Host: Should I crate train my newly adopted puppy?
Kevin Simpson: It’s not a bad idea to go ahead and attempt to create train your newly adopted puppy from the first day that you bring him or her home. You never want to assume that any dog that you bring into your home, its house trained. And crate training is a really good way—it’s a popular method to teach a dog to hold their eliminations and to develop ladder control. The rule or the principle behind it is that dogs are den creatures and they’re fastidious animals that will keep their dense clean. And so while they're within their crate, you can place them then on a time line or a schedule where they can start to have their eliminations outdoors while they’ve kept their crate clean. Crate can also be a nice place for a dog to relax. Dogs don’t often get as much rest as they need and so having a habitat that they feel very comfortable and secure in, can help induced better rest, better sleep. It’s also a good place to keep them out of mischief when you can't supervise them. Young puppies have a tendency to chew and if you're unable to supervise them, it is a nice little time out sort of like putting a baby in a crib or a play pen during those moments when you're unable to monitor them closely.