Work out your dog’s crate size from two measurements

How to measure your dog for a crate

Stand the dog up first. The height measurement is taken with the dog standing, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, and the length measurement is taken the same way, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. A sitting or curled dog measures shorter than the crate actually has to hold.

1. Height. With the dog standing, measure from the top of its head straight down to the bottom of its feet. Not from the shoulder: the head is the part that has to clear the roof of the crate, and on a standing dog it sits above the shoulders.
2. Length. Measure the dog from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. To the tip of the tail, not to the base of it — that is what this particular rule specifies, and it produces a longer crate than the base-of-tail convention some sizing guides use.
3. Add the allowance. Add 3 to 4 inches to each of the two figures. That gives the minimum interior height and the minimum interior length.

Two honest notes on that. The source states the standing position for the height measurement, and we take the length the same way because a curled dog measures shorter. And crate makers publish interior and exterior dimensions separately: it is the interior figure your two numbers have to clear, which is the difference between a crate that fits and a crate whose box says it should.

Crate height by breed, from published adult height

A breed table can only give you a floor, and this one does. It applies the 3-to-4-inch rule to each breed’s published adult height at the shoulder, which is not the measurement the rule asks for: the rule measures to the top of the head, and a standing dog carries its head above its shoulders.

So read the right-hand column as “no crate shorter than this can work for this breed” rather than as a crate size. Its low end is the shortest published adult plus 3 inches; its high end is the tallest published adult plus 4 inches. These are not crate sizes the AKC or any breed club published — they are our arithmetic on two figures that come from different places, shown because a floor is still useful when you are shopping before the dog arrives.

There is no length column, and there is a reason for that. No nose-to-tail length is published per breed anywhere in our data, and manufacturing one from weight or from height would put an invented number in a table next to a sourced one, where nobody could tell them apart. Length has to come from the dog in front of you, which is what the rule asks for anyway.

A few rows are not one breed at one size — the all-sizes Poodle record covers toy through standard, so its range is the spread of the type rather than a single dog. Use the specific size variant where one is listed, and see the weight and height chart by breed for where these published ranges come from, or put two or three breeds side by side if you are still choosing.

Sizing a crate for a puppy

Buy once, at the adult size, and use the divider. For puppies the source points to an expandable crate as large as the typical adult size of the dog’s breed, containing a divider panel you adjust to expand the space inside as the puppy grows. Measuring the puppy you have today buys a crate that fits for a season.

That turns the puppy question into an adult-size question, which is the one thing on this page you cannot measure yet. The puppy weight calculator estimates where a growing puppy will finish, and the breed table above gives the height floor for the breed it will finish as. Between them you get a crate to shop against instead of a guess, and the divider absorbs the difference while the puppy catches up.

Re-measure once the dog has stopped growing rather than trusting the estimate for the whole of the crate’s life. The two measurements take a minute, and they are the only figures the rule actually wants.

What this rule does not tell you

Four things, and the honest answer to each is that the source is silent. It gives no crate width, no weight-to-size chart, no brand or model size, and no figure for how long a dog may be left in a crate. Where it says nothing, this page says nothing.

• Any crate width. The allowance is given for height and for length, and nothing was published for the third dimension.
• Any mapping from a dog's weight to a crate size. Weight is not one of the two measurements the rule uses.
• Any retailer model, brand size number, sold-in size or price.
• Any figure for how many hours a dog may be left in a crate.

The weight route is the one most readers arrive expecting, because it is how crates are sold. That chart exists and it is sourced — it is on our crate, collar and harness size charts, where the retailer sizing guide behind it is named. It is a different convention from this one and will give a different number; treat the measured figures here as the check on it rather than as a competitor to it.

Nothing here speaks to whether crating suits your dog, how long is too long, or what to do about distress in the crate. Those are behaviour and welfare questions rather than sizing questions. Our guide to anxiety in the crate covers the training side, and a dog that panics, injures itself or cannot settle needs your veterinarian rather than a bigger box.

Method and sources

Dataset version 2026.09. There is one sourced number on this page — the allowance of 3 to 4 inches added to each measurement — and everything else is arithmetic: an addition, and a conversion at 2.54 cm to the inch. Results are rounded up rather than to the nearest, because every figure the calculator produces is a minimum and a floor rounded down is no longer a floor.

• American Kennel Club, Crates for Dogs: How to Choose the Best Dog Crate — the two measurements, the 3-to-4-inch allowance, the standard that the crate must let the dog “sit, stand, and lie down comfortably”, and the expandable-crate-with-divider guidance for puppies. Retrieved 2026-09-07. Confidence: high. No publication date is recorded because none was verified on the page.

Breed height ranges in the table come from our own breed records, the same ones behind the breed profiles, and the crate-height column is our arithmetic on them rather than a published crate size. The wording of the rule on this page is ours; the article is the source and is linked rather than reproduced. Where the rest of our data comes from and how we write and correct these pages.

Common questions

What size crate does my dog need?

One that clears your dog's own measurements by 3 to 4 inches in each direction. Measure the height with the dog standing, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, and the length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, then add 3 to 4 inches to each figure. Those two numbers are the minimum interior height and interior length of the crate. The test they exist to satisfy is simple: your dog has to be able to sit, stand and lie down comfortably inside it.

How do I measure my dog for a crate?

Two measurements, both with the dog standing. Height is taken from the top of the head straight down to the bottom of the feet, not from the shoulder, because the head is what has to clear the roof. Length is taken from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. A dog that sits or curls up while you measure gives you a smaller number than the crate has to hold, which is the most common way this goes wrong.

Is there a dog crate size chart by breed?

Only a partial one, and it is worth knowing why. A breed's published adult height gives a minimum crate height for that breed once the 3-to-4-inch allowance is added, and the table on this page does exactly that for every breed we cover. Crate length cannot be done the same way, because no nose-to-tail length is published per breed, so the length half of the answer has to come from the dog in front of you.

Can I choose a crate size from my dog's weight instead?

The rule on this page does not use weight at all - it uses two measurements of the dog, and nothing else. Crate retailers do publish weight bands, which is how a dog becomes a 30-inch or a 36-inch crate on a product page, and we keep that chart on our crate, collar and harness size page with the retailer source named. Weight is the faster route; measuring is the one that stops a return.

What size crate does a puppy need?

The adult size, with a divider. For puppies the AKC points to an expandable crate as large as the typical adult size of the dog's breed, containing a divider panel you adjust to expand the space inside as the puppy grows. Sizing a crate to the puppy you have this month means buying a second crate later, so estimate the adult size first and buy once against that.

Can a dog crate be too big?

The rule sets a floor and publishes no ceiling, so on this source the honest answer is that it does not say. The only place extra space is addressed at all is the puppy divider, which exists to be moved outward as the puppy grows rather than to be removed on day one. If your dog is unsettled or distressed in the crate, that is a question for your veterinarian rather than a sizing question.