🏠 Day 2 · Week 2 — Door Introduction

Crate Training — Day 2 with your dog

⏱ 5–10 minutes🏠 Crate in the same location🎯 Goal: door closes briefly (5 seconds) with calm behavior

Day 1 recap

Day 1 was all about voluntary entry with the door open: treat tosses, marking four-paw entry, meals inside. If your dog is walking in confidently and eating meals fully inside the crate without hesitation, the foundation is there.

Day 2 introduces the door — briefly. The goal isn't duration; it's just the door closing and opening without drama.

Your Day 2 protocol

1
Warm-up: 3 voluntary entries, door open
Confirm Day 1 enthusiasm before touching the door
Toss a treat into the crate. When your dog enters, mark and deliver 2–3 extra treats inside. Let them exit on their own. Repeat 3 times. Only proceed to the next step if your dog is entering voluntarily and calmly — not reluctantly, not only when lured in.
2
Reps 1–3: Touch the door, don't close it
Swing the door slightly toward closed — treat while inside — open immediately
While your dog is inside eating treats, touch the door and swing it slightly inward (not closed). Keep delivering treats through the door gap. Swing it back open immediately. Repeat. You're associating the door moving with good things happening, before any confinement begins.
3
Reps 4–5: Door closed for 3–5 seconds
Gently close the door while delivering treats through it
Close the crate door while your dog is eating treats from your hand through the door gaps. Hold it closed for 3–5 seconds, continuously feeding. Open before your dog shows any anxiety (pawing, whining, trying to push out). If you catch them the moment before anxiety: you've succeeded. The goal is closed-door = treat continues, not closed-door = treats stop.
4
End of session: Feed a meal with door closed briefly
Put the food bowl inside, close door for the first minute, then open
Feed your dog's meal inside the crate. Close the door for the first 60 seconds while they're eating. Open before they finish so the association is: door closed = still eating, not door opens = eating stops. This is a 60-second closed door, not a "crating" session — you're present the whole time.

If your dog paws at the door or whines the moment it closes: you moved too fast. Go back to door-swinging-without-closing for 2 more sessions. The anxiety response tells you the positive association with entry wasn't deep enough yet. If your dog is completely calm and seems unfazed by the door closing: don't rush to add duration. Let the calm behavior become the default before extending. Crate training done right is boring — the dog barely notices the door.

Why you close the door before you leave

Most crate training failures happen when the door-closing is paired with owner departure. The dog learns: door closes → human leaves → I'm alone → panic. You want to decouple those events entirely. Day 2 introduces door-closing as a neutral or positive event while you're present, feeding continuously. The confinement concept comes later. The departure concept comes much later.

The rule is: never close the crate door at a faster rate than your dog can stay calm inside it. If 5 seconds produces anxiety, 30 seconds will produce more. Anxiety in the crate doesn't just make the session harder — it actively builds a negative association with the space that takes weeks to undo. Slow is fast here.

Ready? New room, same your dog.

5 minutes. Different spot. Same cue.

✅ Day 2 logged.

Context switch done. That's how generalisation gets built — not by drilling in one spot, but by proving the cue works everywhere. Day 3 adds duration and distance.

Day 3: Duration + Distance → ← Back to Week 2 skills

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