The first thing I bought for Tupelo was not a bed, a bowl or a leash. It was a wire crate. I ordered the 30-inch double door iCrate from MidWest Homes for Pets the week before he came home, and I put it together in the corner of my living room, near the sofa, before he ever walked through my front door. He was a young rescue Boykin Spaniel, about fourteen months old and thirty-two pounds, and he had spent the weeks before that in a kennel run. I am sixty-one and I had not had a dog in the house since 2014, so I was starting from nothing. That crate was the only thing here that was already his.
I have now had eight months to see whether it was worth the trouble. This is not a training plan and I am not a trainer, a vet or a behaviorist. It is just the list I would hand a friend who is picking up a dog next Saturday, in the order the reasons actually occurred to me. Every one of them comes from watching one dog in one house in Brunswick, Georgia. If your dog has anxiety or a health problem, that is a conversation for your own vet, not for me.
The one thing I had standing in the corner before the dog arrived
A 30-inch double door wire crate, a folded blanket on the tray, and a corner near the sofa. That was the entire setup on day one, and it is still there eight months later.
Amazon Check today's price on Amazon →It gives a new dog one small room of his own
Tupelo came out of a kennel run and into a house with a refrigerator that hummed, a dishwasher that thumped and a screen door that banged. He startled at all of it. The crate gave him three walls and a ceiling, which is closer to what a dog would pick for himself than an open bed in the middle of a room. The first night he circled it twice, stepped in, turned around and lay down. I did not shut the door that night. By the second week he was walking in on his own when the dishwasher started.
You can set it up in ten minutes with no tools
The listing from MidWest Homes for Pets says tool-free assembly, and that is accurate. I am not handy. I sat on the rug with the instructions spread out on the floor and had it standing in about ten minutes. One honest note: the first time I unfolded it, I had not seated the frame hooks evenly and one corner sat high, so I laid it flat and started over. It does arrive folded, and the carry handle is part of the frame, so the whole thing leans against a wall until you need it.
Two doors mean it fits the corner you actually have
My living room is not large, and the only sensible corner is the one beside the sofa. A single door crate would have opened into the wall in that spot. This one has a door on the front and a second door on the long side, and I use the side door far more, because it opens toward the sofa where I sit in the evening. Both doors lock shut. If you are measuring a corner before you buy, measure it twice and remember that the door has to swing somewhere.
The tray catches what a nervous stomach does
The crate comes with a removable, leak proof tray that slides out under the floor. In his first week Tupelo had a loose stool from the change of food, and it landed on that tray instead of on my rug. I slid the tray out, carried it to the laundry sink, washed it and slid it back. That is the whole story. If you have ever scrubbed a rug at eleven at night with a nervous new dog standing there watching you, you understand why this belongs near the top of the list.
It is somewhere safe to put him when you cannot watch him
He was a chewer as a youngster. Not destructive, just busy, and a dog with something in his mouth is a dog who is not chewing a lamp cord. When I carried groceries in, or answered the door, or needed both hands at the stove, he went in with something to chew and the door stayed shut for ten minutes. The crate is not a babysitter and I never used it as a punishment. It is a place to put him so he cannot get into trouble while my back is turned.
Nights get quieter faster when he can hear you
The first two nights he cried for about twenty minutes after I went to bed. He could hear me and I could hear him, because the crate sits at the end of the short hallway to my bedroom. By the fourth night there was no crying at all. I would not have left a dog to cry for hours and I do not think that is a kind thing to do. Being close enough that he could hear me moving around the kitchen is what made the difference in our house.
The divider lets one crate last from puppy to full size
The crate ships with a divider panel that shrinks the inside space for a small puppy and opens up as the dog grows. I never used it. Tupelo was about fourteen months old when he came home, already full size at thirty-two pounds, so the panel has lived in my hall closet since March. But MidWest Homes for Pets rates the 30-inch for dogs from twenty-one to forty pounds, and if you are bringing home an eight-week-old, that divider is the difference between buying one crate and buying two.
It folds flat and carries like a suitcase
The listing puts this crate at seventeen pounds, and the frame folds flat. That matters more than it sounds. A wire crate that will not fold becomes furniture, and it stays where you first set it down forever. This one I can take apart, carry by the handle and put back up. If I drove to my daughter's in Savannah for a weekend, it would go in the back of the car without a second thought. That was not true of anything else I bought for him that spring.
Rubber feet keep it where you put it
Four rubber feet sit at the corners, and they do two jobs in my house. They keep the frame off my hardwood so it does not scratch, and they keep the whole crate from walking across the floor when a dog scrambles out in a hurry. Tupelo launches himself out the side door when the mail truck goes by. The crate shifts maybe a quarter inch and stops. Without those feet I think it would have slid into the sofa by June.
He still chooses it eight months later
Since late summer the door stays open most nights, and he still puts himself to bed in it around nine o'clock. I did not teach him that. He decided it was the best spot in the house. It is in the same corner by the sofa, still with a folded blanket on the tray, still the first thing he checks when he comes in wet from the marsh. When a dog picks the thing you bought, you stop wondering whether you got it right.
What I'd Skip
Two things. First, I would skip the divider if the dog is already grown, and I would not talk myself into a bigger crate than the size chart calls for. Tupelo is thirty-two pounds and the 30-inch is roomy for him. A crate is supposed to feel like a den, not a dance floor, and MidWest Homes for Pets gives you the weight range right on the listing. Second, I would skip the crate pad. I thought about one, and I am glad I did not buy it, because a folded blanket on the tray has been enough and a blanket goes straight in the wash after a wet marsh walk. I would also hold off on a cover and any of the accessories sold beside the crate until you know what your own dog actually does in it. One crate, one blanket, one chew toy. That is the whole setup that worked here.
He had spent weeks in a kennel run. The first night in my living room he walked into the crate on his own and lay down, and I stood in the kitchen and let out a breath I did not know I had been holding.
If a dog is coming home this month, start with the crate
Set it up in a corner near where you sit, put a folded blanket on the tray, and leave the door open for the first few days. That is the advice I would give you at my kitchen table, and it is the same advice I would take myself. The 30-inch double door iCrate from MidWest Homes for Pets is the one in my living room.
Amazon Check today's price on Amazon →