All Dogs Need a Den

Yesterday we bought our pup, Beau, a new den. He’s a seven month old Beauceron cross and he’s already grown out of his second one.

I set the new den up in the living room in the corner where the old one used to be and waited – clicker in hand, treats in pocket – while pretending to be focused on something else. It’s a portable crate, the sort that folds down for ease of transport and has built in windows and a door that zips up. The crate also has a top that rolls open allowing me easy access from wherever I am in the room. Sure enough curiosity got the better of the boy and he went over for a sniff. CLICK! And a treat flew from my hand in through the top of the crate.  Beau is a vacuum and without a moment’s hesitation in he went in search of the treat. CLICK! Another treat flew into the crate.

 As I sat and watched him explore his new den, generously rewarding his interest, I thought back to that day at the end of July when Beau was introduced to a crate for the first time. It was not the most elegant of affairs and certainly not a textbook clicker training experience.

Beau on the day we adopted him

We had just adopted him from the refuge in Cahors, France and we had a 5-hour trip ahead of us to our friends’ place in the South of France. We were on holiday and had stopped by the refuge on the off chance that one of a litter of five might be a good match for my husband. Off-chance be damned, it was more of a done deal. After that initial meeting off we went on a shopping spree to acquire a crate of sufficient size to accommodate our new family member. Our miniature poodle, Blue, then 13 months old, was horrified when he saw the size of the hard-shell crate we man-handled into the back of the car. Blue is crate phobic, a hang-over from his puppyhood, and I am sure for one moment he thought this big box was meant for him.

Getting to know each other

 We picked Beau up from the vet where he’d been receiving his final shots and popped him in this big box. I’d laid out a comfy wool blanket in the base but he was unimpressed – he howled up a storm. We had no time really to do this ‘the right way’ so my husband got in behind the wheel and I sat in the back seat with a bag of treats and my clicker in hand. I’d convinced myself, as we optimists do, that he’d have to take a breath sometime. Sure enough there was a break in transmission and I clicked and popped a treat in through the holes in the side of the crate – another pause, another CLICK! treat, and then another.

By the time we were out of the city limits, our new puppy had settled into the blanket and was looking expectantly at me for the next click and treat. I didn’t disappoint. I wanted my puppy to stay calm and I knew that a high rate of reinforcement would help him learn that lying quietly in his crate earned him lots of treats. And that’s what I had, lots of treats.

Beau spent much of that first week with us in that crate. He was fed in it, he slept in it, it was the place he went to when he needed some ‘alone’ time. He was always accompanied by something to chew, a toy to play with or a puzzle to solve. All the while he was learning that this crate was a safe place where good things happened and it was his safe place.

It soon became evident though that the hard shell was not the sort of crate that became a den. For one, the poodle was terrified of it, it was bulky and didn’t fit well with our furniture, but the real problem was lugging it up and down in the lift whenever we wanted to take the dogs out in the car.

Sleeping beauty

This is the life

Our poodle had his own den, a flexible portable bed that didn’t look anything like a crate. We took it with us when we went travelling, so he always had a place that was his. If his den was there, then so was his home. After the pup repeatedly invaded Blue’s den and tried on more than one occasion a hostile takeover, we decided to get a similar den for Beau.

The transition from the hard-shell crate to the portable den was as easy as setting it up in the corner. Beau took to it right away – he now had a den he could call his own and the raiding runs on Blue's den soon came to an end.

Beau taking a break in his den.

But that was early August, since then he’s grown from the size of the poodle to being tall enough for the poodle to stand underneath. He needed a den big enough to accommodate him now and in the future.

Last night he slept in his new den without any of the bumps and thumps that usually accompany his rolling over in his sleep. He has a new den, and he loves it. 

All dogs need a den of their own and Beau now has one he can grow into all over again.