Your crate setup.

I'm curious about how people have their crates arranged too.

Kim, do you put the dogs in the crates while they are stacked?  Just curious how that works.

We just recently made some changes to the way the dogs sleep and how they come in and out of the house.  We just had dog doors put in the utility room so they can come in and out on their own.  The room has two doors; one to the garage; and one to the back porch.  Depending on what is going on at the moment, they will have access to either the front exterior or the back exterior with control.  The dog doors have the locking panels.

They don't have full run of the house, but they do come in with me while I'm working from home quite a bit.  It has to be controlled and managed though.  I have 3 cats; and Heidi has a strong prey drive and I just don't trust they would be safe.

Buddy sleeps in the utility room and has for a while now.  The houligans have been sleeping in kennels in the garage with a fan on them.  But it is just miserable out there now, so we had to rethink where they sleep.  They could all sleep in the utility room, but sometimes Heidi gets Snarky with Bruder, and I don't want that happening in the middle of the night, so they need to be separated.  So, we brought the two crates in the house and set them in in our front room. Here are some pictures of our new set up:

Buddy's room with the houligans as models (Buddy is laying down behind me):

New dog door Into the garage:

New dog door to the back porch; the locking door is on; because they can't go the pool area right now; DH just treated the pool.

Looking into the kitchen:

Heidi's sleeping crate:

Bruder's sleeping crate:

Long view of both:

I'd love to hear how everyone has theirs setup...to get better ideas on set up and how crates are utilized in the house.

The crate on top doesnt get used much but yes I do put a dog in it stacked like that when I need to. Im gonna get some tie downs to make it secure though for when I do need to use it. The little crates on top of the wire crates are just extra crates I have. Well one of them was Kujo's but she finally graduated to not requiring a crate!

The wire crate on top of Fynn's crate did have a crate cover on it but someone,I wont mention names,Joker, somehow managed to find one little thread out of place and tore it up. So I need to get a new one just so it will look better, IMO.

 Well I just finished cleaning the carpets in my den so all the crates are out, but I'll take pics tomorrow.

Molson and Apollo's crate set up is in the living room. Patty has a crate but never uses it. Molson loves being in his crate (especially when he has a toy/chew/bone). Apollo is just begining to get crate trained.

The boys crates and the dog couch (don't mind the carpet it needs to be steam cleaned, like, last week, lol).
I have a sleeping bag tucked into Apollo's bolster fleece bed because that material (the sleeping bag) stays pretty cool. There's also a stand fan right near the crates.

I would also be interested in folk's reasoning of opting for a wire crate over the plastic like I'm using.  We bought those crates for when we need to travel with them.   I considered buying the wire crate for indoors but thought it would be more cost effective to use what I have already.

Now, what I REALLY want is some of those nice crates made to look like furniture.  I've seen some that have wicker on the outside that look great.  But, again....not cost effective at the moment.  I can't afford it now.

CoBuHe

I would also be interested in folk's reasoning of opting for a wire crate over the plastic like I'm using.

I got Apollo the wire crate because I thought it'd be easier to train him if he can see everything. Turns out, he likes the crate better now that it's covered and more "den" like.

 Wire crates are easier to take to dog shows and the lake in the summer. Easier to keep clean too. And I have the option of putting a crate cover on or taking it off for more ventalation if needed. I hate Fynn's crate but it was given to me so I cant complain too much.

 I use wire for these reasons:

1.  They are cheaper.  My dogs don't try to bend their crates and escape so I don't need the best quality.

2.  We have no air conditioning.  On a day like today where it's 94 IN the house, the wire crates offer way more ventilation.  In fact, Coke has been going in one most of the day on his own, must be a cool spot.

3.  I have three wire crates in a row and since the wire are rectangular, they sort of "fit" together.  I have a nice sheet I can throw over top to make it look like one big den.  The plastic kennels are all sort of diamond shaped on the sides, they can't fit snugly.  As it is I can fit 3 42" crates in a row and I literally have one inch leftover to work with.

4. They fold flat so I can take them all on vacation if I need to.

I also use wire in the car, again mainly for airflow because the whole point of having the crates is so the dogs can travel to shows and events, where they are required to be crated.  So we can open up all the doors and windows and I can use fans and crate fans to make sure everyone stays cool and ventilated.  If I need to cover a wire crate, I can, but I can't uncover a plastic kennel.

Liesje

On a day like today where it's 94 IN the house, the wire crates offer way more ventilation. 

OT....I'm soooo jealous!! It's only been in the mid-lower 60's here for, um, 3 weeks now.

All of our crates are disassembled & stacked in the garage.  The dogs would prefer not sleep in their crates.

We do have their crate pans laid out in the utility room for meals.

 Mine are sitting between the steps to my room, and a book case. They have a very large pile of clean laundry on top of them, so I won't take any pictures, at the moment, LOL. To give you a picture, it's 2, 36", wire crates. They have little, metal, coop cups clipped into them for water. Emma's has a real, live, dog bed. It also contains a pillow, and fleece blanket. Ena's has a couple of thin blankets, because it needs cleaning more often (what you get for taking a puppy mill dog, *sigh*). I use wire, because plastic holds bacteria in the scratches, and it doesn't breathe as well. Ena breaks out, badly, if I keep her in a plastic crate.

I use wire because, having once cleaned a really disgusting diarrhea mess out of all the nooks and crannies of a plastic kennel many years ago, swore off of them.  I only have two set up (one for Grimmy next to my computer and the other is Aesop's in the kitchen.  Aesop only uses his for meals, but it is still set up because he doesn't want to eat out of his crate and we're trying to wean him off of that.

Ok ignore the mess - I use the tops of crates as storage space that is above dog reach lol.  My office/dog room needs a good spring cleaning still...

This is our main crating setup, used primarily for feeding and crating the pup when I'm at work.  It's located in my home office/dog room.

Left to right, this is what each crate is and who it belongs to:

The tan on far left is a 36" plastic and Z's main crate (acquired last week from craigslist!), grey and teal in the middle on the bottom is a 42" plastic and Maggie's main crate, blue on top in middle is a 36" plastic and Kes' daytime crate (he is ALWAYS lifted in an out and will be until he's 2yo for safety's sake), the wire enclosure on the right is the edge of our cat's pen and is 3' by 6' by 3'.

I also have a 36" wire crate in my bedroom for Kes to sleep in at night; the girls sleep loose on dog beds there as well.

I prefer plastic crates for several reasons: 

1. Maggie has always felt safe in them

2. They are harder to escape from

3. They offer privacy without the risk of blankets or covers being pulled in (also reducing Maggie's barrier frustration at trials)

4. I actually prefer carting them around at shows over wire because they weigh waaay less.  I generally take a mesh, a wire, and a plastic crate to trials and so I get to compare quite regularly lol.  My ultimate goal is to have Kes able to stay in a mesh crate, so I only need a plastic for Maggie.

5. They contain hair, dirt, etc. way better than wire.

In the new house, we'll be giving the cat freer roam, so his kennel will become another regular 36" crate I think.  This means a wall of stacked crates eventually vs. the haphazard stuff you see now.

We only have one crate in the house. It's in our front living room, and Riley is only in it when he wants to be in there. It's a wire crate. I won't buy plastic ones because the wire ones provide much more ventilation.

Cadie hasn't been in a crate since she was a year old.