dog people- a plastic crate vs. wire crate, help me choose

[Hen]

Hey dog owners!

 

we are about to bring our new puppy home, she is a standard labradoodle- a labradoodle bred back to a standard poodle...and we will be crate-training for the first time, ever.

 

I cannot decide between a plastic crate- the ones that look like travel crates, or an open wire crate. We are planning on putting the crate in the master bedroom. Any thoughts on this? Pro or cons?

 

we are also planning on putting in a dog door, again, pros-cons?

 

I got the dates wrong, and she is coming home a month before I had planned...which makes sense, she would have been more than 3 months old with the date I thought...but now I have to get things done.

 

I always do things the hard way...:tongue_smilie:

[Carrie12345]

I vote wire. We had to get metal bases for our dog crates because our guys (one part-lab) chewed the plastic bases into pieces.:glare:

[Impish]

I'd go for the wire crate. Plastic crates are very enclosed, and can get quite hot, where as the wire crates are open and circulate air better. Plus, labs tend to chew, and if the pup has lab tendencies, may chew the heck out of a plastic crate, not so much with a wire crate. I *have* heard of some dogs pushing their heads through the joints of wire crates and getting stuck, but I think those are the older crates and the newer ones have taken steps to ensure that cannot happen anymore. Plus, it sounds like you wouldn't be leaving your pup for hours on end in the crate, only at night.

 

I have heard that crating in the master bedroom isn't a good idea...something to do with pack structure, that the pup should be left outside of the bedrooms, period. Crate in the kitchen instead, to ensure that pup realizes its at the bottom of the food chain. Also, wire crates can be really noisy with pup rattling around. If you're crate training, it is recommended that pup eats in crate as well, so pup realizes that its his/her spot too.

 

Good luck with the newest addition!

[Hen]

thanks, that is good to know...all these things I cannot think of!:001_smile:

[Remudamom]

Wire.

[Unicorn.]

Another vote for wire. And I would get one that is adjustable and can grow w/ her, giving her only enough room to sleep. She needs to know this is her bed, and if she has too much room, she might think she can go potty in her crate! I would NOT feed her in her crate, unless you intend to always feed her there.

 

Crate in the bedroom- I would not put her crate in there until she is older. Put her in an area where it is easy to clean up accidents. She will have some of those for awhile until her bladder is a little bigger. Once she can make it all night w/out incident, and you want to move her, then I don't see a problem w/ it. hth

[Tammy]

What is the purpose of that? Eventually he will no longer be in a crate and he will associate his 'crate' with meal time.....

[Carrie12345]

What is the purpose of that? Eventually he will no longer be in a crate and he will associate his 'crate' with meal time.....

 

I guess that depends on your views of crate training. We crate for life in our house. Our 4yo dogs still sleep and eat in their crates. They're both crated when we leave the house. They each get crated when we have one-on-one time with the other.

[Impish]

Some ppl always have the crate, its not just a puppyhood thing. As for feeding in the crate, there are different ideas on it. Some say always do, some say never. I have before, partly to get the dog used to the crate and to keep crawling littles out of the food and water dish. It also reinforced the no accidents in the crate idea.

 

Personally, I'm in the 'always crate' camp. I've found that keeping the crate gives the dog a place to go when they're tired and need a break from the kids, lol! The kids know that when dog is in the crate, its hands off, and leave pup alone, and it always surprised me how fast the dog figured that out! Plus, for the times when we can't take pooch with us, it was a simple, "Go to bed." and we knew things would be fine til we got back, nothing would be chewed, etc.

 

When/if we get another dog, we'll crate.

[Rose in BC]

It's a large one, because we have a Bernese Mountain dog, but it has a divider for when they're pups.

[Hen]

thanks everyone for the help!

 

I am thinking we will be in the "always have a crate" camp- for the reasons of it being a safe, quiet place. Tho, when she is an adult, she will have full run of the house, hopefully- and the crate will be available for when she chooses it.

 

I am thinking of putting it in the master bedroom because first, it has 2 doors, and 1 door leads to the bathroom, then to laundry room and then to door in laundry room that will have the dog door. We will put a gate from the laundry room to the kitchen while she is potty training. -the master bedroom has a wood floor, so kind of easy to clean...and it it quiet in there, tho not isolated, someone is often in there on my computer.

 

we have guests in our home at least twice a year, including the first week in July, right now we are expecting 6 people to stay with us, plus normally we have 5 kids here homeschooling...I am thinking a quiet room will be welcomed to the puppy.

 

funny, I just got an email from the breeder, she said to get an extra large crate! I was looking at large, she is expected to get to be between 60 and 70lbs, so I was thinking "large", x-tra large would be for a great dane size...hmmm. :glare:

 

thanks for all the thoughts, you are all very, very helpful!:001_smile:

[sheryl]

Wire. However, the crate never really worked for us. We have our 2nd lab and I remember with both the barking in the crate wanting to get out.

 

We got up in the middle of the night to take her out to go potty. After 1-2 months she got the hang of it. MY dh and I took turns.

 

HTH. Sheryl <><

[Rita]

I vote plastic. Yes, it is more enclosed, but it also "feels" more den like and the dog may feel more secure. We have had LOTS of foster dogs come through our house, and the only one that managed to damage the plastic crate was a full grown Saint Bernard :) Sweet, sweet dog, just didn't appreciate the crate AT ALL.

What does your breeder recommend (since she has already told you to get an extra large one, she probably has thoughts about plastic versus wire).

Have fun with your new family member!!

Blessings,

Rita

[Happy]

I've always used plastic.

 

Accidents are contained. I also use a crate when traveling with the dog...it's like the dog being in a car 'seat.' Much more protected than if the dog is loose in the car.

 

I've always fed my dogs in the crate...it certainly helps create the crate as a happy place, not a place of punishment.

 

Not that it matters in your case, but plastic crates are easy to stack at dog shows. :D

[rafiki]

.

[mom4him]

Hey dog owners!

 

we are about to bring our new puppy home, she is a standard labradoodle- a labradoodle bred back to a standard poodle...and we will be crate-training for the first time, ever.

 

I cannot decide between a plastic crate- the ones that look like travel crates, or an open wire crate. We are planning on putting the crate in the master bedroom. Any thoughts on this? Pro or cons?

 

we are also planning on putting in a dog door, again, pros-cons?

 

I got the dates wrong, and she is coming home a month before I had planned...which makes sense, she would have been more than 3 months old with the date I thought...but now I have to get things done.

 

I always do things the hard way...:tongue_smilie:

First off I wanted to tell you that we have 2 labradoodles(6 months old) and are so in love with them.

We had a plastic, an old one, to start with and our one REALLY hated it. I think he got to hot in it. He still doesn't like being crated in the wire but it isn't anything like when we had him in the plastic so I vote for the wire.

These two have such personality. The little male is so funny at the sliding glass mirrors. He is convinced that there is a dog there and at times even looks around the door to try to figure out where that other dog is. It is a riot to watch.

[Tree House Academy]

We started with a plastic crate. Dogs like to feel "safe" - especially when they are pups and when they are new to your home/family. As my dog got bigger, we moved up to a wire crate during the day when we were gone, but he still slept in a plastic/smaller/cozier crate at night.

 

Now he is 3 and, of course, doesn't use a crate at all anymore. :)

[joannqn]

I vote wire, that's adjustable for the puppy. You don't want too much room in it during house training or she'll just use it. Our dog has had a few accidents in his wire crate and most of the mess (but not all of it) was contained in the plastic bottom. Some of the mess did get out onto the wall and carpet, though it wasn't as bad as if there wasn't anything there.

 

What is the purpose of that? Eventually he will no longer be in a crate and he will associate his 'crate' with meal time.....

 

We fed in the crate until recently. It makes it so that the dog is very easy to kennel. We can tell our dog to kennel, and no matter how excited he is, he'll run there as fast as he can. We've had to stop feeding him in his kennel, though, because he started to become a little too possessive of his food and bowl. That's not good with little ones running around. We're working on it though. Our 2 year old likes to feed the dog. Big brother will fill the bowl and the 2 year old will take it to the dog who's waiting in the kennel. He'll often hand feed him one piece at a time until we tell him to stop and let the poor dog eat. This way, he's learning that the 2 year old is also master over him.

[Hen]

I am loving all this input, thank you!

 

still no decision made...maybe I will take dh with me to the pet store so we can look.

 

Our new labradoodle is black, and her name is Emma. The breeder's family is already calling her by her name, so she will know it, they have kids too, so she should be well socialized by the time she gets to our house!

 

I am very excited now, at first I felt kind of pregnant...excited but worried I couldn't 'do' it.... now I am more excited!

 

I am hearing you all about the 'cave' feeling, if we go wire, I am going to put a blanket on it so it has an enclosed feeling.

[Kathy in MD]

I am loving all this input, thank you!

 

still no decision made...maybe I will take dh with me to the pet store so we can look.

 

Our new labradoodle is black, and her name is Emma. The breeder's family is already calling her by her name, so she will know it, they have kids too, so she should be well socialized by the time she gets to our house!

 

I am very excited now, at first I felt kind of pregnant...excited but worried I couldn't 'do' it.... now I am more excited!

 

I am hearing you all about the 'cave' feeling, if we go wire, I am going to put a blanket on it so it has an enclosed feeling.

 

We've always had plastic, because that's what we've needed to fly our dogs. Until our current dog, the crate was only needed for flying. Our current dog is rarely locked in his crate now that he's an adult. He is sent to his crate for misbehavior or when we have guests that don't like dogs, or, more often, the dog won't leave the guest alone. Because he normally can leave his crate, the excess warmth issue isn't a problem for us. So I would go with a plastic crate because it's quieter and you can fly your dog in it if needed.

 

The big drawback is when we need to travel by car. A large crate just doesn't fit in a normal car. Or a heavily packed minivan. So we have a harness to restrain him in the car when needed. And when we get to the hotel, he has total freedom of the room. Not ideal if we needed to leave him in the room.

[calandalsmom]

We crate trained our puppy.

 

We bought the big wire crate for labs right away. it had a divider.

 

still too big. she peed in it.

 

So we bought a small plastic crate. It was so tiny. When we look at it now we ooh and ahhh over how little she was. Then a month later we bought another slightly larger one. and then finally we moved her to the big wire crate she has now.

 

If it is too big they will pee. When they say large enough to turn around in and that's all, they mean it.

 

the first crate was 20 at walmart. the second was 30 at meijer.

 

the wire on we use now and forever was like 50 or something. I didnt buy it. dh did.

 

I want to get her a pad for in there someday but now its plain. the trainer was adamant about nothing in the crate with the dog. I would maybe have ignored that, except our friends' dog died as a result of eating his bedding. The loss really affected her kids.

 

I wouldnt risk it.