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Crates and rest
Will my dog be crated during board and train?
Owners ask about crates for opposite reasons: some dread the idea, others need a dog that loves its crate by the time it comes home. This page explains where your dog sleeps, how crate work fits into the training, and how rest is built into the day.
Where it sleeps
Nights are spent in a suite, and the crate is a skill taught by day
Board and train sits on top of Dogtown's overnight stays, so each night your dog sleeps in an overnight suite, with comfortable bedding we provide, 24/7 monitoring and one comfort item from home. We do not publish suite dimensions or a standard layout, and how the suite is arranged for your dog is confirmed at the consult. Tell us how your dog sleeps now: loose on a bed, in a crate, on your bedroom floor.
The crate's main role in the program is as a lesson. Crate and household manners are on the Foundation list, and Advanced includes everything in Foundation, so both stays work on them. In training, the crate is a place the dog walks into on cue, rests in calmly and leaves when released. The aim is a dog that treats a crate as its own quiet room, which makes the vet, the groomer, the car and the next trip easier.
- Nights: an overnight suite with 24/7 monitoring
- Bedding provided, plus one comfort item from home
- By day: crate manners as a taught skill
- The set-up for your dog: confirmed at the consult
By crate history
How the crate work goes depends on what your dog already thinks of crates
A dog that already loves its crate needs little more than practice in a new place: walking in on cue, settling with a chew and waiting for the release. A dog that has never used one starts with the door open and food appearing inside, so the crate fills with good experiences before a door ever closes. A puppy needs the shortest stretches of all and more trips outside. Veterinary behaviorists writing for VCA call crate training neither cruel nor unfair when it is set up to reward success rather than to punish.
The dog with a bad crate history is the exception. The same VCA authors note that a dog left crated too long, or one that is very anxious when confined, may soil the crate, and a dog that has bent bars, broken teeth or nails, or drooled heavily in one is telling you something. For that dog, the plan reduces crate time rather than adding to it, and the consult may point to private sessions from $94 so the work happens at home with your vet involved.
- Loves its crate: practice in a new place
- Never crated: door open, food inside, small steps
- Puppy: shortest stretches, frequent trips out
- Panics in a crate: less crate time and a different plan
Rest periods
Rest periods are scheduled into every training day, in the suite or a quiet corner
A board and train day alternates short training blocks with movement, enrichment and rest, and the rest is deliberate. Our page on latent learning explains the research on why sleep after a lesson helps a dog keep it. Where a dog rests depends on the dog: in its suite, on a cot or mat somewhere quiet, or, as the crate work progresses, in a crate with something to lick or chew. The daily update tells you how your dog rested as well as what it learned.
Crating works best when the timing is right, and the VCA authors are specific: the dog should have had exercise and a chance to toilet first, and should be let out before it needs to go again. A training day follows the same pattern, a block, then movement or a toilet break, then rest, and it is the pattern to copy at home. A frozen Kong at $6 or a lick mat at $5, both published add-ons for overnight stays, can make a rest period easier for a busy dog.
Before the consult
Tell us five things about your dog and crates, and the plan starts in the right place
The more we know about your dog's crate history, the better the first days go. A dog that sleeps in a crate at home may settle faster with that routine kept; a dog that has never seen one needs the slow version; a dog that panics needs none for now. Put the answers on the training form or bring them to the consult, and say what you want at the end: a dog that sleeps in a crate, or one that simply accepts one for travel and the vet.
Be honest about the hard parts. Owners sometimes leave out the broken crate or the night of howling because it feels like a failure. It is not; it is the most useful thing we can know, because it changes the first step. Ask, too, whether to bring your own crate, since that depends on how the crate work is planned for your dog and is better settled at the consult than on drop-off morning.
- Where your dog sleeps now, and for how long
- How it behaves going into and coming out of a crate
- Any damage, drooling or soiling in a crate
- How long it is left alone at home
- What you want at the end: crate sleeper or calm traveler
For your dog
For your dog, the stay starts the crate habit, and the first week at home keeps it
At the go-home lesson you practice the crate routine yourself, with the cue, the door and the release word your dog learned. At home, put the crate where the family spends time, and keep the first closed-door stretches shorter than what your dog managed with us, because a new room counts as a new lesson. If your dog sleeps loose at home and will go on doing so, the skill still earns its keep in the car and at the vet.
Cape Ann life gives a crate-trained dog plenty of use. It rides more calmly to an off-season beach morning, waits more easily at a groomer's, and has a ready-made quiet place on July 3, when Gloucester's fireworks go off. Families in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea can use the Pup Van, $10 each way, for daycare days that keep the routine going. Our board and train page lists the full Foundation skill set.
- 01
Set the crate up in a room where the family spends time
- 02
Practice the crate routine from the lesson for a few minutes a day
- 03
Feed a meal or offer a chew inside the crate
- 04
Close the door for shorter stretches than your dog managed with us
- 05
Exercise and toilet your dog before longer crate time
- 06
Stop and call us if signs of distress appear
At Dogtown
Suites at night, training by day
Board and train dogs sleep in the same overnight suites as our overnight guests and train in short blocks through the day.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Can I bring my dog's own crate?
Will my dog be crated all day?
My dog howls in its crate at home. Should I still choose board and train?
Do you ever use a crate as punishment?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Tell us how your dog sleeps
Describe your dog's crate history on the training form. We reply within one hour on business days.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
