Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi all!

My shelter is doing a small renovation of our dog kennels and we are shopping for which type of kennel we would like to use. We definitely want double-sided kennels with guillotine doors between, but other than that, we are open to ideas. I found on Midmark and other distributors the Above Floor Kennels (basically a fiberglass kennel raised above the ground a few inches), which might be great for our shelter since our floors are poorly leveled and very difficult to clean. Has anyone tried these out? Are they loud? Are the dogs nervous to go in them compared to other kennel types? Difficult to clean? Any experience with these would be great!

Otherwise, do you have suggestions for materials or set ups that work well?

#OrganizationalManagement

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Stephenie Krum
Volunteer Coordinator
Animal Welfare League of Charlotte County
FL
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We have a similar product in our shelter and there are pros and cons to them. Cleaning them is easy, especially since gravity takes place at the back of the kennel. The downside is that you will most likely have to clear out the pipes that will go under the kennels to make sure things dont get hung up in there. It's not necessarily a super hard job but it just adds an occasional step to cleaning. Now, our shelter is in an old prison so most of our house is from reverb off the walls but since these are typically open halfway up (ours are anyway), there is no way to dampen the barking of the animals. We have 20 of these in one big room, no animals get see each other, but these surrounded by cinderblock walls.. i'm sure you can just image. LOL. Oh also, look into some sort of material that can go across the top. We apparently had some pretty big dogs in the past that have managed to jump high enough to get out. Our dogs are about a 50/50 chance of being "nervous" to go in them. I think its more of a ' i dont want to because im getting human attention out here' type of not wanting to go in more than being scared. The downside is having to fight a dog in that doesn't want to go in, lifting them up, and then trying to get the gate shut before they wedge their head in the door. We have some dogs that are fantastic about getting in like they are  loading up into a truck. 

We only have a couple that have guillotine doors on the side.. we use them in our 'nursery' so we can lift the door for mama to have some space to herself and also for when babies are big enough to move to one so we can clean the other and vice versa.  I would definitely recommend them if you doing a small budget reno for sure.

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Brianna Marshburn
Office Manager
Baldwin County Animal Services
GA
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Hi I volunteered for a shelter that had these. I didn't find them very helpful at all. At the same time I was volunteering at another shelter that had the kennels on the floor. Now I volunteer at a shelter that has a step down to get into the kennel. I find the best is the one which all in on the same level. Its easier to control a dog if you don't have to worry about them coming and going. Definitely get covers and also make sure the drainage is away from the dogs but big enough to handle the amount needed. 

Jeanie

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Jean Gillan
Animal Control
Randolph Public Health
MA
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