What is everybody's thoughts on crating for bad behavior? My dog is about 7 months old and at times he seems to be testing our pack once in a while.
We'll tell him no and he'll get mouthy at us and bark more and sometimes when our 2 year old nephew is over, he gets way too hiper and starts to get mouthy and growly towards us while we are all playing together. Sometimes a little nippy...never to hurt, just to play and probably get attention.
What we've been doing lately when he gets too "worked up" or rebellious is; we give him a firm no and make him calm down in his crate. (Generally we give him a treat everytime he goes in the crate except for these instances). We probably leave him in there for 5 minutes and then let him out and say "be good."
Is this a bad idea? Will he eventually hate his crate if we keep this up?
Other ways to calm him down when he gets so wild? Let me guess...more exercise? That seems to be the answer to a lot of problems!! Is a time out in the crate a bad idea?

Amy
I'll give you a scenario that you can relate to.A human one.
If my 2 year old daughter mis-behaves by writing on the wall with crayons and takes my make up and puts it on the dogs and other creatures...If I take her to her room and give her a cookie to go along , what do you think she thinks her punishment is?
Punishments don't come with treats
For one the crate should be a comfort zone and a good place.All you are doing with putting your pup away in the crate is avoiding the challenge your pup is giving you.Like you said lately he is testing your pack leadership.Well you better challenge that head on , not avoiding it by putting him in the crate, and with a treat I might add! Put him on a leash and correct the unwanted behavior, no jumping on your nephew business, give him a correction, make him lay down at your nephews feet and make him relax around him instead of feeding off the toddlers energy.Keep him on a leash at that age when you know you are going to have a challenge.You have to have HANDS ON when you want to accomplish an exercise with your dog, not using the crate to avoid the problem. When people use crates to put there dogs away when it misbehaves is avoiding the behavior all together and you will never change the behavior of your dog that way.Good luck, use the leash instead be a pack leader that won't back down

never, ever use the crate for punishment.

Sometimes I put mine out back for a few minutes, but it's to get myself in check (count to 10 & repeat until I believe it "must not kill puppy") if the pup is being particularly obnoxious. I guess I'm trying to say it is really important not to ratchet up the situation. Take a few deep breaths & calmly let the dog know you win always.

When the child is over, you should put the young pup in his crate, but not as a punishment. Your dog should see his crate as a wild dog sees his den. I don't think I would let a 7month old GSD play with a small child who is not a member of your home pack, supervised or not.

And you guessed it,exercize - a tired pup is a good pup!

I never use a crate for punishment as they are seen by my dogs as somewhere to go to "get away from it all". If the dog becomes challenging then you need to deal with that.
Putting him/her in the crate and telling them to "be good" is doing nothing as far as teaching the dog what behaviors are accepted and which are not. They do not understand be good unless you teach them what good is.
I agree that I have had "the moment" with my dogs and ended whatever we were doing on the best note possible and put them in the outdoor run to check myself, but I am more known to take the dog down to the floor and deal with it that way.
I do not recommend the second choice for anyone that does not know how to do this. So please research this site and look at the training DVD's, articles, posts and podcasts on this site for information on how to teach your dog leadership.
Also, children should not be allowed to play with the dog right now, I think you are asking for issues in the near future.
And yes you are right, exercise is key.......you do not want to overdo the physical exercise since he/she is still a puppy BUT you can do mental games that stimulate, make the dog problem solve and if you work his mind and physically exercise them, they will be tired.....there are several threads on mentally challenging games for your pup or dog, just hit the search function.....
Hope this helps and Good Luck....

I don't use a crate for punishment, but I do use it to help a dog gain control of themselves if they are too worked up. But this normally stops at a few months old. 7 months is old enough to understand manners.

If I can't get a pup to calm down, and it's driving me nuts then I will calmly put them in their crate for 10 minutes. No talking to the dog, no nothing. Just nice and calm goes in, and when he comes out also no talking. That's more for me than it is for the dog, but it also helps the dog learn how to control the bundle of energy or excitement level that it has at that moment. (awaiting the backlash now)

But as everyone else mentions - you don't want to punish the dog before putting him/her in there nor do you want to put him in there in order to avoid exercise. Exercise is the number one deterrant to bad behaviour.

As for the child. I would avoid the situation by putting the dog in the create BEFORE the child gets there (nice and tired) and take the dog out AFTER the child leaves. There is no temptation then.

Hi Amy. Consistent with the other feedback here, we do not treat the dog's crates as a punishment zone - ever.

We DO choose our battles carefully. Some situations are good training opportunities, and others are just problems waiting to happen.

Using your example with visitors, for us there are some "visits" from outsiders that create excellent training opportunities at the appropriate time for the pup or dog, and others not. If a "visit" situation is not appropriate for training, then the dogs are crated before the visitors arrive. If a visit is deemed an approprate training opportunity, then be prepared to follow through with whatever training is needed.

LOL - in my wildest fantasy I would love for all four of my dogs to be calm and well behaved for the annual in-law Christmas get together - where several young children are running around screaming, food is everywhere, and my sister in-law has the ever present mop dog under foot in MY house (she would NEVER crate HER dog). We COULD train our dogs to be well behaved in this situation, but it's just not a battle we choose for a once per year gathering. We have other training priorities that are far more important to US in our day to day life and environment. So...my dogs spend the annual in-law day happily in their crates with something cool to chew on.

Maybe that's a wimpy way out, but that's what works well for us and keeps the small children (hubby and I don't have children) and Mop Dog safe.

Long winded way of saying that we don't use the crates as punishment either.

Best Wishes,
Beth