New Safety Study Published

In all seriousness, this was a good article. My friend has the Ruff Tough kennels and Calliesmom has them too. That was a kennel I was considering when I get a bigger vehicle. I actually think it held up pretty well. It wasn't perfect, I mean, the door fell off! But it didn't shatter or get crushed like some of the other kennels.

The variocage worked exactly as it should. It's supposed to work with the car's crumple zone. However, if my dog was in that cage when it crushed like that, I doubt she would survive. It crushes way to much..

I was really impressed with the gunner kennel. The downside is, it's over $500 per kennel. If you have multiple dogs, it might not be an option because of the cost alone. Plus their smallest size would be too big for most Shelties.

I'm glad they are doing this testing. As hard as it is to watch, consumers like us who travel with our dogs constantly want to make sure our dogs are safe. We want to know that in the event we get in a car accident, that our dogs will survive.
 
Jess041 said:
In all seriousness, this was a good article. My friend has the Ruff Tough kennels and Calliesmom has them too. That was a kennel I was considering when I get a bigger vehicle. I actually think it held up pretty well. It wasn't perfect, I mean, the door fell off! But it didn't shatter or get crushed like some of the other kennels.

The variocage worked exactly as it should. It's supposed to work with the car's crumple zone. However, if my dog was in that cage when it crushed like that, I doubt she would survive. It crushes way to much..

I was really impressed with the gunner kennel. The downside is, it's over $500 per kennel. If you have multiple dogs, it might not be an option because of the cost alone. Plus their smallest size would be too big for most Shelties.

I'm glad they are doing this testing. As hard as it is to watch, consumers like us who travel with our dogs constantly want to make sure our dogs are safe. We want to know that in the event we get in a car accident, that our dogs will survive.
Click to expand...

I had the exact same thoughts as you.

I am seriously looking into the Gunner Kennels, but have some concerns about ventilation. We leave our dogs in the car in the summer with the A/C pumping often, and even just last night left a dog in the car with the windows down and the hatch open while we were at agility (backed right up to the door). It's warm, but not hot (the dogs were not panting). But I wonder if any breeze or the A/C gets through easily at all.

EDIT: We currently have wire crates in the car.
 
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You would only get ventilation from the sides and the door. No openings in the back or top. Depending on your car and where the AC vents are, if you have the crates facing the back so you could get the dogs out by opening the back door/hatch, it would be very difficult to circulate air way back there. I think it would be fine in the scenario you are describing, with the hatch open. I would probably put a fan on them though, just in case.

I wish those Gunner Kennels had openings in the back as well. But maybe that would compromise the integrity of the kennel in the event of a crash? I don't know. I think these kennels were made for hunting dogs that would be put in the bed of a pickup truck. So they weren't super concerned about the back I guess.

*Edit- the LARGE size has holes on the back. But with Shelties.. we're not going to get a large. We're going to get the intermediate.
 
guess I should post on here since I have some of the tested crates.

It looks from the Gunner site that they are really new since they are still working on additional sizes and the website copyright date is 2015. I might have considered them if they had been available when I was shopping. the expense is considerable though and I thought the Ruff Tough Kennels were pricey.:winkgrin:
The Variocages are really expensive- I do have a friend who has the double- she preordered and got some price break.

The RTK doors probably came off since they can open from either side which I actually find convenient but I can see how it would be the weak point. It also would be nice if the attachment points were built in on the RTKs but it's probably moot as no car on the market comes with attachment points to secure the crate in the car as shown in the demo videos.
Ashley and I have talked about that as our cars are virtually the same- especially the interior. I actually just redid the crate arrangement and tiedowns.
Those metal tiedowns at the rear of the car are really the only tiedown points that are useful so as you can see- there's really no way to secure the crate/s as they were secured in the videos.
I know that currently there is no perfect solution but I feel that the RTK crates are vastly superior to the seatbelts that I used to use but at least the shelties have always been secured in some way.

Forgot the ventilation issue- small and medium have ventilation holes on the top of the sides and the door. There is a hose hole in the top of the rear portion of the crate to easily clean the crates out. The intermediate crate has holes on the top and bottom of the sides, the door and the hose hole.
I was at a rally trial recently that was warm- not much room in the indoor venue so I left the not ready yet dog in the car. I put our shade cloth over the hatch to keep it cooler in there. I joked with the people that I was sitting near that my dog in the car was probably cooler than the dog in the crate in the building. It was advertised as ventilated- there were about 6 fans in there and they could have used twice that.....
 
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