How to Pick a Crate for Your Schnauzer
So you’re thinking about adopting a new miniature schnauzer. After you’ve selected the one that you want to bring into your family, you start to get excited about everything you will get to welcome that new puppy into your home. In addition to toys, food, and healthcare you know that you need to select a crate for your schnauzer.
But, where do you even start with the amount of crates that are out there on the internet? Perhaps you popped into your local pet supply store to browse the crate section. And as you turn the corner, you see every size imaginable lining the walls. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then this article is the right place to be. So, let’s get right to it.
Why Does My Schnauzer Need a Crate?
You may be thinking that it might not be necessary to even get a crate. After all, your house is plenty big, and you can get a nice cozy dog pillow for them to use as their bed. However, as miniature schnauzer breeders, we wouldn’t recommend this.
Getting a crate is really something you want to just do even if you don’t fully understand yet. It can help you potty train, make it easier to leave the house, and give your schnauzer a place to go when they need their own space. Let’s look at a few of these.
Potty Training
For the first 11 or so weeks of the puppy’s life, they will struggle with keeping control of their bladder. Once they start to hit 12-16 weeks, is when you will want to start potty training your puppy.
As you can imagine during these few months the accidents can be quite frequent. Newborn pups will relieve themselves after every feeding, and multiple times throughout the day. And as they get older it will become less frequent; however, messes will still happen until they are trained.
A crate that has a removable tray (more on this subject later) will give them the ability to go potty right there without making a mess in the house somewhere else. The more they get used to the crate and know where their tray is, the better it will be for them and for you as their potty trainer.
Private Space
Have you ever just had a mentally exhausting day at work? And when you came home you needed to be in your own space. Of course, you love your family, but you just need a few minutes alone surrounded by the things you love. Perhaps that’s your office, game room, or even bedroom.
Well, schnauzers are no different. According to the American Kennel Club, “The crate provides dogs with a safe space to go when they need to relax or take a nap.” Reinforce with your schnauzer that this crate is for them and for them alone. Don’t let your children play in it or take it away. Leave it in a place in the house they know it will always be at.
Things to Consider When You Pick Your Crate
So you know why you need to pick a crate out and how valuable it is to have one for your miniature schnauzer. Now you can just play eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and just select the first one you see. Well, there’s a little bit more to it than that. You want to choose a sturdy crate of the right size.
Ideally, you’ll only ever have to buy one crate. That means you need a quality crate that won’t break and is big enough to fit your puppy into adulthood. Crates can cost anywhere from $10 to thousands of dollars. (Yes, that’s right, thousands.)
We’re not recommending that you purchase a $2,000 doggy crate. But, just ensure you are getting a quality one that won’t fall apart in three weeks. We have a list of doggy crates that start at $40 that we recommend in the next section.
You might be tempted to get a big crate. After all, you only want what’s best for your schnauzer. It will give your schnauzer lots of room to play and sleep. And bigger is always better, right? Well, not quite.
A big crate will actually make it harder to potty train your schnauzer. In a large crate, there is room for a puppy to potty on one side and have a comfortable space to sleep on the other. So, for your puppy, there is no benefit in waiting to go outside.
In a smaller crate or a crate with a divider, if they potty in the crate they will be stuck next to it until it’s time to get out of the crate. This gives natural consequences for pottying in the crate and will make your puppy more willing to hold it the next time.
Crates That We Recommend for Schnauzers
Picking a crate can be difficult if you don’t know which size you need, or why you need a smaller size in the first place. Thankfully, we’ve had enough schnauzers that we know how to pick the best crate out there.
As we said in the section above, a full-size crate is too big for a miniature schnauzer puppy, so we recommend getting one with a divider that allows you to adjust it as your puppy grows. For most schnauzers, you will need a 30” crate for an adult, with a divider for when they are a puppy.
The following crates are a few that we have personally used and liked! We would recommend any of the following three to our adopters:
- Midwest Life Stages Double-Door Folding Dog Crate
- Petmate Home-Training Wire Dog Kennel
- EliteField -Folding Dog Crate
Items To Put In Your Schnauzers Crate
The first that we do when we get a new bedroom or carve out a new space in our house is to decorate it and make it homey. Well, why wouldn’t we do the same for our dogs? No schnauzer wants to sit in a wired crate for hours with absolutely nothing inside.
Ideally, you have two objectives in mind when setting up your schnauzer’s crate: comfort and safety.
- Blanket\Pillow: Never underestimate the power of comfort. The cozier that it is, the more your schnauzer will take a shine to it.
- Toys: Make sure to add toys that coincide with your schnauzer’s development phase (newborn, teething, adult dog, etc.)
- Removable Tray: This is important to get unless you want to clean up waste every day until your puppy is trained.
In addition to the comfort, you want to make sure that the crate is safe in every way. We want this to be a safe space for our dogs that they can go to when they need it. Don’t use the crate as constant punishment. The crate needs to be the place your dog turns to when they feel overstimulated or stressed out.
We hope that this information sets you up for success as you begin your journey with your new schnauzer puppy. There will be ups and downs, but we can guarantee you that you will form a bond with your schnauzer like you never thought was possible. Enjoy watching the excitement on their face when they see their very own crate all decked out in comfort for the first time.
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