Dachshund Nobody warned me that the first night of crate training would feel like emotional warfare. My dachshund, all eleven pounds of him, produced a sound I did not know a small dog could make. It was somewhere between a smoke alarm and a betrayed opera singer.
I lasted forty minutes before I caved.
That was mistake number one, and it set us back about a week. The good news is that everything I got wrong the first time became the reason I eventually got it right, and you get to skip straight to the working version.
Here is the thing about dachshunds specifically: they were bred to go into dark, tight tunnels after badgers. Burrowing is genuinely in their wiring. A crate should be the easiest sell in the entire dog world for this breed, and yet so many doxie owners end up with a dog who treats the crate like a holding cell.
The gap between those two outcomes is almost always the process, not the dog.
Why Crate Training Matters More For This Breed
Before the steps, a quick word on stakes, because dachshunds have one very specific reason to get this right.
Their backs.
Intervertebral disc disease affects this breed at rates that dwarf almost every other dog. If your doxie ever needs crate rest after a back injury, and many do, you do not want that to be the moment they meet a crate for the first time.
A dog who already loves the crate recovers in comfort. A dog who fears it recovers in panic, and panic is the one thing a healing spine cannot afford.
Crate training now is essentially injury insurance later. It also happens to solve housebreaking, destructive chewing, and the separation anxiety this breed is famous for.
Now, the plan.
Step 1: Buy The Right Crate (Most People Get This Wrong)
Dachshunds are long. Crate sizing charts are written for dogs that are not.
Go by length, not by weight. Measure your dog from nose to base of tail, add about four inches, and that is your minimum crate length. A standard doxie usually lands in a 30 inch crate, though tweenies and minis often do fine at 24.
Height matters less than you think. They should be able to stand without ducking and turn around comfortably. That is the whole requirement.
Wire Versus Plastic
Wire crates are the practical choice for most people. They fold flat, they include a divider panel, and airflow is better in warm homes.
Plastic airline style crates feel more den like, which appeals to the burrowing instinct, but they are harder to clean and impossible to shrink down as your puppy grows.
My honest recommendation: wire crate, with a blanket draped over three sides. You get the cave without giving up the flexibility.
The Divider Trick
If you bought a 30 inch crate for a nine week old puppy, that is a lot of real estate for a very small dog.
Too much space means they will designate one corner as the bathroom and the other as the bedroom. Use the divider to give them just enough room to lie down and turn around, then expand it every few weeks.
Step 2: Set The Stage Before Your Dog Ever Goes In
Do not introduce the crate and the concept of being closed inside it on the same day. That is asking for a bad first impression.
Assemble the crate in a room where your family actually spends time. Living room, home office, somewhere with foot traffic. Dachshunds are velcro dogs and isolation reads as punishment to them.
Leave the door propped wide open. Not just unlatched, physically secured open so it cannot swing shut and spook them.
Toss a soft blanket inside, something washable, ideally something that already smells like you.
Then walk away and ignore the whole setup for a day.
Step 3: Make The Crate The Best Restaurant In Town
This is the step people rush, and rushing it is the entire reason crate training fails.
For the next two or three days, every good thing that happens in your house happens inside that crate.
Meals go in the crate. Treats get tossed in the crate. That bully stick they lose their mind over? Crate only.
Do not close the door. Do not say a word. Just let them wander in, discover something excellent, and wander back out on their own terms.
The crate should feel less like a room you send them to and more like a place they discovered a secret snack supply.
You will know this step worked when you catch your dachshund going in on their own without being lured. That is your green light.
Add A Cue Word
Once they are entering freely, start naming it. Say "crate" or "bed" right as they walk in, then reward.
Keep it cheerful. Never use the cue word in a stern voice, and never use the crate as a consequence for bad behavior.
Step 4: Close The Door For Ten Seconds
Yes, ten. Not ten minutes.
Feed a meal in the crate, close the door while they are eating, and open it the moment they finish. Most dogs will not even register that it happened.
The next meal, wait thirty seconds after they finish before opening. Then a minute. Then three.
Build slowly and build boringly.
Here is the rule that matters most: open the door when your dog is calm, never when they are whining. Timing is everything, because whatever they are doing the second that latch opens is the behavior you just rewarded.
If they start fussing, wait for a two second pause in the noise, then open. You are not ignoring them forever, you are just refusing to let complaining be the thing that works.
Step 5: Practice Leaving The Room
Duration inside the crate and your absence from the room are two separate skills. Train them separately.
With your dog crated and settled, stand up. Walk to the doorway. Come back. Sit down.
Repeat until it is deeply uninteresting to both of you.
Then step out of sight for five seconds. Return without fanfare, because a dramatic reunion teaches your dog that your departures are dramatic events worth worrying about.
Extend gradually: ten seconds, thirty, two minutes, ten minutes. If your dachshund starts to unravel at any point, you have moved too fast. Drop back to the last duration that worked and build again from there.
A Note On The Vocal Ones
Some dachshunds are simply loud. It is a hound thing and it is not always distress.
Learn the difference between a protest bark, which is rhythmic and stops when they get bored, and genuine panic, which sounds frantic and escalates. Protest can be waited out. Panic means back up several steps immediately.
Step 6: Introduce Overnight Sleeping
Put the crate in your bedroom for the first several weeks. This is not spoiling them, it is strategy.
A puppy who can hear you breathing settles faster. A puppy alone in a dark kitchen learns that crates mean abandonment.
Last potty break happens right before bed. Skip water for the hour beforehand if you have a young puppy.
Expect one or two overnight potty trips in the beginning, and keep them ruthlessly boring. Lights low, no talking, no play, straight back to the crate.
Once they are sleeping through reliably, you can start migrating the crate toward wherever you eventually want it, moving it a few feet every couple of nights.
Step 7: Build Toward Real World Absences
Start with errands you can keep short. Twenty minutes at the store, then home.
Work up to an hour, then two, then a normal workday stretch.
Four hours is a reasonable ceiling for an adult dachshund during the day. Puppies max out at roughly one hour per month of age, and nobody should be crated for a full eight hour shift without a midday break.
Leave something to do. A frozen stuffed toy buys you a solid half hour of contentment and turns your departure into a positive signal instead of a warning.
Keep goodbyes flat and unemotional. The less of a production you make, the less of a production they make.
Troubleshooting The Common Setbacks
Accidents in the crate. Usually a space problem or a scheduling problem. Tighten the divider, shorten the intervals, and clean with an enzymatic cleaner so no scent remains to invite a repeat.
Sudden refusal after weeks of success. Something happened in there. A loud noise, an upset stomach, a bad dream. Go back to Step 3 for a few days and rebuild the association.
Chewing at the bars. Often boredom rather than distress. More exercise before crating, and a better chew inside.
Adolescent regression around seven to ten months. Extremely normal and extremely temporary. Stay consistent and it passes.
The dogs who end up loving their crates are almost never the easy ones. They are the ones whose owners went slowly when everything in them wanted to hurry.