In our household, we go by the rule that every dog has his or her own dog crate. Dog crates can be invaluable for many reasons:
Dogs are generally extremely reluctant to soil their own bed area. With regular opportunities to relieve themselves elsewhere (i.e. outdoors), crates can help greatly in encouraging puppies and dogs in training to 'go' indoors.
Dog crates can give individual dogs the extra space and security they may need when food is on offer. For a variety of reasons, some dogs may be better suited to being fed in a crate. As a dog owner, you may simply feel that feeding your dog in a crate offers a preferred solution, particularly if you own more than one dog.
A crate can provide an ideal solution for times when you need to leave your husky unattended. A properly 'crate-trained' husky should be quite content to spend a couple of hours (never more than 4) in a crate every now and then. In this case, crating your usky can keep them safe from hazards in the home, and your home safe from the hazards of your husky!
We find that small and medium crates fit well in the back of our car, and have also used crates as 'Dog Boxes' in various incarnations of our 'Dog Van'.
Specially made Dog Crates for Cars
Our huskies, particularly the older ones, soon come to see their crates as a sanctuary from the activity of the house. They all tend to sleep in their crates, which we fit with vetbeds and cover over with blankets.
One important point to stress is that if you have huskies or other agile dogs you must cover the top of their dog crates with hardboard or some other rigid material.
This is because huskies and sled dogs will often jump up on to the top of a crate.
Due to the "cage" type construction, their paws will fit through the spaces between the bars and they may injure their legs by getting them caught if the top of the crate.
This is particularly likely if you cover the dog's crate with a blanket, as to the dog the top of the crate will appear solid.
Dog crates are available from most pet suppliers.
In our experience, they are much cheaper to buy online than in most pet stores.
Powder-coated metal crates are preferrable to plastic coated ones. Huskies may gnaw at the bars of their crate on occasion. Plastic-coating may be chewed off and swallowed.
It is worth noting that you can sometimes find cheap second-hand crates in the classified ads, but do beware of hidden damage.
Clip on Dog Bowls
Cushion-style dog beds can make the crate nice and comfy, but huskies tend to see them as toys and quickly destroy them by pulling all the stuffing out.
We use Vetbed.
If there is one product we would highly recommend to new husky owners it is Vetbed
Vetbed comes in various colors and backed with either regular fabric or a kind of 'non-slip' rubber. We use rubber backed non-slip Vetbed
Vetbed is sold in various sizes, but it is usually worth buying a couple of meters at a time and cutting it to the sizes you require yourself.
Large Rolls of Vetbed
For more information, and instructions on how toy crate train your dog, try the book Crate Training 