Dog crates
Stylish Dog Crates & Furniture
A crate that lives in the living room has to do two jobs at once. Most do one. Here is how to tell before you buy.
By Joel Wood. Picks and specs last checked .
The complaint
“It looks like a cage. Guests ask if the dog is being punished. So it went in the spare room, and now the dog howls because she can’t see us.”
That’s the wire-crate problem. The wooden-crate problem is the opposite: “It looked beautiful for three weeks and then he chewed through the corner slat and let himself out.”
Almost every dog crate is one or the other. Wire crates work and look like hardware. Furniture crates look like furniture and, for a lot of dogs, don’t work. The buyer ends up owning both.
Why it fails
A crate has to contain a dog, and a piece of furniture has to look like it belongs next to a sofa. The two pull in different directions.
- Slats are the compromise. Wide wooden slats read as furniture. They also give a dog something to bite. Once a slat is chewed, the crate is no longer a crate.
- MDF is not wood. Most furniture crates under a few hundred dollars are medium-density fibreboard with a veneer. It swells with the first accident and splinters under teeth.
- Latches are an afterthought. Decorative doors often use a magnetic catch or a small turn-latch, and dogs learn both.
- Sizing is by room, not by dog. “Large” describes how the crate looks in a living room. A 70-pound dog often can’t turn around inside it.
- Wire crates aren’t ugly by accident. They’re cheap to make and easy to ship flat. Nobody designed them to be looked at, so nobody minds hiding them.
A good crate solves this with materials, not with decoration: a steel or hardwood frame, tight spacing, an external latch, and a tray that comes out. Then it can afford to look like furniture.
What to look for
Check every one before you buy. This is the part the pin couldn't fit.
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Bar or slat spacing under 2 inches, and no gaps a jaw fits through
Wide decorative slats look open and airy. They also let a determined dog get teeth around them, and that is how wooden crates get chewed through.
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A latch the dog can't reach from inside
Slide bolts on the outside of the door are the standard. Any latch a paw or nose can work is a matter of time.
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A removable, washable floor tray
Accidents happen. If the base is fixed wood or MDF, one bad night soaks in permanently.
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Internal length at least the dog's nose to base of tail plus 4 inches
Measure from the tip of the nose to where the tail joins the body, not the tip of the tail, with the dog standing. Furniture crates are sized to look right in a room, not to fit a dog. Measure the dog, then check the internal dimensions, not the external ones.
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A solid top rated to 100 lb if it's doubling as a side table
If it's going to be a side table, it needs to hold a lamp and a drink without flexing. Many "end table" crates have a top rated for nothing.
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Tall enough that your dog stands without ducking its head
Measure floor to the top of the skull with the dog sitting, then add 4 inches. Sitting is the tall position for most dogs. A crate that's long enough but low forces a hunch, and a dog that can't sit up straight learns to hate the box.
Puppy pens
A pen is a different job from a crate, and the checks are different too. Panels taller than the puppy standing on its back legs, or it's a hurdle, not a pen. Bars under 2 inches apart so a head can't go through and get stuck. A latch on the outside, where a nose can't work it. Felt or rubber feet, because a pen that slides across a hard floor gets pushed into the corner and then over.
What size dog crate do I need?
Measure your dog standing, from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, and add 4 inches. That's the inside length. Then measure floor to the top of the skull with the dog sitting and add 4 inches for height. Ignore the weight range on the box: a lean 60-pound dog and a stocky one need different crates. If your dog is still growing, buy for the adult size and use a divider.
The fixes
Products that pass, and where each one falls short
Every card below lists the product's known flaw. If we can't name one, we don't list it.
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The Crate
Fable · $600 and up
- Bent-wood shell and clear acrylic door — the one crate that reads as a side table
- Solid top rated for real use, so it replaces a piece of furniture rather than adding one
- Door swings both ways and the latch is out of reach from inside
Known flaw
Not for chewers or escape artists — the acrylic scratches and the wood takes teeth. It only comes in one size, so it fits small to medium dogs, and the price is close to a real side table.
Link to Fable coming soon
Revol Crate
Diggs · $250–600
- Diamond-mesh steel with tight spacing — no gap a paw or jaw fits through
- Collapses in seconds and rolls on wheels, which matters if you move
- Removable, washable tray and a side door for tight corners
Known flaw
Heavy, and the largest size still tops out around a 75-pound dog. The mesh is functional, not beautiful — it looks like a very good crate, not like furniture.
Link to Diggs coming soon
ecoFLEX Crate End Table
New Age Pet · $100–250
- Composite slats that don't swell with accidents the way MDF does
- Comes in sizes up to extra-large, which most furniture crates skip
- Costs a fraction of the designer options
Known flaw
The slats are wide enough for a determined chewer to get purchase on, and the composite has a faint plastic sheen up close. Assembly takes an hour and the panels are not perfectly square out of the box.
Link to New Age Pet coming soon
Wooden Pet Crate End Table
Casual Home · Under $100
- Solid wood at a particleboard price, around $93 for the 27.5-inch size.
- Interior measurements published for all five sizes, which most budget crates skip. The 27.5-inch is 24 by 17 by 21 inches inside.
- Reads as a side table: slatted sides and a mission-style gate, in walnut, espresso, white or black.
Known flaw
Solid wood, and dogs treat it like solid wood. Chewed slats and a latch that a determined dog pushes open are the two most repeated complaints across nearly 10,000 Amazon reviews, and the listing itself says "not chew proof". There's no floor tray, so an accident soaks into the base. No top load rating is published.
Link to Casual Home coming soon
Dog Crate Furniture, 32.5 inch
Feandrea · $100–250
- The best-documented specs in its price range: inside is 29.9 by 18.5 by 21.3 inches, bar gap 11 mm, and the top is rated to 154 lb.
- A pull-out tray that sits under or over the wire floor, plus a second door on the side.
- The brand's own sizing note tells you to add 4 inches to nose-to-tail, which is the right rule.
Known flaw
The sides are welded wire, and broken welds are the recurring complaint: once one goes, the panel flexes and the dog notices. The top and frame are particleboard, so keep the water bowl off it and don't expect it to survive a chewer. Ten percent of Amazon ratings are one star.
Link to Feandrea coming soon
Furniture Style Dog Crate, 37 inch
Unipaws · $100–250
- Tray and a 2.4-inch cushion included, two doors, and four locks: one external, one magnet, two internal.
- Five sizes from 25 to 47 inches, and the brand will check sizing by email before you order.
- 72 percent five-star on Amazon across 900-plus ratings.
Known flaw
Unipaws never publishes the inside measurement. The "37 inch" is the outside, so size by the interior rule and assume you lose about 3 inches. It quotes the top's load rating as 150 lb on Amazon and 200 lb on its own site. The included cushion is the first thing a bored dog shreds, and the maker says it's for trained dogs only. Its old domain, unipaws.com, is dead; the store is unipawspro.com.
Link to Unipaws coming soon
Get the crate checklist
The spacing, latch and sizing checks that tell you whether a furniture crate still works as a crate. We'll also email you when something in this category actually passes, which isn't often.