Crate training a Lagotto Romagnolo puppy

Crate training works really well when the crate becomes a genuinely positive space rather than just somewhere the dog gets put — and for a working breed like a Lagotto that will be doing field trips, getting this right early pays off enormously. Crate size and type matter more than most people realise, and so does how you introduce it. To point you in the right direction: what age and breed is your dog, are you starting from scratch or trying to undo a bad association, and is this primarily for home use, car travel, or both?

A Lagotto is a great candidate for crate training — they're intelligent and food-motivated, which makes positive association work fast at this age. Because travel is the priority, you want a crate that functions well in the car but that she can also use at home, so the crate itself becomes the constant rather than the location. A fabric soft crate won't give her the den-like security she needs in a moving vehicle, and a wire crate is impractical for the boot. What I'd steer you toward is a rigid plastic airline-style crate — it's enclosed enough to feel secure, handles bumpy field trip terrain well, and doubles as her home base. A few quick questions before I give you a specific size: roughly how big do you expect her to grow — do you know her anticipated adult weight? And will she be in the boot of a car, or on a back seat?

Perfect — that makes the sizing straightforward. For a 13–15kg adult Lagotto in an estate boot, you want an IATA-style rigid crate in the medium range, roughly 61cm long. My clear recommendation is the Ferplast Atlas 20 Travel Crate. It's a well-built plastic shell crate with a secure double-latch door, good ventilation on all sides, and a carry handle that makes loading in and out of the boot genuinely easy — important when you're on a muddy truffle site. At 61cm it gives her room to stand and turn as an adult without being so large that she rattles around as a puppy, which actually helps with the sense of security early on. It sits flat in a boot without sliding, and the enclosed sides make it calmer for a dog who's learning to settle during travel. Introduce it at home first with the door off — feed meals inside, scatter some treats in there, let her explore it freely for a week before you ever close the door. Because Lagottos are scent-driven, a worn item of your clothing inside accelerates that positive association noticeably. She'll be a confident traveller well before her first truffle field trip.

At 10 weeks, with consistent daily positive introduction, most Lagottos are closing the door calmly by week two and tolerating 20–30 minute journeys comfortably by weeks four to five. A 90-minute trip is a realistic goal by around 8–10 weeks of age — so roughly 6–8 weeks from now. The key is to never rush the door-closing stage, and to make the first few car trips very short — five minutes, back home, treat and release. Build duration only once she's settling within two minutes of being crated. Because she's going to be a working dog, it's also worth occasionally crating her at the field location before any training starts, so the crate stays neutral rather than becoming associated only with the end of a fun session.

Good choice — it'll serve her well. One last thing worth knowing: Lagottos can be vocal when first crated, especially at night. If that happens, don't open the crate in response to whining — wait for a two-second pause and then release. Consistency in that one rule will sort most protest behaviour within a few days. Good luck with the truffle training — it's genuinely impressive work to do with a dog this breed.