Omlet Fido Studio Dog Crate

Omlet were kind enough to send me the Omlet Fido Studio Dog Crate to review.  I had seen this come up on my Facebook feed recently and thought how nice it looked and having a new puppy it is ideal.

Crate Training

First of all I will talk about crate training as I noticed on their post on Facebook there were a lot of negative comments on 'caging your dog.'  When I had my first rescue dog 17 years ago the rescue centre recommended using a crate for her and we said 'no we aren't putting her in a cage it's not right.'  After a few days we realised we needed a crate, she was found wandering the Welsh mountains and was wild, she was panicking when she was left alone in the utility at night and actually managed to chew a hole in a wall in her bid to escape.  The crate we realised was for her own safety and as it turned out her security.  She felt safe in there, felt comfortable and was a lot happier.  I always now crate train my puppies, you can't be with them all the time, you need to sleep, to go to the shops etc etc During those periods they are safer in a crate, especially when they are teething as they might chew something that could do them serious damage.   I also have a 3 year old daughter and if my pup could play with her all day she would but you can tell when she is getting overtired and needs to nap, again a crate is ideal for that.

Introducing a crate is pretty easy, it is just a matter of the dog realising it is a nice place to be.  So you ensure every time they are in there they are enjoying it.  I feed all of my puppies meals in the crate so she is associating it with something nice, then when I do leave her I leave her with something nice to chew like a stuffed kong.  This has always worked for my dogs and they end up taking themselves off into their crates to settle.  There are also crate games that you can play which makes the crate fun, click here to see some more information.

Fido Studio

Onto the Fido Studio, first of all here is the erection time lapse video.  It is pretty straight forward and you can manage it mostly on your own, the only tricky bit being when you put the top on the crate section as you do really need someone to hold it in place.

I had to go for the larger Fido Studio as Kite is just growing out of the smaller crate size, to be honest I probably could have done with something in the middle size wise but Omlet only currently offer the Fido Studio in 24" or 36".  However because it is big it also fits my welsh sheepdog cross collie dog who is a big lad.  

I love the wardrobe compartment, when you have all the extras you have stacks of storage which is great as I can tidy the toys into a basket now and have a proper home for the lead on the hook and a coat on the rail. 

When I looked at the crate before it arrived I didn't really think I would be that bothered about the wardrobe but now it is here I love it, I keep a pack of treats in there as well as the toys.  It means it's so easy just to get some treats out and do a bit of training, not spending half an hour hunting down some treats first.

The product is really good quality, not like your Ikea flat pack, it is really sturdy.  It looks stylish, it doesn't look like an ugly dog crate.  The wardrobe is a great feature for storage, there is also a tray in the bottom of the crate for any accidents.  However this doesn't slide out like it does in a normal stand alone dog crate, you do have to pull it out at an angle, so if there was an accident, it would drip off the tray onto the wooden base.  So I do feel that this could perhaps have been designed better.  The bed that you can buy with the crate is really luxurious and looks stylish in there too.  

The crate doesn't have to be set up as above either, you can have the door of the crate on the other side and you can also put the wardrobe on the other side too so it is quite versatile.  Having two doors is great too as you can leave them both open which helps if you have a dog that isn't used to a crate and you are training him/her to go in, you can just leave both doors open and the dog can make the decision to go and lie down.

Here is a short walkround video and this was also Kite's first time seeing the crate so I was rewarding her for going in:

Visit Omlet's website for more information, you can buy the crate and accesorise it however you want to.  I do love the Omlet products, they are so stylish and this is fantastic quality.

I have not been paid for this post, however I received the Fido Studio for free in order to review. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.