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Permalink Reply by Kitty's Corner on June 10, 2008 at 12:57pm

We have 2 hard plastic,portable ones. A medium size one that gets used in the car and in the little pen in the house for napping and other one is larger and kept out in the garage next to our big dogs sleeping area.She sleeps in the big one at night and during the winter I bought an insulated,zip up cover for it.Both work well for our needs.I guess you decide what you will need for you place.>Beth

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Permalink Reply by Megan and Penelope on June 10, 2008 at 2:20pm

We have both. The big wire crate is what she stays in while we are at work. Sometimes when we are home she'll go nap in it as we leave the door open when we are there. We have the smaller plastic kennel (about medium size, size 200 in the vari-kennel brad) for trips in the car (its just safer to have it) and travel. We also leave the plastic one in the bedroom for Penelope to sleep in at night. The wire crate is in the living room. I initially only wanted one, but having both really is the way to go in my opinion!

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on June 10, 2008 at 3:04pm

we just have plastic ones. and we are going to get the easy foladable cloth type crate for car rides. we have intermediate. i feel like a large will be too roomy for a puppy (but ok for an adult) but a medium or small will be outgrown. My dogs dont use crates unless they have to when they get older anyway. the only thing is when they were 4 months old they shared the intermediate becasue it seemed too big for just one of them. so i would get an intermediate with a divider if you will use it until you can trust them or a large if you are going to use it throughout there life. but def an intermediate or a medium for a car, they dont need to move around a lot in a car.

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on June 10, 2008 at 3:17pm

Charlie's first kennel was the Interemediate VariKennel Jr (24" length). I already had it on-hand, as it is the kennel I use once a year to take the cats to the vet. After Charlie had all his shots, I started taking him to parks and shopping at pet stores a lot, and it quickly became a pain to move the kennel all over the place. He also got too long for it by 6 months to make a good overnight sleeping kennel, but it is fine for short car trips. So the 24" kennel is now permanently seatbelted in the back seat for short trips, and I found a deal on Craigslist for the 36" folding wire crate which is permanently next to my bed (unless we go on an overnight trip...it will go with us). The 36" is way too big for Charlie (he's smaller than average), and a 32" would be more than ample for him.

I have noticed that the VariKennel which is navy blue gets very hot in my car if I'm not parked in shade. My car windows are not tinted very dark at all, and the car and everything in it really gets scorching hot. Lately I've been thinking about changing to a soft-sided carrier for the car that won't soak up heat. I've been having to take the kennel out and set it in the shade a few minutes to cool off before putting it back in a letting Charlie in it, for the last couple of months. This is probably not a problem if your windows have a dark tint to keep the interior cooler.

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Permalink Reply by Tabi on June 10, 2008 at 4:33pm

I only have the plastic crate and Tabi seems to be fine with it. I make sure to tire her out though if I leave her for extended periods of time so she doesn't get frustrated in there.

Make sure you don't let him out everytime he cries or else he'll be crying all time. You can distinguish a genuine emergency potty cry from a whiny cry when you've been around the pup for a little bit.

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Permalink Reply by Karen & Bailey on June 10, 2008 at 7:20pm

sounds good!

we have two crates too, but one wire/one plastic:

wire (baby blue colored -yes super weird!)- pretty big 30"x34" w/l divided off in half , bought a half sized crate pad for it, for sleep at night at the foot of my bed. putting a towel over it to create the den like feel of a plastic crate helps.

plastic (completely tan colored) - smaller - probably 14"x24" for traveling - not neccesarily in the car (i seatbelt him inthe front passenger seat in a doggie seatbelt on a towel, as he hates being crated in the car). This smaller crate is used in multiple ways: chill-out time in my living room/kitchen, time out/calm down time at a friends house, overnight sleeping bag (hah), for the vet when he was smaller, etc.

I sure think both are necessary. each serves a different need!

he/she will defintely cry the first couple of nights. just need to be firm - only take him out of the crate and to his/her potty spot and back, if he doesnt go, he goes back in the crate - no play time, etc!! ok good luck and CONGRATUATIONS!!!!

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