Travel Crate

I knew that Daisy's new Travel Crate was supposed to be delivered today. That's why I wasvery surprised seeing the Fedex truck deliver something up the road and not stopping at our house as well. But I figured they have all day long to do so and I had to get started with yard work anyway. It was about 5 pm when the Fedex truck stopped at our house and delivered the new Travel Crate. Boy, that box was way heavier than I expected it to be. It weighs in at 33 lbs!!
As soon as I brought it into the house Daisy had to inspect it. I took a couple of pix and some video while unpacking the crate. As soon as Daisy saw that it was a crate she chose to stay in the TV-Room, as that crate was a little too menacing for her taste. I checked if I had all parts to assemble the entire thing...and that proved to be the case. Next I checked the dimensions and they are the right ones. Now Daisy has a IATA approved travel crate.
I didn't assemble the crate as I want to do crate training with her in slow steps, since Daisy has previous experience with crates and they are not all that pleasant. So I took it pretty much easy and let her investigate the bottom half of the crate by herself. She did go into the bottom half of the crate at least partially. I figured that she needs more of an incentive to go completely into the crate. So I chose Beggin Strips for that...and it worked like a charm. She goes into the crate, eats her piece of Begin Strips and comes back out again. I tried that even with the top half on and it works equally well. So starting the crate training about 3 month in advance and going ahead with small steps will be doing the trick. I also could see that the crate size is just perfect, since she can stand up in the crate and still see out the front. She is able to turn around in the crate and lay down with her front legs extended.
My biggest surprise was, when Daisy laid down in the crate after we were done with the training session for today. That's a huge step forward. OK, she still had her paws outside on the floor and she stayed in the crate for about 5 minutes...but it's still way more than I expected at this stage.