August 29, 2023 • 11 mins
The Dog Professor, Robb Lust from the Edgefield Animal Care Center, details what crates are best for your dog and how to use them correctly. Many people have questions about crates and how to best use them for the type of dog you have, The Dog Professor has your answers!
www.EdgefieldAnimalCare.com
www.EdgefieldAnimalCare.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Joining me today is the Dog Professor, Rob Lust from the Edgefield Animal Care
Center, and it is the DogProfessor podcast. Rob. How are you,
Buddy? Good good? Got somefall weather today? This is nice?
Yeah? And then why am rightback to the ninety five and eighty
percent humidity? And in two weekspeople will go, why do I not
feel good? It's always this timeof year that I'm like, you know,
(00:22):
I like fall. Yeah, I'mall four fall. That's I'm ready
for it. Let's make it happen, you know. But it's always beginning
a high state football season. You'vegot to sit through a sit through a
ninety degree day here there, andI'll tell you what, though it felt
like football season last night and thismorning, it's been to life and I'm
ready for football on Saturday. It'sgoing to be wonderful. You want to
talk about something that is very interestingto talk about in the world of dogs,
(00:47):
because some people love them, somepeople hate them, most people probably
don't understand them, and that iscrates. Yeah, And the idea we
want to really discuss today is,you know, we've always talked about we
were always big proponents of the structurethat a dog gets when they're used.
They use a crate as they're growingup and housebroken and use it to sleep
(01:10):
and where they live and everything else. It gives that dog structure and anxiety.
But today we're kind of focusing onthe different levels and qualities of the
different crates that are out there.Right. Okay, for years it was
we had the wire cage and wehad the plastic airline carrier. But there's
been a lot of great advancements incrates for the reason that dogs escape crates,
(01:37):
right, you know, we're alwaysgetting calls about my dog either has
an anxiety issue that we're trying towork with the with the crate, and
that anxiety leads to the escape andthe dog is getting hurt, hurting themselves
because they're so intent on escaping fromthe crate. And the problem is is
once they escape from the crate,even if they hurt themselves a dog with
(02:00):
high anxiety, they're basically rewarded forescaping from the crate because now they're out.
Yeah, okay, so the firstthing they do next time in the
same crate is try to do theexact same thing. And you can only
modify some of these crates so muchbefore you're just done and that it doesn't
work anymore. So we've explored,you know, as trainers, we explore
(02:23):
the possibilities out there for people withthese dogs that are escaping their crates and
how they're and the different brands ofcrates that are out there that definitely give
you a better fighting chance of containingthe dog, which by containing the dog
means the dog starts to realize thatall the efforts are putting into trying to
(02:44):
escape and is not being is notworking. Pretty soon that effort goes away.
Okay, so you gotta sometimes yougot to move up to a little
higher quality crate. And there's threebrands that we've explored and we've we've looked
at that I think are really goodas far as for those dogs that pretty
(03:04):
much have escaped from everything else.Usually how dogs escape the crates, especially
the metal crates. You know,if that crate collapses down to carry like
a suitcase, usually dogs will pullhere or push there, or bend a
door. You know. I've seendogs on those cheaper metal crates take their
teeth and just basically squeeze the barstogether to where they break the weld or
(03:29):
or they loosen the latch or whatever, or you come home and the complete
crates collapse down on your dog andthey're laying in there like I don't know
what happened, but here's here whereyou are. That's how they usually escape
those with the airline crates, thoughthey usually escape from those by grabbing the
metal doors if the if the squareson the doors are big enough, they
(03:50):
can get a tooth or something togrip the door. They either push it
out or they pull it in andactually bend the door to where the little
pegs at the bottom and the topon the on the edge of the door
where the latch is, they areunlatched, and then they get out of
there. Or they catch hold ofthe whole vents on the side of the
(04:11):
plastic crates and they chew those upenough to get out right. So sometimes
you got to go up to alittle heavier duty crates. So there's three
brands that we've we've really researched.They're not cheap, obviously, because they're
built better than what you can getjust cheaply at the store. But they're
actually built with these this mindset inmind to try to keep a dog from
(04:33):
escaping. So the lower end willgo low to high the lower end of
these heavier duty crates. And I'veseen them at Cabella's. You know,
you can order them online. They'resuper heavy duty body crate. They're built
like the airline crate, the plasticcrate, but it's no comparison plastic wise
(04:54):
to a lot of the other crates. The two of those brands, rough
Land and Gunner are basically designed,you know, transport hunting dogs, Okay,
and because they're they're built as theairline crates are, but they're heavier
duty on the plastic. They havelatches that you know, as a hunting
(05:14):
guy will just will put our cratein the back of the pickup. And
they have things that you can ifyou don't latch that airline crate down and
you take a turn and your dogis leaning the same way, not into
the turn. They're so so youcan bunge them down in the trailer.
But the biggest nicest thing about thesetwo rough Land and Gunner crates is the
(05:36):
door in the latch system. Okay, the plastic that makes they are plastic
doors, but the plastic that makesup those doors are about a half inch
to three quarter of an inch thick, and the squares are probably three quarter
of an inch square, so it'svery very hard, number one, for
(05:56):
a dog to get their teeth inthose squares, to grip that door and
do anything else with it. Plusthey have lockable latches on the door itself,
So these these crates are designed forvery little. They're they're designed.
I've seen car crashes with these cratesand the dog is still safe inside the
crate because those those things are builtso such heavy duty, so they're sturdy.
(06:23):
They're on the cheaper end of theexpensive heavy heavy duty crates. So
you're talking three hundred to five hundreddollars for a large sized dog crate in
this case. But if you havea dog that continues to escape, that's
or choose stuff up, choose thecrate up, bends the bars on the
cage, whatever, that's probably thedirection you're going to go to right away.
(06:46):
Three hundred dollars versus twenty five hundreddollars for a new cow. Even
the yeah, even the cheap,cheaper crates now are probably a couple hundred
bucks. So so that would bemy suggestion in those cases. Rough Land
A U F L, A ND or Gunner g U N N E
R. You can find them online. They are not giving me a check.
(07:06):
I'll be glad to take one ifthey would like to. But those
are the ones I've researched independently.There's another one above that that is even
heavy, more heavy duty, andis built a little bit more. They
actually have one for a dog withsuper anxiety. They're called Impact crates.
(07:27):
They're built out of aluminum. Theycollapse down so for easy storage and everything,
but they're even heavier duty than thetwo brands that I just talked about.
They have a crate specifically made fordogs that have separation anxiety, and
they're basically the openings in that crateare very small because again back to the
(07:50):
idea of how dogs escape that cratewith separation anxiety is they grab things and
they pull and bend and push andand anything they can get their mouth on,
that's what they're going to do.So it's built to basically keep them
from getting their mouth on it,and that's what that's where dogs get hurt.
Right, Okay, dogs aren't dumb. They know if I can't get
(08:11):
something to work my way, I'mnot going to fight it all day long.
So they do have to be ableto withstand that initial barrage. But
a lot of people have this mentalitythat if the dog can look outside the
crate and see things, that they'regoing to be more comfortable. And sometimes
some dogs that's completely the opposite becausethey feel, well, I'm I can
see everything, but now I'm outhere, you know, and I have
(08:33):
to take care of everything. I'drather be somewhere quiet, dark and contain
that and comfortable so I can feela wall at my back each time,
and then I can take a napand not be so anxious about things.
Makes total sense. So those thosecrates are built even more and even heavier
duty for those dogs, those bigdogs that are busted out, that have
(08:54):
separation anxiety, so forth and soon, and those are that brand is
called Impact. But in my personalopinion, you know, you're you're getting
into a lot more money in those. I can see where they have their
money in those, because they're aluminumand they're gonna last and they're not gonna
be able to be chewed. Butthose are three crates. Rough Land,
(09:15):
Gunner and Impact. You have anescape artist. You've talked to a trainer
and they've said to get a heavierduty crate. Those are your good places
to start and go. Look,and when you get that crate, it's
good to have something to keep thembusy in the crate, especially when you
leave correct right, there's a lotof there's a lot of different things we
do in certain cases, and youknow, redirect of a dog's energy level
(09:39):
is important when they're using that energyto try to escape from the crate or
they're laying there that they're worried thatyou're gone or whatever. So a lot
of times will will recommend redirection toys, you know, toys where you put
treats in stuff like that. Thoseare what redirections. But there are some
dogs that they're they're just not interestedin that at all. Their their sole
goal is to get on the otherside of that door, that crate,
(10:01):
and they're going to find a wayto get out of it. So you're
having escape artist issues, your firstcall is probably going to be to a
trainer and ask and find out whatthey're going to do. And if they
say, you need a heavier dutycrate or we need to do some exercises
with your dog to to get themused to that separation. You know,
we need, we need to goahead and do that. So it's not
(10:22):
just lock the door, chain thedoor and go. There's a lot of
other things that kind of go alongwith that. And that's your best calls
to a trainer right from the start, and you guys can certainly help with
that. If folks call you atthe Edgefield Animal Care Center, not only
will you get them into a trainingprogram, you'll give them the advice they
need on the car, the cratethat's going to work for their dog.
Sure you can call, you canget all our information. We're a full
(10:45):
service veterinary hospital, boarding, training, grooming, all of that, uh,
the Edgefield Animal Care Center and theand the Dog Professor. You get
all that information on our website atEdgefield Animalcare dot com. Yep. Absolutely,
and those guys out on the socialmedia because they keep pushing out different
stuff that's going on with the DogProfessor, different episodes that fit for things
(11:07):
that are going on in your lifeand in your household. But check out
all the episodes on the iHeart app. Just do a search for the Dog
Professor podcast and you'll have all ofthose details right there and be able to
check out all the episodes
Joining me today is the Dog Professor, Rob Lust from the Edgefield Animal Care
Center, and it is the DogProfessor podcast. Rob. How are you,
Buddy? Good good? Got somefall weather today? This is nice?
Yeah? And then why am rightback to the ninety five and eighty
percent humidity? And in two weekspeople will go, why do I not
feel good? It's always this timeof year that I'm like, you know,
(00:22):
I like fall. Yeah, I'mall four fall. That's I'm ready
for it. Let's make it happen, you know. But it's always beginning
a high state football season. You'vegot to sit through a sit through a
ninety degree day here there, andI'll tell you what, though it felt
like football season last night and thismorning, it's been to life and I'm
ready for football on Saturday. It'sgoing to be wonderful. You want to
talk about something that is very interestingto talk about in the world of dogs,
(00:47):
because some people love them, somepeople hate them, most people probably
don't understand them, and that iscrates. Yeah, And the idea we
want to really discuss today is,you know, we've always talked about we
were always big proponents of the structurethat a dog gets when they're used.
They use a crate as they're growingup and housebroken and use it to sleep
(01:10):
and where they live and everything else. It gives that dog structure and anxiety.
But today we're kind of focusing onthe different levels and qualities of the
different crates that are out there.Right. Okay, for years it was
we had the wire cage and wehad the plastic airline carrier. But there's
been a lot of great advancements incrates for the reason that dogs escape crates,
(01:37):
right, you know, we're alwaysgetting calls about my dog either has
an anxiety issue that we're trying towork with the with the crate, and
that anxiety leads to the escape andthe dog is getting hurt, hurting themselves
because they're so intent on escaping fromthe crate. And the problem is is
once they escape from the crate,even if they hurt themselves a dog with
(02:00):
high anxiety, they're basically rewarded forescaping from the crate because now they're out.
Yeah, okay, so the firstthing they do next time in the
same crate is try to do theexact same thing. And you can only
modify some of these crates so muchbefore you're just done and that it doesn't
work anymore. So we've explored,you know, as trainers, we explore
(02:23):
the possibilities out there for people withthese dogs that are escaping their crates and
how they're and the different brands ofcrates that are out there that definitely give
you a better fighting chance of containingthe dog, which by containing the dog
means the dog starts to realize thatall the efforts are putting into trying to
(02:44):
escape and is not being is notworking. Pretty soon that effort goes away.
Okay, so you gotta sometimes yougot to move up to a little
higher quality crate. And there's threebrands that we've explored and we've we've looked
at that I think are really goodas far as for those dogs that pretty
(03:04):
much have escaped from everything else.Usually how dogs escape the crates, especially
the metal crates. You know,if that crate collapses down to carry like
a suitcase, usually dogs will pullhere or push there, or bend a
door. You know. I've seendogs on those cheaper metal crates take their
teeth and just basically squeeze the barstogether to where they break the weld or
(03:29):
or they loosen the latch or whatever, or you come home and the complete
crates collapse down on your dog andthey're laying in there like I don't know
what happened, but here's here whereyou are. That's how they usually escape
those with the airline crates, thoughthey usually escape from those by grabbing the
metal doors if the if the squareson the doors are big enough, they
(03:50):
can get a tooth or something togrip the door. They either push it
out or they pull it in andactually bend the door to where the little
pegs at the bottom and the topon the on the edge of the door
where the latch is, they areunlatched, and then they get out of
there. Or they catch hold ofthe whole vents on the side of the
(04:11):
plastic crates and they chew those upenough to get out right. So sometimes
you got to go up to alittle heavier duty crates. So there's three
brands that we've we've really researched.They're not cheap, obviously, because they're
built better than what you can getjust cheaply at the store. But they're
actually built with these this mindset inmind to try to keep a dog from
(04:33):
escaping. So the lower end willgo low to high the lower end of
these heavier duty crates. And I'veseen them at Cabella's. You know,
you can order them online. They'resuper heavy duty body crate. They're built
like the airline crate, the plasticcrate, but it's no comparison plastic wise
(04:54):
to a lot of the other crates. The two of those brands, rough
Land and Gunner are basically designed,you know, transport hunting dogs, Okay,
and because they're they're built as theairline crates are, but they're heavier
duty on the plastic. They havelatches that you know, as a hunting
(05:14):
guy will just will put our cratein the back of the pickup. And
they have things that you can ifyou don't latch that airline crate down and
you take a turn and your dogis leaning the same way, not into
the turn. They're so so youcan bunge them down in the trailer.
But the biggest nicest thing about thesetwo rough Land and Gunner crates is the
(05:36):
door in the latch system. Okay, the plastic that makes they are plastic
doors, but the plastic that makesup those doors are about a half inch
to three quarter of an inch thick, and the squares are probably three quarter
of an inch square, so it'svery very hard, number one, for
(05:56):
a dog to get their teeth inthose squares, to grip that door and
do anything else with it. Plusthey have lockable latches on the door itself,
So these these crates are designed forvery little. They're they're designed.
I've seen car crashes with these cratesand the dog is still safe inside the
crate because those those things are builtso such heavy duty, so they're sturdy.
(06:23):
They're on the cheaper end of theexpensive heavy heavy duty crates. So
you're talking three hundred to five hundreddollars for a large sized dog crate in
this case. But if you havea dog that continues to escape, that's
or choose stuff up, choose thecrate up, bends the bars on the
cage, whatever, that's probably thedirection you're going to go to right away.
(06:46):
Three hundred dollars versus twenty five hundreddollars for a new cow. Even
the yeah, even the cheap,cheaper crates now are probably a couple hundred
bucks. So so that would bemy suggestion in those cases. Rough Land
A U F L, A ND or Gunner g U N N E
R. You can find them online. They are not giving me a check.
(07:06):
I'll be glad to take one ifthey would like to. But those
are the ones I've researched independently.There's another one above that that is even
heavy, more heavy duty, andis built a little bit more. They
actually have one for a dog withsuper anxiety. They're called Impact crates.
(07:27):
They're built out of aluminum. Theycollapse down so for easy storage and everything,
but they're even heavier duty than thetwo brands that I just talked about.
They have a crate specifically made fordogs that have separation anxiety, and
they're basically the openings in that crateare very small because again back to the
(07:50):
idea of how dogs escape that cratewith separation anxiety is they grab things and
they pull and bend and push andand anything they can get their mouth on,
that's what they're going to do.So it's built to basically keep them
from getting their mouth on it,and that's what that's where dogs get hurt.
Right, Okay, dogs aren't dumb. They know if I can't get
(08:11):
something to work my way, I'mnot going to fight it all day long.
So they do have to be ableto withstand that initial barrage. But
a lot of people have this mentalitythat if the dog can look outside the
crate and see things, that they'regoing to be more comfortable. And sometimes
some dogs that's completely the opposite becausethey feel, well, I'm I can
see everything, but now I'm outhere, you know, and I have
(08:33):
to take care of everything. I'drather be somewhere quiet, dark and contain
that and comfortable so I can feela wall at my back each time,
and then I can take a napand not be so anxious about things.
Makes total sense. So those thosecrates are built even more and even heavier
duty for those dogs, those bigdogs that are busted out, that have
(08:54):
separation anxiety, so forth and soon, and those are that brand is
called Impact. But in my personalopinion, you know, you're you're getting
into a lot more money in those. I can see where they have their
money in those, because they're aluminumand they're gonna last and they're not gonna
be able to be chewed. Butthose are three crates. Rough Land,
(09:15):
Gunner and Impact. You have anescape artist. You've talked to a trainer
and they've said to get a heavierduty crate. Those are your good places
to start and go. Look,and when you get that crate, it's
good to have something to keep thembusy in the crate, especially when you
leave correct right, there's a lotof there's a lot of different things we
do in certain cases, and youknow, redirect of a dog's energy level
(09:39):
is important when they're using that energyto try to escape from the crate or
they're laying there that they're worried thatyou're gone or whatever. So a lot
of times will will recommend redirection toys, you know, toys where you put
treats in stuff like that. Thoseare what redirections. But there are some
dogs that they're they're just not interestedin that at all. Their their sole
goal is to get on the otherside of that door, that crate,
(10:01):
and they're going to find a wayto get out of it. So you're
having escape artist issues, your firstcall is probably going to be to a
trainer and ask and find out whatthey're going to do. And if they
say, you need a heavier dutycrate or we need to do some exercises
with your dog to to get themused to that separation. You know,
we need, we need to goahead and do that. So it's not
(10:22):
just lock the door, chain thedoor and go. There's a lot of
other things that kind of go alongwith that. And that's your best calls
to a trainer right from the start, and you guys can certainly help with
that. If folks call you atthe Edgefield Animal Care Center, not only
will you get them into a trainingprogram, you'll give them the advice they
need on the car, the cratethat's going to work for their dog.
Sure you can call, you canget all our information. We're a full
(10:45):
service veterinary hospital, boarding, training, grooming, all of that, uh,
the Edgefield Animal Care Center and theand the Dog Professor. You get
all that information on our website atEdgefield Animalcare dot com. Yep. Absolutely,
and those guys out on the socialmedia because they keep pushing out different
stuff that's going on with the DogProfessor, different episodes that fit for things
(11:07):
that are going on in your lifeand in your household. But check out
all the episodes on the iHeart app. Just do a search for the Dog
Professor podcast and you'll have all ofthose details right there and be able to
check out all the episodes
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