Dog Crate Negotiations
We got Christy a nylon fabric dog crate for Christmas. She found it in Tuesday Morning when we were doing some Christmas shopping . It seemed like a perfect solution for traveling. It is lightweight but strong and sturdy. It folds up like those camping chairs and fits into a carry case that you can sling on your back.
We used it for the first time when Christy visited at Christmas time. To our dismay when we got home her dog Finn had gotten out of the crate and into our bread supply. We found that Finn had scratched the heavy-duty plastic mesh material until it split and then squeezed out the slit.
I didn’t think this was right. The crate should have been designed to handle some scratching. I e-mailed the manufacturer and explained our disappointment with their product. Here is my e-mail:
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I’m writing because your dog crate failed the first time we used it and I would like to know what recourse we have.
We purchased your portable pet crate as a Christmas gift for our daughter. It seemed like the perfect solution for her to travel with her dog, a medium sized Lab mix (about 55lbs). The dog is an adult and is crate trained.
When we got home after putting the dog in the crate for the first time we found the dog loose in the house. The crate had a 16-inch vertical slit in the screen apparently caused by the dog’s nails. The dog slipped through the slit. Here are some pictures.
My daughter worked in a veterinary clinic and takes excellent care of her dog – including proper trimming of the dog’s nails. On your web site you say “We take pride in our selection and we rigorously field test each product to provide durable, functional and fun gear for yourself and your pets.” I am an engineer and I was very impressed by the design of the crate. It is light but strong and sturdy. I know that if I designed this product I would want to know how well it performed in the field.
Fortunately the dog only did minor mischief when it was loose. It got into the trash and also tried to eat a couple of loaves of bread. But we are very disappointed in the performance of the product. I’m sure we did not misuse the crate and I’m also sure that the dog’s nails are not too long or sharp. They are trimmed and filed properly.
Have you had this problem with other customers? Has the door been redesigned? What should we do to make our crate usable again? Do you back your product with a warranty?
I really like the design of this crate but I’d like to be able to use it more than one time.
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To my surprise I got a response the next day:
Paul:
Sorry to hear about the tear in the dog crate. We are obviously concerned your dog got out to mischief.
Where did you buy the crate? We have had very few problems with this product. Of course, we cannot control dogs that chew or scratch.
Has your dog used other soft crates? Call me if you have a few minutes. Xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Cheers,
Julian
---------------------------------
After reading about not controlling dogs that chew and scratch I figured they were not going to back their product.
I talked with Julian later that day and the conversation was actually enjoyable. Julian has a British accent and seemed genuinely concerned. I reiterated what I said in my letter emphasizing that I didn’t consider a scratching dog outside the normal expectations. I went on to discuss a design fix that I thought would handle scratching. At this point he showed interest in the fix.
He offered me a $50 certificate that could be used to purchase anything on their site. (The crate cost more than that) He said he could send us a new one but we would still have the same problem. I told him if we got another we would reinforce it before we used it. I told him that since he was interested in my fix for the problem that we could trade my design fix for a new crate. He liked the idea. He said he would mail us a new crate and asked me to provide a drawing or picture of my fix.
So using Penny’s sewing skills and putting all our heads together we picked a material to fix the crate and used it to reinforce the torn cage. Penny also sewed up the slit that Finn had made.
I sent the following e-mail to Julian:
--------------------------------------
Julian,
Happy New Year!
I promised to send you my “fix” for the problem we had with our Dog Digs. My wife and I have actually made the modification but it hasn’t been “field tested” yet. We should know by the end of the week if it works or if there are other problems we didn’t anticipate that the fix might cause.
The dog got out of the crate by tearing the webbing. The tear he made ran almost the full width of the webbing and therefore was big enough for him to squeeze through. Given that this dog could easily tear the webbing, some means to limit the size of any tear was needed. I thought the simplest way to do this was to put horizontal strips of material spaced such that any tear would be limited to a size too small for a dog to fit through. A dog will naturally scratch in the vertical direction so horizontal strips make sense. Another concern is that a dog may get stuck in the webbing trying to squeeze out if the spacing were too narrow. Some trial and error or better yet some sort of testing would be called for to optimize the spacing. Here is a picture of our modification:
I am anxious to see if this works or if the dog can still get out. I will let you know how successful we were.
I enjoyed our conversation on the phone. I will update you on the effectiveness of the fix when I get more information.
-----------------------------
So now I wait and see if a new crate really comes and to see if Finn defeats the new design..
We got Christy a nylon fabric dog crate for Christmas. She found it in Tuesday Morning when we were doing some Christmas shopping . It seemed like a perfect solution for traveling. It is lightweight but strong and sturdy. It folds up like those camping chairs and fits into a carry case that you can sling on your back.
We used it for the first time when Christy visited at Christmas time. To our dismay when we got home her dog Finn had gotten out of the crate and into our bread supply. We found that Finn had scratched the heavy-duty plastic mesh material until it split and then squeezed out the slit.
I didn’t think this was right. The crate should have been designed to handle some scratching. I e-mailed the manufacturer and explained our disappointment with their product. Here is my e-mail:
----------------------------------
I’m writing because your dog crate failed the first time we used it and I would like to know what recourse we have.
We purchased your portable pet crate as a Christmas gift for our daughter. It seemed like the perfect solution for her to travel with her dog, a medium sized Lab mix (about 55lbs). The dog is an adult and is crate trained.
When we got home after putting the dog in the crate for the first time we found the dog loose in the house. The crate had a 16-inch vertical slit in the screen apparently caused by the dog’s nails. The dog slipped through the slit. Here are some pictures.
My daughter worked in a veterinary clinic and takes excellent care of her dog – including proper trimming of the dog’s nails. On your web site you say “We take pride in our selection and we rigorously field test each product to provide durable, functional and fun gear for yourself and your pets.” I am an engineer and I was very impressed by the design of the crate. It is light but strong and sturdy. I know that if I designed this product I would want to know how well it performed in the field.
Fortunately the dog only did minor mischief when it was loose. It got into the trash and also tried to eat a couple of loaves of bread. But we are very disappointed in the performance of the product. I’m sure we did not misuse the crate and I’m also sure that the dog’s nails are not too long or sharp. They are trimmed and filed properly.
Have you had this problem with other customers? Has the door been redesigned? What should we do to make our crate usable again? Do you back your product with a warranty?
I really like the design of this crate but I’d like to be able to use it more than one time.
---------------------------------------------------------
To my surprise I got a response the next day:
Paul:
Sorry to hear about the tear in the dog crate. We are obviously concerned your dog got out to mischief.
Where did you buy the crate? We have had very few problems with this product. Of course, we cannot control dogs that chew or scratch.
Has your dog used other soft crates? Call me if you have a few minutes. Xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Cheers,
Julian
---------------------------------
After reading about not controlling dogs that chew and scratch I figured they were not going to back their product.
I talked with Julian later that day and the conversation was actually enjoyable. Julian has a British accent and seemed genuinely concerned. I reiterated what I said in my letter emphasizing that I didn’t consider a scratching dog outside the normal expectations. I went on to discuss a design fix that I thought would handle scratching. At this point he showed interest in the fix.
He offered me a $50 certificate that could be used to purchase anything on their site. (The crate cost more than that) He said he could send us a new one but we would still have the same problem. I told him if we got another we would reinforce it before we used it. I told him that since he was interested in my fix for the problem that we could trade my design fix for a new crate. He liked the idea. He said he would mail us a new crate and asked me to provide a drawing or picture of my fix.
So using Penny’s sewing skills and putting all our heads together we picked a material to fix the crate and used it to reinforce the torn cage. Penny also sewed up the slit that Finn had made.
I sent the following e-mail to Julian:
--------------------------------------
Julian,
Happy New Year!
I promised to send you my “fix” for the problem we had with our Dog Digs. My wife and I have actually made the modification but it hasn’t been “field tested” yet. We should know by the end of the week if it works or if there are other problems we didn’t anticipate that the fix might cause.
The dog got out of the crate by tearing the webbing. The tear he made ran almost the full width of the webbing and therefore was big enough for him to squeeze through. Given that this dog could easily tear the webbing, some means to limit the size of any tear was needed. I thought the simplest way to do this was to put horizontal strips of material spaced such that any tear would be limited to a size too small for a dog to fit through. A dog will naturally scratch in the vertical direction so horizontal strips make sense. Another concern is that a dog may get stuck in the webbing trying to squeeze out if the spacing were too narrow. Some trial and error or better yet some sort of testing would be called for to optimize the spacing. Here is a picture of our modification:
I am anxious to see if this works or if the dog can still get out. I will let you know how successful we were.
I enjoyed our conversation on the phone. I will update you on the effectiveness of the fix when I get more information.
-----------------------------
So now I wait and see if a new crate really comes and to see if Finn defeats the new design..
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