After many months of reading posts in the Pet Forum, we finally took the plunge yesterday and welcomed Cookie the labradoodle into our home! She's a little sweetie at the moment, but there's time for all that to change...

I've been reading a lot about crates for the home and I think it may be an option to consider when we have to leave her on her own, but they are so damn expensive. Does anyone have one that they don't use anymore that they can hire/loan to us?

Cheers

rosie, Welcome to the group and congratulations on getting your pup

I'd really recommend buying one if you can. They are expensive but buy a good one and it'll last a long time.

If Cookie should ever, god forbid, hurt herself- you may need to contain her so that she can't move around too much and a crate would be ideal.

My little girl no longer uses her crate in the house, but I've put it in the car as she's not good on car journeys - it's a complete transformation but it's facing coming out of the car at the moment as she's damaged her foot and keep trying to walk on it. If I didn't have a crate, I wouldn't have the chance to just say that I'll get it out of the car to contain her.

It really is an incredibly handy thing to have and ownership of one means you have it at your disposal whenever. Otherwise you might be able to loan one but it could be on a rather long term basis. Takara didn't finish using hers in the house until she was a year old and that was only because we got a new dog and Takara didn't like the idea of being in a crate if he wasn't...

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=168627&highlight=dog+cage
think its still available