Getting a dog comfortable in a crate before a long drive

The crate is the one part of the journey you can practise. A dog that already thinks of the crate as its own space sleeps through France. A dog meeting one for the first time on the driveway has a long day ahead of it, and so does everyone else.

Start three weeks out, not three days

Ten minutes a day is plenty. What you are building is an association, and associations do not respond to cramming.

Week one: the crate is furniture

Put it in the room the dog already sleeps in, door open, with a blanket that smells of home inside. Feed the evening meal next to it, then in the doorway, then just inside. Do not close the door at all this week.

Week two: the door moves

Close it while the dog eats, open it before the dog finishes. Build to a few minutes with the door shut and you sitting where the dog can see you. If there is whining, you have gone faster than the dog can follow; go back a step rather than waiting it out.

Week three: the crate travels

Short drives. Ten minutes to the shops and back, with the crate belted in exactly as it will be on the day. Two or three of these and the engine noise stops being new.

What not to do

• Never use the crate as punishment, in any week
• Do not leave a collar with tags on inside it: tags catch on the door
• Do not buy the crate the week you travel; the dog needs to have met it

If your dog will not settle after three weeks, tell us. It changes how we plan the stops, and it is far better known in advance than discovered in a service station near Reims.