Crates for the Car

I know there was a bunch of discussion here about how safe crates were in a car after the accident in Arizona. I've still been rolling ideas around in my head about what I want to do long-term with my dogs in the car, and the report on the safety of car harnesses pretty much eliminated that plan.

If you haven't heard, Clean Run is going to be selling the crash-tested Variocages starting this fall. From my understanding, they will be the first in the US to be able to offer them. I got to look at one this weekend at an agility trial (trying to be subtle as I hovered around the back end of the vehicle). I'm expecting a pretty outrageous pricetag...but still kind of considering getting a double.

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=3273

Just sharing in case anyone else was interested.

I'm also looking into selling them, or at least doing a group preorder. I put details up on the Four Paw Drive fb page.

Well shoot, looks like the only double I could fit in my vehicle is the small - which I don't think would fit my dogs particularly well. I'll have to actually get a tape measure out and see. The one I saw this weekend was in a giant van, so it was hard to make a size comparison.

A friend of mine has a Medium double in her Sportwagen and she said she prob could have gotten a L and been ok as she has several inches of clearance on all sides. Her large male GSD uses the double as one large crate and she's very happy with it.

I'm considering getting a XL Double myself.

I was thinking my guys would do a medium double. I've got the car all packed for some stuff this weekend, but when it gets cleaned out, I'll be dragging out the measuring tape.

The medium double *is* a nice size for the smaller SUVs and hatchbacks for sure. It would appear each dog's section would be 30-40" deep (with a slant), about 17" wide, and 25.5" tall. The only thing that would give me pause would be how easily a dog can turn in a 17" wide space; I have a 21" wide SUV crate and the 3" less compared to a regular 36" crate does make an obvious difference.

Hmm. That might be an issue. On the plus side, I'm not terribly far from Clean Run, and I trial down that way all the time. Worst case, I'll wait a bit and see if I can stick the dogs in a crate somewhere. I already saw the one at a trial, and I'm sure I'll start seeing more.