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Depends on the size of the dog. Most of my dogs are happy in intermediate-sized Varikennels, but they also don't stay in them a lot (and are ~30-38 lbs). My two bigger males (~40-45 lbs) have large Varikennels, but this past weekend when I needed to make space for extra dogs in the van, they were in intermediates (and I actually put two of my smaller bitches together in the one large crate I left in the van when I switched crates out--normally Pip and Ranger each ride in a large, most of the others ride in intermediates, and Lark rides in a medium, with a larger folding cloth kennel to stay in once we get to our destination). I wouldn't want them to stay in the smaller kennels for any great length of time outside of traveling in the van. At home I also have one XL Varikennel, and I use that for Ranger if he's crated when I'm gone. He can actually stretch out (flat on his side with his legs out) in that size kennel.

 

So it depends on the size of the dog, how much time will be spent in the crate, and also if you need to be able to fit the crate in a vehicle to transport him. If it's mainly a space for him to stay if he needs to be crated at home for whatever reason, then I'd go for the largest one you can afford and fit in your house. If it's to be used for travel too, then compromise and get the largest that will also fit easily in your vehicle. FWIW, my dogs generally don't stretch out in their crates when traveling, but rather curl up in there. Occasionally one might roll over on its back, because I can hear the clunk they make when they flop back over, but that's fairly rare.

 

J.

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I use 36" wire crates at home (dogs are 37#, 42#, and 50# - with the one being compact and the others leggier and longer) because I want them to have room to lay out flat. And, I like them to be able to move about to get comfy. I can also fit two of these in my Subaru (multi-door style, so one enters and exits through the rear hatch and one through the back/side door).

 

I find that a wire crate of 36# fits a lanky dog handily, like my Dan - but to get a Vari Kennel that he fit in without having to duck his head and being able to stand straight, I had to go to the next size up, an Extra-Large (40"?), to have something comparable to the 36" wire crate.

 

My dogs spend up to 10 hours a day crated, on my work days, so I like them to have some room. And, if I am travelling, it's usually a longer trip and mine do like to stretch out, even in the crates in the car. When I travel with all three, we have to use seat-belts because I can't fit three crates in the car.

 

I'd agree with everything Julie said...

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If you get one of the wire crates that comes with a divider, you can make it small to start with and larger as he grows. The theory is that a pup will try to avoid soiling in his bed area, and that's the reason for using the crate in a smaller size when he is younger and littler.

 

So much depends on the pup - since I was working when Dan was little (9 weeks old) and the neighbor boy could only come by after the school bus dropped him off (a 7 1/2 hour day for Dan), we gave him a crate with an adjacent x-pen, with a tub with newspapers (like he'd had as a pup with his mother) for his business. He never once made any mess in his crate or x-pen, but that was exceptional for his age. Since we had to leave him way too long for him to hold it (in theory), we gave him room to soil away from his crate/bedding area. But, as I said, this stubborn little guy chose to grin and bear it.

 

Best wishes!

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Just an FYI, I have used both wire and plastic crates, and the one advantage I found with a plastic crate is that accidents are contained. Cleaning the floor, wall, etc., after an accident in a wire crate is no fun. But really your choice there depends on whether your dog prefers an enclosed space or a more open one. I found I was covering my wire crates anyway. I also worry about dogs rolling over and getting a leg caught in a wire crate. That said, Ranger's crate in my van is a large Kennel-Aire, and the openings in the wire are small enough that a dog couldn't get a body part caught....

 

My 10-week old pup is staying in a medium (27 x 20 x 19) crate right now. She will graduate to an intermediate when she gets a little bigger. The XL is 40 x 27 x 30, and the large is 36 x 24.5 x 26.

 

J.

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I use the morchirio clipper as my default crate. Crates are more denlike than wire and many are airline approved. They are easier - as Julie noted - to hose down and the clipper breaks down easily and can be had with wheels which is handy in airports. If you ever intend to fly the dog to europe, for IATA regs get a bigger crate:the Varikennel 500 or equivilent.

 

Broke down into clamshells, the bigger crate makes a not bad puppy box.

 

 

Donald McCaig

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My dogs prefer airline type crates to wire. I had to move Tommy out of a wire crate when she was just little because she kept trying to mouth it and would get her teeth stuck.

 

I just use Walmart pillows inside the crate. The cost $2.50 each and the dogs love them. Then I just throw them out when they get dirty and put new ones in. It's a lot cheaper than a regular crate mat.

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I got my dog crate from a craigslist ad. It was in great condition, half the cost and has served well through two dogs worth of puppy/adolescent years. I was fortunate that someone was selling the right crate when I needed it. You may not find what you need, but it could be worth looking into.

 

When I picked up the crate I met the lady's Rotty who had grown out of it, so I was pretty sure there was no risk of parvo or anything like that. Even so, I washed it down real well with bleach before I put my pup in it.

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I got my extra large for $25 off Craig's List. I just washed and bleached it really well and let it sit in the sun for a few days to dry. A great bargain!

 

I just picked up a puppy (medium) crate for free. We were at my deceased aunt's house cleaning it out to get ready to have an estate sale and then sell the house and someone had cleaned out the garage and put it on the throw out pile. Obviously a non-dog person, lol! In perfect shape. My aunt's dogs all died of old age. Now it has a new home with me as a cat/puppy crate!

 

J.

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My name is RDM and I am a crate hoarder.

 

I did a count the other day and between the soft and hard crates in my car, house, shed and alongside the house, I have 20 something crates kicking around. I think I have only ever in my life purchased one crate brand new. The rest have come via rescue, work, freebies from friends etc.

 

Dexter has an extra humungous size crate in my bedroom for sleeping in, as he likes to stretch out. He has just a large in the truck, which he often shares with Spring. He's a good 23" tall, 20" of which are legs, so he is by far the tallest and longest dog in the bunch. The WooTWoo share a humungous in the truck, and Tweed has a large to himself (and an extra large in the bedroom). I have various other medium sizish crates around the house for anyone to nap in. And I have a stockpile in the shed in case of the Crate Apocalypse (I guess).

 

The problem with crates is that there is no uniformity to sizing them, so a medium size of one brand may be the same width as another, but not the same length etc. And if I were the King of Everything, I would make it mandatory for all crate doors to open in either direction. The two big ones in my bedroom are along a wall, and the doors only open one way, which is of course the wrong way.

 

If you have lost the bolts, and you are just using the crate in the house, zap straps / zip ties work marvellously well for holiding the thing together :)

 

RDM

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I had to move Tommy out of a wire crate when she was just little because she kept trying to mouth it and would get her teeth stuck.

 

 

I see that the OP already has a crate, but if anyone else is weighing wire vs solid-sided crate... We were all set to get a solid-sided crate for the "containment/den" reasons, but the folk at Petsmart talked us into a wire one (with divider, so we could make it as small as necessary to aid in housebreaking). Duncan was quite young when he got his canine teeth well and truly stuck on the wire bars. He can't have had them stuck long before we discovered it, but it was very, very scary, and it was tricky to disentangle him.

 

He still loves the solid-sided crate that lives in our bedroom; it's his "den", and he likes to crawl into it when he first goes into our bedroom even now. (We wanted a crate for upstairs so that he wouldn't get into things at night, and figured a solid-sided one would be useful if he were flying somewhere). I don't think we've latched the door in years... This was the solid "Aussie-sized" crate we got after he outgrew the cat's crate (in about a week), as well as the medium-sized crate we got from some friends.

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My name is RDM and I am a crate hoarder.

 

I did a count the other day and between the soft and hard crates in my car, house, shed and alongside the house, I have 20 something crates kicking around.

 

 

Let's see, 20 crates, six dogs, that's three and some fraction per dog. I think I have you beat: I have one wire crate in my office, one wire crate at home (folded up these days), one solid crate in our bedroom (it makes a nice end table), and then there's the outgrown cat's crate (which we still use, I guess, to transport the cat to the vet) and the medium sized crate (outgrown) AND the soft-sided portable crate. That makes six crates for one dog. Even if you eliminate the cat's crate (which, I guess, has reverted to the cat), that's still five crates per dog. These days we bring one of the wire ones with us when we're traveling (sort of like the days when we used a portable crib for the baby), but other than that... dog dens and coffee tables.

 

Who's the crate hoarder here?

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Let's see, 20 crates, six dogs, that's three and some fraction per dog. I think I have you beat: I have one wire crate in my office, one wire crate at home (folded up these days), one solid crate in our bedroom (it makes a nice end table), and then there's the outgrown cat's crate (which we still use, I guess, to transport the cat to the vet) and the medium sized crate (outgrown) AND the soft-sided portable crate. That makes six crates for one dog. Even if you eliminate the cat's crate (which, I guess, has reverted to the cat), that's still five crates per dog. These days we bring one of the wire ones with us when we're traveling (sort of like the days when we used a portable crib for the baby), but other than that... dog dens and coffee tables.

 

Who's the crate hoarder here?

 

Well, you never know when you might get another pup :)!

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I think crate hoarding is a natural outgrowth of the border collie lifestyle. I have a dogmobile. It has seven crates that stay in it almost all the time (removed only if I want to clean the van or for some reason need to sleep in the van and need more space than the area in front of the crates). I have a dog room that has crates for perhaps half my dogs, but could have more. Then I have the dog crates that do double duty as chick crates for hens with newly hatched chicks before they get transferred to chick pens (these crates then get bleached and used as dog crates again). I have at least one crate in the bedroom for the worst thunderphobe. Then there's the puppy crate in the living room, which also doubles as Lark's travel crate. Because it's a medium and not someplace I'd want Lark to stay 24/7, I also have soft folding crates I can take along and set up once we're at our destination (such a crate was invaluable for keeping the pup at the top while I set sheep this past weekend). The crates that stay folded up and almost never used are the wire crates. But I tried them at one point, and you never know when you might want them again, so you do have to hang on to them, just in case. And of course if you find a REALLY GOOD DEAL, you can't really pass it up, can you? Even if you don't really need it. :lol: Next thing you know, you're a crate hoarder....

 

J.

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I think crate hoarding is a natural outgrowth of the border collie lifestyle. I have a dogmobile. It has seven crates that stay in it almost all the time (removed only if I want to clean the van or for some reason need to sleep in the van and need more space than the area in front of the crates). I have a dog room that has crates for perhaps half my dogs, but could have more. Then I have the dog crates that do double duty as chick crates for hens with newly hatched chicks before they get transferred to chick pens (these crates then get bleached and used as dog crates again). I have at least one crate in the bedroom for the worst thunderphobe. Then there's the puppy crate in the living room, which also doubles as Lark's travel crate. Because it's a medium and not someplace I'd want Lark to stay 24/7, I also have soft folding crates I can take along and set up once we're at our destination (such a crate was invaluable for keeping the pup at the top while I set sheep this past weekend). The crates that stay folded up and almost never used are the wire crates. But I tried them at one point, and you never know when you might want them again, so you do have to hang on to them, just in case. And of course if you find a REALLY GOOD DEAL, you can't really pass it up, can you? Even if you don't really need it. :lol: Next thing you know, you're a crate hoarder....

 

J.

 

 

I wish I were a crate hoarder. Ladybug broke the door on the traveling crate that I use for Brodie....she's only in a crate as long as she wants to be, little escape artist that she is...I've got just enough to go around...now I need new crate/and or parts as this week Brodie has gnawed through his way through every bungie cord I use and sprung the door while waiting his turn for the sheep. He can't go anywhere because the door is against the back of the SUV but it's annoying as heck and not very good for him -- yard sale season is over too! Somewhere I saw a link to an online store where you could buy replacement doors for crates....does anyone one know it?

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