Dog Crates/Kennels (in Off-topic)

Anyone have a good crate/kennel that they recommend for a medium sized dog? The most substantial one I can find for the price is from Lowes.com, but I tried ordering over the phone, and the orders won't go through their system at this time, lol. Retail fails never cease to crack me up. I was looking to spend up to $60, but this example was $35 including shipping and looks very durable. The dimensions on it are also the smallest I could go. (28L x 20.5W x 21.5H) PetPorter2 Any suggestions would be appreciated >:]

Ugh just don't get the one my ex-roommate had. Just thinking about that kennel and my roommate's dog makes me want to tear something apart.

The dog, a black lab that was basically still a puppy, hated his kennel. And my roommate always worked, never walked it, etc. Terrible terrible situation. Every night the dog would freak out and howl for hours, all night every night. So what's my roommate do? He moves it from his room down to my basement living room (the house had several living rooms) where I have my entertainment stuff and couch and everything.

Finally one night he was freaking out as usual and I heard a crash and thud... he'd taken this giant kennel and rammed it hard enough that he'd flipped it on its side and crawled out the crack in the side it made.

This happened 3 more times until my roommate propped *my* couch against it on one side of the kennel and the wall on the other. This worked for about a week, with the dog howling enough to keep me awake most nights, until the dog started ramming the walls enough that he was able to bend them enough to squeeze between the walls of the kennel. This happens several times.

He uses plastic ties all over the cage next. The little ratcheting ones. We figure the dog is stuck this time, situation solved. Nope. After about a week later I hear the dog. He has gotten out, and is scratching, and I mean SCRATCHING, at the door and carpet. It's 4am, I'm tired and cranky as can be, I'm expecting an intruder or who knows what, and it's this stupid mutt tearing a hole in the carpet. So there goes *my* security deposit. He's also torn up a dozen books and used my 360 controller as a chew toy. And my roommate decides not to do anything about it.

This happens a few more times, getting worse each time. The next incident is the worst. It's 2am, I'm trying to get to sleep, dog is howling like normal (the basement room is nearest mine so I'm the one that had to always hear it). All of a sudden, the howling stops and it literally becomes screaming. Bloody murder screams as in the dog is dying. I wait a minute, it keeps going nonstop. My roommates aren't home so I run downstairs. The dog has his head wedged in the door. However, not wedged in the good way if there is such a thing. For one thing, it's upside down. For another, his head is facing backwards back towards him with his neck craning at a very painful angle. And finally, the corner of the door is nestled into the back corner of this dog's mouth with his jaw stuck at a 180 degree angle. I free the stupid thing and he tries to bite my fingers because he's so upset.

My roommate's solution? Don't worry about it. He ignores the problem an entire week longer, with the dog practically killing itself a few more times and getting out nightly and tearing things up until my roommate finally breaks down. Then, he just buys two locks and puts one on each corner of the cage, and finally he gets a shock collar for the dog. Which, by the way, really doesn't do that great of a job to get him to stop barking because the dog is freaking out so bad.

Moral of the story: find a good cage. If the dog keeps freaking out, find a new solution and don't force it. I really think my roommate was committing animal abuse.

And in case you're curious, I finally just moved away from that place 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure why I stayed as long as I did. That alone should have been reason enough to move out (I wasn't even on the lease!!!), but I was also putting up with the guy being a hoarder and never cleaning. So yeah, hooray for moving across the country and in with my new fiance!

Yeah, I'm far more concerned about the apparent animal abuse this dog is suffering through. It sounds as if your former roommate is neglecting the poor thing.

Me and my dad used to own a bull-terrier and a golden retriever. We had two identical cages made of thin iron bars that we could fit our hands through. Every night we put them in their cages, next to our beds, and if they started crying we put our hands through the bars to comfort them. It worked very well and our dogs were pretty stress free because of that set-up. Thats my suggestion for a stationary kennel.

That sounds much better Joel. That sounds like the kind of cage we have for my dog over at my Mom's place. They only use it when he's left home alone, and the only reason we started crating him at all is because he started eating through the walls.

Vanyard, that story made me cringe. I would report the situation. It's sad when people think they want a certain breed of animal, and don't do the research on what it takes to care for it properly. A Lab MUST be exercised, multiple times daily if possible, to help expel all the energy they build up. The animal is being abused on multiple fronts... and another one is the lack of behavior training the owner is putting in. This is definitely not the feeling I was looking for when about to sleep... if I can now...

If anything, I really love this show and reference to it a lot. If you have his email, you can send this to him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cj81wHmfXc

This is something for you to look over, and you could also send it to him if you wish:

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/tips/cruelty_action.html

Anyone interested in Dogs 101 further:

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/dogs-101/

oh and the purpose for the crate is for training purposes only. When you leave the room he has a bad habit of going for paper and jumping up on the desk in the room. He also has some other bad habits that this will hopefully help with. Oh the power of a web cam and yahoo messenger :) Doogie busted!