Raising Puppies

Pick a short cue to teach your puppy that you want her to enter her crate. It can be "Go to kennel!" or "Kennel up!" or even "Go to jail!" It doesn't matter what words you usejust be sure that you and everyone in your family use the same cue each time.

Step 1:

a) Have the crate door open. Get some delicious treats that your puppy likes. You can even use her kibble breakfast for this exercise.
b) Show your puppy a treat, and toss or place it in the crate. You may find that you need to put the treats near the crate door at first. You can even leave a little trail of treats from the crate door toward the back of the crate. Don't shut the door behind her yet.
c) When your puppy goes in after the treat, praise her.
d) Repeat this exercise several times over the course of a few hours.

Common Challenges:

Remember, puppies have no attention spans. If you toss a treat in the crate, and she hears a noise outside that distracts her, she'll forget there ever was a treat. You'll have to remind her.
If she's not interested at all, try using different treats. Space the exercise out more so that you're not overwhelming her.

Step 2:

a) Pick up your puppy. Give your cue "Go to kennel!" or whatever cue you chose, and gently place your puppy in her crate.
b) Immediately give her a treat and praise her.
c) Shut the crate door for a few seconds. Talk cheerfully to your puppy.
Try not to say things like "It's okay, you poor thing in jail, it's okay, I'll let you out soon," because you're really teaching your puppy that things are not okay. Don't reassure her as if something was wrong. Just happily tell her she's a good girl for being in her crate.
If your puppy paws at the crate door or cries, whines, or barks, completely ignore her. Don't talk to her, and don't even look at her. If you do, you'll just reward that behavior. Just wait until she calms down. Only pay attention to her when she's behaving the way you want.

d) When your puppy is calm, open the crate door. Do it very casually, without excitement. If you make a big deal when your puppy leaves the crate, you're teaching her that getting out is a good thing. You want to teach her to get in the crate instead!
e) Repeat this a couple times, gradually increasing the amount of time that your puppy is in her crate, going from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Tips:

Use your cue every time you put your puppy in her crate. Give her a treat each time, too.
Be sure that your puppy gets plenty of playtime, affection, and potty breaks outside the crate.

Step 3:
After a few days of crate routine, it's time to teach your puppy to go into her crate on her own, rather than you placing her there.

a) Get a treat in your hand. Show it to your puppy, and give her the cue "Go to kennel!" Then use the treat in your hand to lure her into the crate. If she follows it in, give it to her when she gets into the crate and praise her. Repeat several times a day. If she does not follow the treat lure into the crate, try using more tempting treats.