How Big of a Crate Do You Need?

When transporting dogs to adoption events, it's always good to have them in crates, for their safety and the safety of everyone in the vehicle.  Generally a dog's crate should give the dog enough room to stand up and turn around and lay down comfortably.  Someone forgot to tell this to Evie.

At Saturday's adoption event, I met Evie for the first time.  She is a German Shorthaired Pointer.  She was used as a breeding dog and then when she stopped producing puppies, she was shot and left for dead.  She was rescued and has been in foster care for a year now.  She is fully recovered and ready for her new home. 

Evie is a pretty large dog, as you can see from this picture.

So it would be nothing short of animal cruelty to force her into a small dog crate like the one pictured below.

 Unless of course you watch as her foster mom sets down the crate (which was used to transport a small puppy to the adoption event) and Evie makes a beeline to the crate and climbs right in.  And then manages somehow to actually turn herself around so her head is sticking out the opening.  It was amazing to behold.  I didn't manage to catch it on video, but I was able to take some pictures of Evie looking oh-so-happy to be in her oh-so-small crate. 

 So next time you're measuring your dog for a crate, you may want to ask the dog what size they prefer!