my first folding crate

I first bought a wire crate back when we'd just found our
first dogs.
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/mavic...g/image_viewer
I didn't know much about dogs at the time; I just bought what
was available locally.

Since then we've exchanged crates with friends who have gotten
or gotten rid of(!) dogs and we ended up with a fairly cheap
medium-sized single-latch wire crate (along with several
plastic crates) that I hadn't used in years. When we started
working with foster dogs I pulled it out of the garage.

It worked o.k. for our first foster, Bowie, who is very calm
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/disk0...g/image_viewer
but then along game Bobby.
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/disk0...g/image_viewer
Bobby repeatedly broke out of the crate (after popping a plastic
crate) and after I finally added sufficient clips to keep it
together he started bending the bars all over so that he could
poke his nose through in various spots.

When I leave Bobby out at home we often return to "MFB".
("minty fresh Bob" - He pulls my toothpaste off the counter.)
So I typically crate him while we're gone and he's learning to
deal with it.

We still have Bobby (and he's great!) but we've added another,
Morgan.
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/disk0...g/image_viewer
He's significantly larger than Bobby and although he often goes
in the old wire crate on his own I wanted a larger crate for
him (so that I wouldn't have to put Bobby in a plastic crate).
This time I researched crates a bit and decided I wanted to try
a folding (or "suitcase") crate. (When Bowie came to stay with
us over Thanksgiving his parents brought his crate but forgot
the drop pins. Drop pin crates are a pain.)

I found a much larger crate that I thought would be suitable
for any dog we're likely to foster.
http://www.petmarket.com/midwest-cha...blk-p-208.html
I got it for only $174.99 + $13.99 shipping and it arrived (in
Indiana) the day after I ordered it.

It was fun to unpack it. After only trying drop-pin crates I
was a little reluctant to believe that this would be as good as
it is. I was delighted to slide it out of the box and unfold
it in seconds. I then folded it, moved it to the dog room and
unfolded it again. Cool!

The crate is big enough for me and three of the dogs. (They
followed me in.) It's *plenty* of space for Morgan and I feel
so much better leaving him in it.

Last night (Christmas Eve) we were invited to dinner and were
told that we needed to bring the dogs because there were
special treats for them. Our two dogs are no problem but I
didn't want to work at controlling the foster dogs during
dinner so I took the folding crate. It (barely) fits in the
back of our Jeep Grand Cherokee with the seats up but once I
got it out it was easy to carry it in the house and unfold it.
During dinner the foster dogs went in the crate and had plenty
of room.

The folding crate uses tubes to hold together the sections.
Built-in wire clips hold the ends to the top and sides. It's
*really* easy to fold and unfold but I worry that a dog who is
"crate nuts" (like Bobby was) might pop it open and/or destroy
the thin wire. It wouldn't be too tough to add some clips to
reinforce it though.

Anyway...I've been around dogs for awhile now and I'm a crate
advocate but I didn't realize what a difference a folding crate
would make. I sometimes use fabric enclosures when we travel
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/disk0...g/image_viewer
http://lairds.org/Kyler/photos/disk0...g/image_viewer
and they're still necessary in some situations but it's going
to be great to have a nice solid crate that can be deployed so
easily. (I am tempted to try welding together a lighter one
from aluminum though.)

This is something I wish I'd discovered a long time ago. It
would have made a big difference in a few situations. I think
it'll be *wonderful* with our foster dogs. I'll probably even
use it for presentations (especially when I want to take a
bunch of dogs) and when we're at adoption events. (I've been
jealous of the "little dog" people with their x-pens.)

--kyler