How to Pick a Kennel For Your Dog

1. How to Select a Crate For Your Family Dog Picking a Kennel For Your Canine You'll obviously need to choose a crate if you've decided to crate-train your new dog. Beyond the multitude of styles and designs to choose from, you'll probably be asking yourself, "How big of a crate do I need?" The size of the crate is actually more important than anything else about it, and bigger is not necessarily better in this case. A crate that is big enough for the dog to move away from any waste it produces will defeat the purpose- one end will simply become the "bedroom", the other the "bathroom". The goal in crate training is to create positive associations with the crate in the dog's mind, so a cramped crate is counterproductive. If your dog is already fully grown, judging the size of the crate you need is easy. You can simply eyeball it by looking at your dog and picking a crate that is just big enough for it to sit or stand up without bumping its head, turn around, and lay out comfortably. A more exact method is to measure the length of your dog, from tip of nose to base of tail, and add three inches, which gives you the minimum length of the crate; for height, just measure from the floor to his shoulder, plus three inches. If you can't find a perfect fit, err on the side of too large rather than too small. Your job is slightly trickier if your dog is still a puppy. For a purebred dog, you should be able to get a pretty accurate estimate of its adult size from a breed book. If not, you'll have to guess, based on the sizes of the parents and any other information you can glean. Either way, you have two options when buying a crate: you can either buy one that is an appropriate size for the puppy as it is, or buy one sized for its (estimated) adult size. You'll need to buy larger crates as the puppy grows if you choose the former. If the latter, you'll need to reduce the effective interior of the crate, for the reasons mentioned earlier. For this purpose, you can either buy a commercially-available divider panel, or simply jury rig a divider by stuffing blankets or a cardboard shape into the back of the crate. If you do this, though, make sure your puppy will not be able to chew apart your divider and possibly choke or poison itself! Watch My Dog Crate Reviews of The Gelizon Heavy Duty Dog Crate Review Here Related Reading