puppy shopping 1

Or should I say, shopping for puppies? No, that's not it either. Shopping for puppy things. That's it!

Last night I wrote a loooong email about the first few essentials one needs when thinking about bringing one's puppy home. This is the same info blog-style.

Crates If you're planning to show your Lappy, then the size crate you need for shows is approx 31ins x 21ins x 24in because that is the size that will fit on the benches. At many shows that won't matter because you can set up your crate in lots of different places, but it's best to stick to that size for 2 main reasons:

1. You have no choice but to set up on the bench at Crufts, and there's no spare room so it's gotta fit.
2. Metal crates are heavy to carry around & who wants to carry more than necessary.

When your dog has grown out of the chewing-through-everything stage (somewhere around 2 years, I find), then it's safe to graduate to a cloth crate which is MUCH easier to carry around. Here's a selection for example. There are a lot of different types with various features & at one time or another I've tried all the ones illustrated. My favorite is the Croft Classic. Like most of them, it has a carrying bag with handy outside pockets. It also comes with metal pegs for pinning the crate to the ground in case of high wind. It has a lightweight metal frame inside which means it's strong enough to put stuff on top, and it has "blinds" over the windows. An excellent product all round.

The 31-inch metal crate can also double as a car crate if you don't want to go down the route of those designed especially for cars or the very desirable and very expensive made-to-measure dog guard.

At home, however, you will need something bigger than the 31-inch size. That one will be ok for a few weeks, but by the time a puppy is 5 or 6 months old they will need more space if spending nights in there and time when you're out. For a home crate, the bigger the better, once puppy is fully grown. I would say certainly no smaller than 94 x 63 x 69cm (37 x 25 x 27in), especially for a male. This Croft one is the sort of minimum size.

Croft are good quality but quite expensive. In my experience you don't really need a great quality metal crate. They all last & last and they don't usually fall apart - although you might need to be careful with cheaper ones if you have a bouncy puppy who jumps at the sides when excited. The more sturdy they are, the heavier and the more expensive, but I would always go for mid-price rather than the most expensive. I would also say that whichever crate, be sure it has a plastic tray in the bottom. Some come with metal trays (very heavy & likely to rust) and some come with no tray at all.

Here's another good site for crates, and they also do a good fabric crate.


* * * *

This weekend Taika moves in. I'm still working on Jay & the whelping room.