An Update and a Review of Gunner Kennels
One virus ends…
It’s been awhile since I’ve written and a lot has happened. At the end of my last post, just before my first art festival of the season, I’d shared that Japhy was not feeling well. I had planned to take him with me to Las Cruces for that first festival to get him used to traveling with me, and I’d even gotten a hotel room in order to do so (I usually just sleep in the car somewhere to keep expenses low), but he was still sick the day before I left, so I made the decision to leave him at home with a friend rather than put extra stress on him while he was sick. Before I left, I typed up a quick email to my contact at Austin Pets Alive!, told her his symptoms and asked if she thought it could be related to the distemper. His 30 days of no symptoms had just ended earlier this month, and I’d read stories of dogs relapsing when everyone thought they were cleared, so I was concerned. She responded right away and said she didn’t think it was related but to keep a close eye on him, and by the time I returned home from the festival, he was back at 100% Destroyer, so it seems fairly obvious that it was just a bug, or an upset tummy from something he’d eaten (he still eats everything he can get into his mouth). [I just want to interject here to say that I am immensely grateful to this woman, Jordana, from APA! who basically walked me through treating Japhy’s distemper from Day One to Day Thirty+. If anyone ever feels like donating $$ to a rescue but doesn’t know which one, I could recommend several, but this one (APA!) is definitely on the list now. So grateful. Also, The Haven, which donated $400 toward Mani’s vet bills last year and where I donate my time making portraits of adoptable pets. And Midlands Humane Society, where I adopted Japhy, which certainly forms the wonderful base of Japhy’s fan club.] So, I’m now feeling about 90% sure that this distemper ‘adventure’ has ended (just in time for the new and equally thrilling COVID-19 ‘adventure’).
Another virus begins…
News of COVID-19 was just starting to be taken seriously here in the states when I was at the Las Cruces arts festival. We received hand sanitizer in our artist welcome packets. The organizer announced over the loud speaker several times a day that ‘elbow bumps’ were encouraged over hand-shaking. And the following week, once back home in Lubbock, I began receiving notifications from other art festivals that were cancelling or postponing to a future unknown date because of the pandemic. Now, every single one of my spring art festivals has canceled or postponed, I can’t make studio portraits of people because of the social distancing regulations (and now a mandatory ‘Stay at Home’ order), and so things have become slightly more stressful than usual from a financial perspective. I’ve put my spring art festival inventory on Facebook, I’m taking custom orders for prints through my website as usual, and while shipping of prints is delayed, all of that is working out okay. I’m trying to focus on writing, which has always been a challenge while stressed but now seems to be one of the only real productive things I can do (thanks, Universe?), and of course Japhy and I have been spending as much time outside as possible. And while we haven’t left our neighborhood for awhile now, we did manage to get to our special ‘West Texas wild place’ two weeks ago, where we trained some more with the 20-foot lead, and I made some photos of Japhy at sunset. He POINTED for the first time, like a real honest-to-goodness point (minus the paw lift). And we got to practice “go to kennel” in the car with our before-the-world-started-ending splurge purchase: a Gunner Kennel. I had wanted to write a blog post that was solely dedicated to the Gunner Kennel, and my thoughts about how it is serving us, complete with some really cool sunset photos of Japhy in the kennel as we load up to leave some beautiful wild place. Alas, we are home bound thanks to the pandemic, and all I have are low-quality cell phone photos of Japhy and the kennel, so that will have to do for now. If you aren’t interested in the kennel review, feel free to stop reading here. But if you’re even just a little bit curious about it, and why I bought one, read on.
Why Gunner Kennels?
Sometime in 2018 as I was driving out near the edge of the caprock making photos at sunset, a doe ran out from the median and struck the driver’s side of my car. I was in the process of turning right from a county road onto a highway and wasn’t going very fast (35-45 mph), but I injured the doe and the impact crushed my front driver’s side fender. More terrifying to me, however, was that Mani had been thrown from the back seat to the front passenger side floorboard. She was not physically hurt, thankfully, and she immediately de-pretzeled herself and jumped right back into the back seat, but from that evening forward she was visibly nervous when riding in the car. I felt awful. I had been concerned about her riding unrestrained in the back seat for some time, but all of the cheap/affordable harness type restraints just seemed silly for a 60 pound dog, given that the last real car accident I was in completely severed the back seat from the car *and* broke my seat belt, sending my head directly into the windshield. It seemed to me that a crash tested kennel would be far more effective in preventing my dog from becoming a projectile or running from the scene, confused and afraid. That decision was solidified after I read a news article about a family whose vehicle flipped and whose two unrestrained dogs escaped, ran off and weren’t seen for days, and then one was hit by a car literally as it was running across the highway to be reunited with its owners (talk about heart wrenching). I researched crash tested kennels, watched a lot of videos, read several articles, and decided that the G1 Intermediate Gunner Kennel would be best, when I could afford it [see its crash test info here: https://gunner.com/pages/crash-tested; and as morbid as it may be, they have a very enlightening series of photos on that page that shows the kennel’s condition after documented vehicle accidents]. I wasn’t sure how Mani would adapt to it since she hadn’t been kenneled for so long in the house, and never in a vehicle, but I figured we would make it work. Then Mani became terminally ill. Then I got Japhy. Then after being paid for three months of photographing embroidery tools for a local museum, I finally could afford to purchase the kennel. As I am wont to do, I searched all of my ‘used’ resources before committing to buy new from the Gunner website and I could hardly believe it when I found the exact kennel I wanted (a G1 Intermediate in gray) on eBay for almost $200 less than a new one. I exchanged several messages with the seller and found out they were selling because their pup had just died and they weren’t planning to adopt another one: a sad story in itself. I ended up buying the kennel and was thrilled when it arrived in practically brand new condition. The setup I now have is a G1 Intermediate Kennel with chew guards over the windows, Performance Pad, and ratchet tie-down straps. The photo below shows it sitting in the back of my 2010 Subaru Forester, not yet fully installed (missing the tie-down straps), with Japhy inside.
Arrival and Assembly
Below are some images of the assembly of the kennel. Assembly is not at all difficult, but I learned one lesson the hard way: don’t tighten all of the bolts until the door is on. Once the door is attached, then tighten the bolts all the way around, otherwise the door won’t fit correctly. Also, if you buy the kennel new it allegedly comes with a hex key to tighten the cap screws in the door. Mine did not. I did a quick Google search for an owner’s manual and found this one, which states that you need a 3/16” hex key (and a 7/16” wrench for the hex bolts that connect the two halves). There’s also this YouTube video that could be helpful if needed.
The second image below shows Japhy sitting in just the bottom half to give an idea of size. As you can see, there’s not much ‘extra’ room inside the G1 Intermediate for a dog Japhy’s size (60 pounds, 30” long, 21” tall), and he may very well outgrow it once he’s fully grown. That said, and based on what Gunner claims, the tighter the fit (within reason), the safer the dog, as there will be less room for him to be tossed around inside the kennel during an accident. There will be a few extra stops to get out and stretch on our longer trips, but generally speaking, this isn’t an indoor kennel, so the smaller size isn’t an issue. It isn’t for sleeping overnight or spending hours in at a time. It serves a single purpose: to keep my dog alive and restrained should we have an unfortunate accident while traveling. I travel a lot, and almost always with a dog. I don’t see this changing anytime soon. This is a life-long investment in the safety of my dogs, present and future.
The third photo in the set below shows Japhy sitting in front of the kennel, not yet assembled but with top half sitting on bottom half.
Closer Look at the Kennel in the Car
The photos below are from the first time I put the kennel in my car, before connecting the tie-down straps. In my 2010 Subaru Forester, the back seat has to be laid flat in order for the G1 Intermediate Kennel to fit. The G1 Large Kennel would not fit at all (I believe the Large is pretty much intended for truck bed or maybe van use, but not sure; if Japhy outgrows the Intermediate, I will need a new vehicle, heh). In order to close the hatch without interference, the kennel has to be pushed far enough away from it that it just overlaps the hinge point of the back seat (you can see how much it overlaps in one of the photos farther down in the article). There is enough height plus a few inches to spare, even with the handles attached, but note that it does render your rear view mirror virtually useless. I tend to use my side mirrors more often anyway, so it’s not a huge deal. You could feasibly gain back partial use of the rear view mirror if you push the kennel to one side rather than center it. I centered mine because the widest part of the hatch opening is in the middle. That said, when I am loading up to go to an art festival, it will likely be moved to one side to allow room for wider objects to be loaded in the back.
Kennel Features
The Gunner Kennel features a double-wall rotomolded construction. According to the website, it can withstand 4,000+lbs of force (it apparently broke the vice machine during testing) and 640lbs dropped on it from about 8.5 feet. It has a reversible nylon door that is custom welded, powder coated and reinforced with an aluminum frame, a recessed floor so that water drains out through the drain hole in the back (at least when the kennel is sitting level), built-in tie-down pins, a paddle-latch door with key-in-the-hole lock, backup safety latches in the door, and water-repelling windows. The website also offers optional items such as the Performance Pad, Orthopedic Pad, a fan (which is on my wish list), chew guards, and a weather kit, among other things. Pricey, but... the fan, or some kind of similar alternative, is definitely worth considering.
First photo below: as I mentioned earlier, the kennel I bought from the eBay seller came with chew guards over the windows and door (metal grates). While Japhy does like to chew, I’m not sure these are necessary for him, and I may remove them at some point. Typically he only chews on things that he can actually grab and put in his mouth, so I doubt the windows/door of this kennel would create much temptation for him.
Second photo below: we also have the Performance Pad, which is more of a sports pad, waterproof and easily cleaned, likely for hunting dogs and such. It will work fine for us for now, but I can see getting a different pad eventually that’s a little more comfortable on the joints.
Third photo below: the kennel door has safety latches at the top and the bottom in addition to the paddle-latch and key lock. Even so, the door on this thing rattles like mad while driving. This is my only complaint, and it’s a small price to pay for safety, I think. By mile 50 or so, I’ve already tuned it out. Mostly. OK, not really.
In the last two photos you can see the ratchet tie-down straps and attachment points. In my 2010 Subaru Forester, there are tie-down points in the exact positions needed to secure the kennel in the back hatch area. It takes up nearly the entire back hatch area, and as previously mentioned I have to have my back seats down in order to have it there. I’ve had the back of my car in a number of configurations over the years, with a bed, drawers, and more, and none of them allowed for actual humans to ride in the back seat, so this is not a big deal for me.
Overall I’ve got no real complaints with this kennel other than the door rattle. The constant rattling might be too much for some people, and maybe there’s a way to lessen/eliminate it. I just haven’t looked at it closely enough. All said, I feel 100% more at ease driving any distance with my dog now than I did before I had this kennel, and especially when on the highway for 12-14 hours heading back to Missouri from West Texas, or 9 hours from Lubbock to Colorado for backpacking and driving all of those winding mountain roads. I’ve been lucky, but some day I might not be. And I want my dog to be as protected as possible.
That’s it for my full ‘review,’ I guess. Since we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I obviously haven’t done much real traveling with it yet, other than around town and one 2-hour round trip to our special wild place before the lockdown. But if you have any questions, please do drop a comment and I’ll answer. Thanks for reading this far, and stay tuned for a gallery of pretty sunset photos of Japhy in the next post. Stay well. Stay safe. Stay home.