Crate Setups

Well, I just re-did them...

Payton and Auggie were crated together in the office (my sister's old bedroom, it's next to my bedroom) during the day. Pepper was crated there for a while when it was just her and Auggie; she slept out there and Auggie slept in my room, then during the day he was crated out there with her.
When Pepper moved in this time her crate went in my bedroom - it was the solution to having her out of my dad's way. The crate just fits between my two cube bookshelves.

Georgie and Pepper get stacked when they need to be - Pepper was crated on top of Georgie's crate in my mom's bedroom while she was in season. After my mom's foot surgery Georgie was initially crated under Pepper's crate in my room, then when Georgie came into season I swapped and she got crated on top with Pepper on top.

I just moved Payton's crate into my bedroom because his crate tantrums, while better when I'm leaving, now take place whenever he sees anybody in the house and he's crated. So his crate is now wedged between my two bookshelves (I had to scoot them out a bit, he has the biggest crate) and Pepper is on top again.
Auggie's crate is still in the other room. I joked that now he wakes up and goes "...I'm alone. It was all a dream!!" I don't really like having him all alone but there's no room for all the crates in my bedroom...


At my house they will either be crated in the utility room or maybe in the library if I have enough room. Pepper will be stacked on top of Payton there too, and Auggie will be on the floor next to them.

Logan's and Gavroche's main crates are in my room, because that's the only place my parents' dog and cats aren't allowed. Logan's in the corner, then Logan's feeding station, then Gavroche's crate, than Gavroche's feeding station, then a Coolaroo bedwith 256877545 pillows and blankets on it. I have a folding sport crate in the trunk of my car, it lives there. Two airline crates in the basement in case of sever weather (though I tend to drag those out for shows...even though they don't fold down as small, they fit in the car better). And one pop-up crate kept in my gym bag for Logan when I take a shower at the gym. When that happens, his crate, lengthwise, is the same size as the shower is wide, so it goes right in front of my shower, the leash threaded through an opening in the zipper, and then slipper over my ankle, so I can feel if he decides to move.

Jagger's enclosure is on an end table directly across from Logan's crate. I eventually want to get my old bird cage shelf up here and put him on top of it, as it offers a bit more protection from the dogs (though they don't bother him at all), and easier viewing. It also has shelves for his assorted stuff.

Lis lives on top of Logan's crate when I'm home, and in the front room (still part of my "suite," I have two bedrooms and a half bath) and covered up when I'm gone. Why? Well...she's sort of my dirty little secret, and NOBODY in my family knows I have her Eventually I'd liker her on the lower, glass-enclosed part of the shelf I want to bring up for Jagger. And either paint the glass so it's opaque (to keep her hidden) or put something over/on it to make it opaque.

There is a 42" crate in a nook in my kitchen, then I have a 48" crate in the back bedroom/storage room. I crate Sherman whenever I can't supervise him. LoLa only gets crated sometimes and Judge really never gets crated anymore. They all sleep loose except for Sherman who is crated in the 42" one. When I leave for work, more often than not, LoLa and Judge are loose together and Sherman is crated in the kitchen.

Then I have 3 crates in my car right now, actually, I need to rearrange those ones!

I'll add some pictures tomorrow... but all the dogs are crated in my room when I'm not able to supervise them. The medium dogs are next to each other with Lincoln in between the two schnauzers. And then Tsuki's giant crate is stacked on top of Charlie's equally giant crate.

Years ago the schnauzers go to the point where they were reliable and were left uncrated, but now I don't trust them and their naughty ways. The others have never really gotten then chance as they're naughty when I'm home, I'd hate to see the devastation they'd wreck if I left them loose.

only laika gets crated when im gone jayson has free roam of my room. she sleeps either on the couch with jayson or on my bed. she has a 42in crate. on top of her crate is her old puppy crate and the main guinea pig cage then on top of that i have my loner piggy boy who cant live with his brothers.

We're not planning to crate once the dog is used to our apartment. Up until then though he or she will be crated in the office, where Snoopy (the bunny) is "crated" as well.
Currently the bunny has run of the apartment (he can't live with other bunnies, thats why he lives with us =/ ) when we're home. He has a rather large cage for when Im not home, or during the night. He doesn't really chew stuff, but I don't trust him. If we're gone overnight he has an X-pen.

We have an assortment of wire and plastic crates in the basement. Kastle has a big wire pen (he can break out of all crates and also chews bars, which has resulted in permanent damage to his teeth) for when he's crated, which is rare. Pan gets the pen when Kastle isn't using it. Eden and Kastle are loose most of the time though. They get the upper level to themselves when we are at work. When I'm home, my three dogs are always out with me upstairs. Jason rotates his through with mine. Pan has separate time in the am because he's a jerk. The kittens have their own room when we're gone (or just need peace and quiet), and run of the house when we're home. FuturePuppy will be crated in the bedroom until he can make it through the night. Kastle and Eden have dog beds in the bedroom, everyone else sleeps in crates downstairs.

I'm struggling with this right now because I am totally over having four dog crates taking up so much space in my downstairs. All the crates got taken out while I had the floors redone, and so far I've only moved Bean's crate back in (in the kitchen, next to my computer desk).

Bean's the only one who needs to be crated while I'm gone, so he is crated and Mushroom is x-penned in the kitchen with him, and then Steve and Luce are together on the other side of the x-pen in my livingroom. But I think Mushroom is stressing about not having a crate to sleep in while I'm gone, so I'm having to rethink things.

No crates here I can't imagine crating dogs, nothing against it, just nothing I do.

Luckily, none of my dogs have to be crated.

Unfortunately, none of them can be loose together while we're gone or they'd get into trouble. When we leave, Frag goes into the spare bedroom, and Sir gets free roam of the house/bedroom. Sometimes Sir gets locked in the bedroom and Recon gets free roam of the kitchen/diningroom/living room/hallway.

Right now we're boarding a Great Dane puppy, so he has Recon's crate in the spare bedroom, a wire 32". Usually Recon's crate is right outside the spare bedroom, where he sleeps at night.

Bogey's crate is usually in this place, and it's a 36" vari-kennel, which doubles as Sir's crate while Bogey is out. But my parents are watching him right now, so I took the crate out of Brian's trunk to put here for Recon while the puppy is in his crate. I love that the crates fit so well under my work station table. It's a 36" wire...

DSC_1625 by DJetzel, on Flickr

Ivan is the only one crated. So I have one crate in my living room. I do have a sidebyside suv one that stays folded up either in the spare room or my room. In case we have guests. Then Ivan gets moved into one of those rooms during the duration of the guests. Peewee never gets crated and neither does the dane who is here unless you count her getting the daughters bedroom door shut. I do the same with the Hazels room too.

This, lol. I have zero against it, it's just not something we've ever done (except as young pups). So it's 'odd' to me. My dad has just never been a fan of it, for whatever reason, he always feels guilty. Our Golden and our GSD were always left loose when I was growing up, my whole families dogs are left loose, etc. My grandma adopted a Foxhound last year that has to be crated, she's the only dog I've ever personally known who literally will destroy a house.

This has always been our house.


Then again, we have ferrets. Anything that we don't want destroyed is put behind doors already because of them.

Carma has a crate in my room now and probably will for a long time since she's so wild. Aiden was crated until he was 2 or so and is left in the closed room. He could have free roam of the house, but I keep all the dogs (except Aiden and Freckles who can stay together) separated so one room confinement for each is safer.

Cali has a small crate within a big crate.

The big crate would probably be a good size for a full grown lab with some wiggle room and her small crate is simply a cat crate. I have a blanket piled up in the big crate and her small crate, which she sleeps in, has a cushion type pad. Her food dish and a tiny bit of water are on the side of the big crate and she typically has one plush and one chew toy in there although I don't think she touches them while in the crate.

Then there's a blanket covering most of the crate and we always leave the TV on.

All three crates are in the living room, against a wall - the whole downstairs has a pretty open floor plan so the crates don't make it feel crowded. All three of mine are crated during the day, although really Newton is the only one that needs to be. I'm sure the other two would be fine - it's more due to habit than anything else that they're crated.

They aren't always in use, but each of the dogs has a crate in my office to retire to if they feel the need. Webster likes sleeping on top of the girls' big 42" crates so I recently stacked his. Now he can see out the window from his crate which makes him a happy boy. Unfortunately it also means I can't use the top of them as convenient places to start plants anymore...they have great sun (another reason Webster likes it) so I'll have to find a new place to start my seeds.

Crate skills are important for my dogs given how much we travel together so I imagine I will always have at least one crate per dog up somewhere.

Shambles is the only one crated, yet somehow I have an obnoxious maze of crates in my bedroom now because ALL of my boys recently decided they would like crates. Seriously. Jack and Jonas have never been crated a day in their lives, but suddenly Jack started sleeping in Sham's crate, much to Sham's chagrin. Then a few days ago I started finding Jonas in Sham's crate. I guess it's lucky I have 8 odd crates for foster/transport so every one has their own **** crate now and I have no floor space.

I'm spoiled and have a whole room just for the dogs. I normally just have two 42" wire crates side by side, but with the foster here, I had to do a little rearranging and moved them to the outside wall. Still side by side. Lol. Then I have a shelf for all my dog stuff, and I store my dog food on the opposite wall, and the soft crate by the door to the closet.

Eventually, when we have four full size crates, I may have to stick one up top unless I can move a big bookshelf.

I plan on using crates more often for Nextdog for sure. It's bitten me in the butt that I never really crate trained Mia. Summer came crate trained but seemed to have forgotten it over her period of SA. She's good in the car but at home, she's not. And at class... oy.

But I'm not going to keep Nextdog in the crate while I'm at work or anything. I will use a run for that. But crate games? DEFINITELY. And I think it'll be nice to have the crate training separate from the 'keep the dog safe while I'm at work' area. I can really build the crate up in very short intervals. I want my dog happy and content in their crate for travel time and class time.

I can't imagine having a dog that can run loose. It's funny because all my past dogs prior to Mia earned the ability to be loose in the house without supervision. Mia has me completely paranoid. She is just not safe loose, even if I pick up everything. I can't see her ever getting free roam. Every time I would give in and test her out loose for even 5 minutes... she'd get into loads of trouble. Doesn't matter if I've run her 3 hours prior or not. When I'm home to watch her, she's perfect around the house these days. Second I leave though, all bets are off. She may have ruined it for all the other dogs in my future, lol.