In our old house, I built a closet to hold the crates, they fit in the bottom, then there is a shelf right above them, and above that is hanging storage and extra shelving. It has worked out great, and it's in a very small room (BTW, we have two crates for two large goldens). I'm doing away with the crates for the new house, there is a large bump-out in the back hallway, and we'll just do the same closet-setup with a gate across the hallway. I'm hoping with a larger house that they won't have to stay in their crates at night anymore, just occasionally when they get really muddy!

I had torn this out of a magazine before building, but we did not do this. It could also be done under a stairway. I like that they are contained but have more space than in a crate.

We've always let our dogs have free rein of the house as part of the family. Not sure im getting the crate thing unless it's strickly for when no one is home, then still dont get it . We have a pet door so they can come in out of the elements and go out to take care of business.

I can't remember the screen name of the poster (I think it started with a "J" and he built a beautiful house in, I think, Maine) but he had a great setup. He included a basic closet on an exterior wall. I don't think it was more than 4x6 (?) and it had an exterior door and an interior door with dog doors in both. I wish I had seen that setup before we designed our house because that is such a simple idea for devoted dog owners.

On a side note, I have never crate trained and have never figured out the usefulness of a crate. I've never had a problem with potty training (accidents do happen but you just clean it up) and my dogs are always by my side. I work at home and the dogs have a daybed in my office. When I sleep, my dogs have their beds right next to mine. When we are gone my dogs secure the house (they fiercely protect what belongs to them which includes their house and their family) and couldn't function as such in a crate. When someone comes over, they have to be told who is okay and who is not and what kind of behavior is acceptable. Anyway, just a different perspective.

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Allison0704--that picture is crazy wonderful...I wonder if we could fit something like that in....?

As for the "crate-training debate"....I personally highly recommend it only because one of our dog is a rescue dog. Despite our best efforts to assure him we are not going to abandon him, whenever we leave the house he can become quite a monster. He actually we so far one time as to tear apart the bottom pan of the crate to the point of making his paws bleed.

The vet has said this is all separation anxiety and to train with escalating amounts of stress (ie, get ready to leave but don't leave, or leave, but then come right back) plus crate training, so he has his "den", are both proper ways to resolve his behavior.

However, they do sleep with us (bad habit, I know) and were very quickly potty trained. They are allowed to roam the house freely when we are home.

I can see the veiw point of the few posters who 'don't get' the crate training as our older dog hardly ever goes in her crate, she is just so mild mannered.

My husband and I just accept the fact that our younger dog has separation anxiety and he has special needs to consider because of his past abuse before we rescued him.

Crate training is a great way to minimize damage to the home when the dogs are there and you aren't.

When my dogs steal shoes or an item of clothing, take it to the back yard and use it for tug of war and keep away, I can't be too angry-- I left it where I shouldn't have, after all. They once made off with a box of checks [I'd left it on the dining room table] for the house building account.

But they also take throw pillows, afghans, books and magazines, things I just get tired of having to lock up every time I leave the house.

OTOH, I never worry about home invasion. A 100+ pound Akita and a 55 pound bull terrier are all the security system I need. They wouldn't be so useful in this regard if they were crated, but the damages would be much less if one or the other of them were-- I think they egg each other on.

But they are both young, and improving.

One great piece of advice I've heard is to plan the dog door in a spot where you can place their outdoor doghouse up against the wall, a sort of doggie porch. Hides the fact that there's an unlocked entry to your home, and gives a bit more protection from the weather.

My original plan had a 'dog room' adjacent to the laundry for keeping them [and their mess] contained, but with a 2 story+basement, every foot you add on the main floor adds 3 feet to the completed size. So now it's combined into the laundry room, but in many ways that's the worst spot for it, since laundry and shoes [from the mud room] are temptations most dogs can't resist.

I love the idea of the room I referred to above because it's kind of a "doggy vestibule." A place to keep dog dishes, accessories, clean off muddy feet and you can choose to either cut off access from the outside or the inside without cutting off access to the room.

I guess I don't get the crate because I've never needed it. Once one of my puppies did some major damage to a couch but I feel that's part of pet ownership and bad behavior needs to be trained out of them. I have also owned a couple of rescues that showed behavioral issues in the beginning but quickly became well adjusted. Maybe it's because I/we spend (and I'm not exaggerating!) everyday - all day long with the dogs minus (on average) three to six hours per week.

Hi krysib,

We have the 42" crate (I think there's only one bigger--the 48") and we made our laundry room cabinet & countertop raised to allow plenty of room for the crate. Here's a picture.

Hi fairytalebaby!!

Thanks for the pic, that's a very interesting design element that I actually might me able to squeeze into my laundry/mud room.

I also have the front load washer/dryer, so this design would also give me good space to fold laundry, sort, stack etc.

oh...and thanks for the measurements! we also have 42" crates (85 lb. lab and a 55 lb. sib. husky)

We crate trained our dog as a puppy. He's 8 now, and has free rein of the house during waking hours, whether we are home or not. HOwever, he likes to sleep in his crate, and if he feels it's "bedtime" and we have not yet said the word "B-E-D" he will more often than not go in on his own. He also goes in his crate on his own when there are loud noises, fireworks, thunderstorms, etc. Dogs are den animals, some more than others perhaps, and he seems to feel safe in there.

We are building a spot in the mud room for the crate. It will be under the counter. I will have a leg that comes down to support the countertop. The crate will slide in sideways--much like the picture above. I may hang a piece of fabric on the side. My decorator did this in one house. She said it had a big button where you could pull the curtain up and out of the way of the crate. I think it would be a cute way to add a bit of fabric to the mud room. I will have doors on the mud room so that the dog (once he isn't a puppy anymore) can roam in that area while we are gone.

I just wanted to mention that our dog is almost 3 and still just loves her crate. I don't know if it's because we have small children (and she likes her private DOG space), or if it's just a security thing for her...but she loves her crate most of the time. We wanted her to be crate trained for boundary issues as a puppy, but once she grew up we made a big deal of presenting her with this beautiful cushy dog bed and she whined and cried for her crate!

I made the countertop higher though in hopes of ditching the crate one day when she is ready for a cushy bed...she'll have enough room to lay down AND stand up under there and her bed can be tucked away.

Dog crates are a great way to keep fido under control. Just ask any cat. :-)

We crate our dogs on certain days for their own safety. I have a housecleaner in once a week and we crate the dogs in the air conditioned garage on the day she comes so they don't get in her way and also so she doesn't let them out. We also crate them when we have company (which isn't often) so we can relax with our guests--the dogs tend to steal the show. We purchased a casement window air conditioner for the garage so it fits between the normal stud span and we didn't have to do special framing for it. When we leave them in the house, we have a large utility room that is open to the rest of the house and I just put a baby gate across the doorway to keep them in. I like them contained because they sometimes have upset tummies and I like to know the puke is contained in one area instead of stepping in a surprise hidden pile somewhere around the house.

I love the idea about hiding a doggie door behind/inside a dog house, oruboris! I've also heard of doggie doors that only open for an animal wearing an electronic-device collar -- would keep racoons, etc. from entering.

I still think I'd only feel safe with a doggie door for a very small dog -- says the woman whose house was burgled via an unlocked screen door while she was in the tub!

Our crates are in our (generous) clutter room. I have a few friends with in home kennels - one was even featured in Architectural Digest years ago.

The only reason I didn't do an actual kennel room was because we really do want the dogs with us most of the time.

That said I am a huge proponent of crate training, not only for housebreaking but because a dog needs it's own sanctuary and most importantly it's for the dog's protection. I cannot even begin to list the number of things I have taken out of dogs' GI tracts. Not to mention chewing electric cords etc.

Our clutter room has a dutch door. I really admire those of you who allow your dogs free roam of the house at all times...... we live on a farm, mud, horse crap, burrs etc are part of our live. Without a full time maid I would spend the large majority of my time cleaning up dogs or their footprints etc. ( we have 4). When they come in from outdoors it's essential to have a place to contain the dirt/mud etc. For us it's the clutter room and/or crates.

PD

thanks again for all of the replies!!
I didn't think the 'building forum' would have some much interest for a pet question....but they are my babies so they need their space too!!

ponydoc, where is your "clutter room" located within your home? Is it like a mud room area?

When I was growing up my mother raised dogs and we always had various stages of litters, so I am familiar with the dutch door idea, although I hadn't thought of that until you had mentioned it. Not sure I could do that with my separation anxiety husky as he would chew through a door if I gave him the chance!

I don't think I could do my very on kennel!! Just something like a mud room/clutter/"doggie vestible" as 'kellen' mentioned.

"getting" crating now. As a training tool, private "den", a great way to introduce a new dog or pup to the home,etc. I simply misunderstood originally as the crate being a full time residence for the dogs. We,except for our golden, have always gotten rescue dogs, so i think they have had enough "crating", but i can see it as an invaluable tool to introduce them into a home. Our aussie had seperation anxiety for a time, so crating probably would have helped big, although she is ok now. Great thread!

Our dogs love their crate. In fact, so much so that now that we have two big dogs and I haven't ordered a second crate, there is often squabbles over who gets to sleep there. The crate we have is fairly nice looking (as far as crates go). Wish I'd thought of building it in under a counter somewhere. It will probably just get tucked out of the way in our Master closet.

My akita loved the tiny shipping crate he came home in, slept in it for a couple months till he didn't fit any more.

By then he was house broke, so I didn't buy him a bigger one, didn't really have room anyway. I just left the door open so he could let his head hang out, but soon he couldn't go in to turn around.

He spent the next 6 months sleeping with his head in the box...

I visited a home a while back that had an excellent setup that addresses the space issues you discussed. They had a laundry room (perhaps situated like your mudroom?) just inside the garage entry. They "built out" a little bump out that juts just slightly into the garage where they framed out a perfectly sized space for the dog crate and placed adjustable shelving above the dog crate to hold doggie treats and accessories. They used the wheels for the crate so that it would be easy to remove, clean under, take on trips, etc. The dog LOVED his private space and would run there every time he heard the dog owners jingle their keys.

I really don't think this thread is an appropriate place to debate crating vs. non-crating. The OP asked for advice on where to put a crate ... not whether to use one.

"learn as I go" Thanks for the suggestion....I might be able to work that in, but I'm not sure for two crates...

I have attached a link to our original house plan. We have modified it greatly to enlarge all of the bedrooms, and the garage, the the mudroom area is the same size and layout is shown.

I have the linen closet there that I am not really attached to that could possibly 'bump out' into the garage, but only for one crate.

Any ideas?

And yes, I am looking for suggestions as to where to place the crates for the dogs when we are not home and not for advice on whether or not to crate. Thanks for clearing that up, my OP may have been confusing!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plan Link

Not confusing at all, I understood you were only asking about where to keep your crate.

This is an online forum and one rarely ever gets one's question answered without discussion on the entire subject. It's to be expected and chiding about appropriateness should be limited to one's children . . .

I've learned a great deal by reading threads where the subject wanders but still remains intact with the original post. There are no rules to this and i dont consider it inappropriate, but rather a learning curve. What isn't answered directly to the o.p. might benefit another member relating, but not dead on, to the subject.

Guilty of steering this away and into the crate vs crate. I've learned from this thread, so no apologies but thanks instead.

We were going to add an actual kennel in our utility room so we wouldn't have to have a crate around. I love the pic above tucked into the wall, but wouldn't use that light weight wire, but the wire from an "x-pen" more like heavy bird cage wire (stronger, safer and more attractive). I've also had a friend that did the double door idea..which I think is great if your problem is muddy dogs in the country. As to the crate concept we all have opinions but I admit I've done rescue, therapy in a hospital setting and have shown dogs...crates are for both your benefits..believe me the day you have an emergency and need to contain your dog due to illness yours or theirs, or a tornado etc. knowing your dog understands what a crate is upfront is better for them and you than the day you have to fight them in one because your home has burnt down.