Carrier Recommendations?

[MeoMeu]

Hello everybody! I'm getting my first Sheltie (also happens to be my first dog) in a little over a week and as you can imagine I'm sooooo excited for my little boy to come home! I've already bought a large majority of the supplies, but there's one item I'm wondering about....

I bought a Midwest wire crate as recommended by the breeder for inside the house, but it won't fit inside my car because the car is very small and has little to no floor space. Since there is a large possibility that I will be driving up to a friend's house in August and bringing the puppy with me (the drive is about 4-5 hours, we'll be staying there for several days before driving back) I was thinking about getting a soft-sided carrier that will fit on the backseat of the car for the drive. Also, I've seen several posts about people taking their puppies with them to places in said carriers before the puppies are old enough and have had all their shots to be able to walk to places themselves, and of course a carrier of some sort will be needed for trips to the vet, so any brand recommendations? He's a bit on the smaller side (he was the smallest puppy in the litter) if it helps!

 

[PamG]

We had a soft-sided crate for Snow. It was really convenient for her to travel here with my son, light, portable, cute, everything one would want. Soon, left too long to her thinking, she was able to unzip the crate and escape. We fixed the zipper issue. Later she was able to turn the crate into a mobile home as we heard first, then saw the crate, with Snow inside, rolling down the hall. She was walking down the sides, like a hamster in a wheel, making the crate move.
We now use a plastic crate.

For a small puppy, the softsider was great. As the brain develops....oh well, you get the idea.

Welcome and have fun with the new pup.

Pam and Sunny and Snow

 

[Greenepony]

We initially bought a soft sided crate for Olive before we brought her home but discovered she can be a bit destructive so instead have a plastic shell carrier for car rides. It fits nicely in the back of our Civic. She's more or less full grown at 13". We got Nature's Miracle only because it fit inside her much larger wooden crate at home. Petsmart and Petco had a number of options.

 

[3Stars]

Starr also destroyed his soft-sided crate - they're really expensive, and it lasted us until the second-last day of a trip . Oh well, lesson learned!

 

[Lightplum]

This is the type of crate I use for mine in the car. It can go in smaller cars and it sits on the backseat and petsmart used to sell straps (not sure if they still do) that will go around it to lock it into your seatbelt..