New "Diggs" for your dog: Zel Crampton's dog crate revolution




How To Train Your Dog With Love And Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman, School For The Dogs show

Summary: <p>We use dog crates every day at School For The Dogs. They're an integral part of dog training: We recommend them to clients who are house training puppies, incorporate them into class exercises, and transport dogs in them. And yet, all of us who work at our training center agree: Crates... kind of suck! They're clunky and ugly! Noisy! Storing them is a pain, and when you have to open and then collapse them all day long (like we do), you're going to suffer pinched fingers. It has long seemed like a problem with no solution, but Zel Crampton might just be our white knight. Crampton is the founder of Diggs, a product development company whose flagship item, the Revol, is a crate that just might change everything... In this episode, he and Annie talk about the problem with crates, and the "revolution" that he foresees. </p> <p>Notes:  Find <a href="https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crate%20">the Revol at StoreForTheDogs</a> - Through 3/31/19, get $25 off your Revol crate purchase from StoreForTheDogs.com with code SFTD25 - 10 innovative crates - <a href="https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/nycdogs">Database of dogs licensed in NYC </a>(last updated in 2017) - The <a href="https://storeforthedogs.com/products/treat-train">Treat And Train</a></p> <p>In this episode, Annie spoke about how she wished there were a collar that could vibrate but not shock a dog; most vibrating collars are also shock collars. But after recording the episode, she was told about one! Witness the Dogwidgets "<a href="https://amzn.to/2GQ8N4R">No Shock E-Collar Pet Trainer</a>" <br> ---<br> Partial Transcript:<br> <br> Annie:<br> So I am here with Zel Crampton, founder of <a href="https://www.diggs.pet/">Diggs</a>.  Is that how you call the company or is it Diggs pet products?</p> <p>Zell:<br> Just Diggs.</p> <p>Annie:<br> And I wanted to talk to Zel today because he has a product that is innovative in a bunch of ways, which we will talk about, but I think interesting to me in part because it's really like the only innovative thing in the world and the world is crates. At School for the Dogs we have maybe a dozen crates. They're really important. We use them every day, all the time. And nobody likes them. I would say these crates have no fans, but they're clunky. They hurt your fingers when you have to close them and open them all the time, which we do everyday, all day. They're noisy, they fall over, they, they're ugly. But they're totally necessary. Like we couldn't live without them. And yet I don't think anybody who works at School for the Dogs would have any nice things to say about any of them. And what you're doing in the world of crates is, it gives me hope that  there is a future that could be better for this product. But I know Diggs has two products and why don't you tell us about those two products and then we can talk about how you got into this world.</p> <p>Zel:<br> Sure. So our flagship product is the Diggs Revol dog crate. As you just rightfully said, crates are ugly, hard to use, unsafe, noisy, hard to collapse, hard to transport. Frankly, they're an abysmal product, when you consider other consumer categories, like they just haven't been changed in 50 years. They're just the same old ugly wire thing that for some reason never got, never innovated.<br> <br> Annie:<br> Why?</p> <p>Zel:<br> I'll give you my opinion. I don't know for a fact, but I actually think that the history of the pet industry is really that, you know, pets used to be property, right? And they're legally speaking, they are still property, but people used to view the pets as their property, right? I'm a dog owner. Right.</p> <p>Annie:<br> Or a master? That's what my dad used to call himself, growing up. He was the art dog's master.<br> <br> Full Transcript available at <a href="https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-41-new-diggs-for-your-dog-zel-cramptons-dog-crate-revolution/">SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/</a></p>