Potty Training Puppy 1 of 2: Crate Training

Crate Training is a very popular method of house training a puppy or dog.  It comprises getting a small crate for the puppy, just large enough for the puppy to lie down, sit up, stand and turn around in.  The puppy is taken directly to the designated toilet zone when he is out of the crate at regular intervals to eliminate and praised heavily when he does the right job in the zone.  The premise of crate training is that dogs naturally do not choose to eliminate where they eat or sleep, and so would exercise bladder control until they are out of their crates.

Pros:

• Teaches your dog bladder control, which is useful if the final arrangement for the puppy is to end up doing all of their business outdoors on walks.
• Easier for most dogs (with exception of puppy mill dogs) to figure out, as it's apparently doggy instinct not to dirty where they sleep.
• Makes it easier to manage puppy's time, as a puppy in a crate without much space to do anything won't. If done right, your dog falls into a routine much faster than a puppy that isn't crate trained.
• Added advantage of teaching puppies to settle in a confined area, making travel and temporary confinement in the future acceptable to dogs.
• Faster to accomplish, dogs take within a week to get the hang of this if done right, although it needs to be continued.
• A schedule can be set up at timed and planned intervals, instead of just whenever puppy feels like it.
• Because of the predictability and bladder controls, eliminating on command is easier with crate training.

Cons:

• Built up reliance on the dog eliminating around the owner's schedule.  Note that the most important word in the first benefit is the word "all".  It would be cruel to provide your dog with insufficient opportunities to eliminate, especially when they are young puppies, which means 1-2 hours until they are 3 months old, then 2-3 hours until they are about 6 months old, gradually adding another hour for every month of life until they reach about 6 hours.  This represents a significant commitment to taking your dog to where you want them to do their jobs, come rain or shine or frost.  Because dogs develop a regular routine quickly, you should also be taking your dogs out around the same time every day that your dog is used to.  And no, dogs don't understand weekends too well.
• Puppies need a lot of trips outdoors on doggy duty.  For puppies under 3 months of age, this is once every hour at least. Again, puppies don't understand night/day very well either, so that means multiple midnight trips to the loo outdoors for at least the first 2-3 weeks.
• (You) Messing up (literally) with the crate can mean that the doggy instinct of not messing where they sleep is over-ridden.  This instinct is not set in stone, and depending on the puppy, could be either fragile (1 mistake does the trick) or tenacious (multiple messes and puppy is reliable).  Puppy mill dogs tend to come with this puppy instinct either broken or not developed because of how they are brought up, so bear this margin of error in mind if you feel that you may end up making mistakes or forgetting the time too often.

All of the above points basically point to crate training being nearly impossible for a dog owner working full time, unless you're working full time in the sort of company that gives you maternity cover when you get a new puppy.  I've read in a number of magazines that it's generally a very good idea to take vacation to spend the first 2 weeks with the puppy to settle the pup into the house.  I've found this generally makes house training go much smoother and quicker, and that the 2 week investment is well worth the time spent!