crate happens during the single most stressful event of their young life — leaving their mother and siblings to go to a stranger's house — the crate gets paired with fear, loneliness, and confusion. If the crate is already a familiar, comfortable part of their world before that transition happens, it becomes an anchor point during the upheaval. Same crate smell. Same den feeling. Different house, but one thing that's still the same.
The Progression
Stage 1: Introduction
Week 5
Crates are placed in the puppy area with doors removed or secured open. Treats and small meals are scattered inside. Puppies discover the crate on their own terms — some walk in on day one, some take a few days. No luring, no pushing, no closing the door. The crate is just a new object that happens to contain good things.
Stage 2: Meals Inside
Weeks 5–6
All meals are served inside the crate, bowl at the back. The door stays open. Puppies begin associating the crate with their favorite activity (eating). Many puppies start choosing to nap in the crate after eating — this is the behavior we're looking for. The crate is becoming a positive location by association.
Stage 3: Door Closed Briefly
Weeks 6–7
While a puppy is eating or settling after a meal, we gently close the crate door for a few seconds, then open it before the puppy finishes or notices. Duration increases gradually — 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute. If the puppy shows stress, we've gone too fast. Back up, shorten the duration, rebuild.
Stage 4: Short Rest Periods
Weeks 7–9
Puppies begin napping in closed crates during their natural sleep cycles. We choose timing carefully — a full, tired puppy after play and a meal is a puppy that's ready to sleep. The crate door closes, the puppy drifts off, and we open it when they wake. They're building the association: crate = comfortable sleep.
Stage 5: Settled Crate Time
Weeks 9–12
Puppies can settle in a closed crate for 30 to 60 minutes while awake and calm. They have a chew toy or kong, they're relaxed, and they're not vocalizing. This is the level we're aiming for by go-home day: a puppy that can be in a crate without distress, because the crate has never been a source of distress.
The Atherton rule: If the puppy is vocalizing in the crate, you don't wait for them to stop and then let them out (that's a myth). You've simply moved too fast. Go back a stage. Make the crate positive again. Rebuild. A puppy crying in a crate hasn't learned to self-soothe — it's learned that the crate is somewhere bad things happen and nobody comes. That's the opposite of what we're building.
Litter Box Training with Alfalfa Pellets
Around the same time puppies start exploring the crate, they start needing a place to go. By week 4, puppies are mobile enough to toddle away from the sleeping area to eliminate — and they want to. Dogs are naturally clean animals. Even very young puppies prefer not to soil where they sleep. Litter box training works with that instinct instead of waiting for it to become a problem.
We use alfalfa pellets as the substrate. They're absorbent, biodegradable, and safe if a puppy mouths them — which puppies will do, because puppies mouth everything. More importantly, alfalfa breaks down into something that smells and feels like earth and grass. That matters. Puppies develop a substrate preference early: whatever surface they learn to eliminate on between weeks 3 and 8 is the surface they'll seek out later. Alfalfa pellets build a bridge to the outdoors. Puppy pads build a bridge to your kitchen floor.
The setup is simple. A low-sided tray with alfalfa pellets goes in the puppy area, away from the sleeping and eating zones. Puppies figure it out fast — they wake up, toddle to the pellets, go, and toddle back. We keep the litter area clean but leave just enough scent that the puppies know what it's for.
By the time a puppy goes home, they already understand that elimination happens in a specific place with a specific texture. Your job is to redirect that preference to the yard — and because the pellets smell like the ground, most puppies make that transition with very little confusion.
Why Start at the Breeder
Most families attempt crate training starting on their puppy's first night home. That first night, the puppy has just been separated from its mother and siblings for the first time in its life. It's in an unfamiliar house with unfamiliar people and unfamiliar smells. It's terrified. And then it gets placed in a small enclosed space it's never seen before and the lights go out.
That's not crate training. That's trauma conditioning. The puppy learns that the crate is where bad things happen — isolation, fear, abandonment. And then the family spends months trying to undo that first-night association.
When crate training starts at week 5, the puppy has seven weeks of positive crate experience before go-home day. The crate is where meals happen. The crate is where naps happen. The crate is safe and familiar. When that puppy arrives at your house and you put them in the same style crate with the same blanket that smells like their siblings, they have one piece of their old life that still makes sense. That's the anchor.
How We Do It at Pocket Rotties
We use appropriately sized wire crates with removable trays and comfortable bedding. Each puppy progresses at their own pace — some are natural crate dogs by week 6, others take until week 8 to fully settle. We don't push. We don't compare. Each puppy's crate training timeline is logged and included in their take-home information.
By go-home day, every puppy has voluntarily entered, eaten in, napped in, and settled in a closed crate multiple times. Most can do 30 to 60 minutes of calm crate time. Your job as a new owner is to continue what's already been started — not to begin from scratch.
We include specific continuation guidelines in every take-home packet: how to set up the crate at home, where to place it, how to extend duration, and what to do if your puppy regresses during the transition (which is normal and temporary, because the positive foundation is already there).
What Goes Home With Your Puppy
Each puppy leaves with the crate they've been sleeping in, a Kong, and a stuffed animal that's been in the kennel with the litter. Their space travels with them — same crate, same smells, same comfort object. On the hardest night of their young life, something is still familiar.
We also include a guide with Kong stuffing ideas, toy and chew bone suggestions for this breed, sniffing games to play, and leash recommendations. Chewing isn't optional for puppies — they need appropriate outlets or they'll find their own. The goal is that you're not guessing on day one.
Why This Matters for Your Family
A crate-trained dog is a dog that can travel safely, recover from surgery without re-injury, stay calm during house guests, and sleep through the night in its own space. It's a dog that can be boarded or stay at a friend's house without melting down. It's a dog that has a "safe room" it can retreat to when the world is too much.
Crate training done right isn't about containment — it's about giving your dog a place that belongs to them. A den. A home within your home. And when that training starts at five weeks old with nothing but positive associations, you're not fighting an uphill battle. You're continuing a relationship the puppy already has with the crate. All you have to do is not break it.