On Sunday the 12th of this month, while working, I finished an arrest and went to my patrol vehicle to get Idol out for a while. He was in the car for about 1-2 hours before the last time I was with him in the car. I took him inside the station and threw a large Kong for him to run after on the slick floors. He ran after is as usual and gripped the Kong and spit it out. He shook his head weird and came back to me. I looked at the Kong and saw that there was blood on the Kong. I thought that he had just bit threw his lip b/c he had done that in the past. I pulled up his lip and saw that his top right K9 tooth was busted in 1/2. I went to the kennel in the car and looked at the door of the kennel and saw a piece of tooth on the floor of the car. I had to rush him to the University of Missouri Emergency Vet. Hospital where they had already had a dentist there. He had 2 hours of surgery and they were able to save 1/2 of the tooth with a vital pulpotomy. He is doing great. If anyone has the newer door on the kennels in their car get a piece of plexi glass over the door before you have to spend $566.80 out of your budget. Thought that you all should know.

We've been using American Aluminum for over 10 years without a problem.... please explain what happened.

On the newer style door there is small 1 1/2 inch squares. Every once in a while I would see Idol open his mouth and try and bite the door. He could only get one K9 tooth threw one of the squairs. I thought to myself last week that I should put some plexi over the holes. Well I got busy and forgot about it. Needless to say that there is plexi over the holes now. Idol is doing fine but he is only 17 months old and it really sucked that this happened. We live and learn!!!

Unfortunate finding for you...I've been there...tho not with the aluminum door.

My dog, at 2 years of age, split her bottom left canine. Didn't *exactly* know how, but highly suspected she had split it on a bone (?)

Being that she was only 2 years old, I opted for reconstruction of this canine. Don't remember the cost, however felt it was worth it. What I wanted to say, I remember the vet telling me that it was possible that she *may* get an infection, say 10 years down the road and we'd have to take another look at it. Apparently due to the damage and particularly with it being the canine.

Well, 10 years exactly, she was 12 years old, she developed an abcess deep in that gum line. We removed the canine at that point <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> and cleaned up the predicted infection and she lived another 2 years, died at 14 from renal failure.

Just thought I'd touch on that aspect of the canine thing.

I just got off the phone with American Alum. They are making me a solid kennel door and will have it shipped overnight. They were real cool about the whole thing. Still cost me $566 though.

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On the newer style door there is small 1 1/2 inch squares. Every once in a while I would see Idol open his mouth and try and bite the door. He could only get one K9 tooth threw one of the squairs. I thought to myself last week that I should put some plexi over the holes. Well I got busy and forgot about it. Needless to say that there is plexi over the holes now. Idol is doing fine but he is only 17 months old and it really sucked that this happened. We live and learn!!!

We still have the older style with the vertical “tubes” that make up the door and the upper divider portion. That was the main reason we went with AA… so that we didn’t have to worry about the dog chewing on some of the other manufacturer’s horizontal bars. I’m surprised they changed the design, the old one worked quite well.

Matt,
When I talked to them they said that they switched b/c the dogs were able to reach through and pull things into the kennel. I think that they should do a 1/2 solid 1/2 bars. I just hope no one else's dogs has this happen. It was a mess.

Too bad they dont give you an option to choose what type door you want. I have the newer AA and I am with Matt, I like the older bars. My boy is too big ot fit his feet through there, and I thought the bars let more air through, as well as less risk of what happened to Idol.