Soundproofing a crate is of immense importance if your dog exhibits behavior of fear or anxiety to loud noises. Even seen it crouching in a corner and weeping during a thunderstorm or fireworks? Well, just like there are astraphobic humans, there are astraphobic dogs. The unfortunate thing for them is that they cannot speak the human language and tell you, “Mom, I’m scared.” It is up to you to observe and be a responsible dog owner.
There are mainly 3 ways to soundproof your dog, namely using a dog crate cover, wrapping your dog crate with an acoustic panel, or using a moving blanket. Each of the 3 ways present a trade off between cash, effort and effectiveness.
Crate Cover
The easiest option is to get your dog a crate cover. With the correct material, you will be able to offer your dog a quiet and comfortable environment for a good night’s sleep. If your dog is a light sleeper, this will fit you and your dog’s needs perfectly.
There are 3 things to watch out for when getting a crate cover.
Opacity
You definitely want to ensure your dog crate cover blocks out enough light for your dogs to feel tranquility in its crate. A bright environment is not conducive for sleep, especially for these alert creatures. Although there are peculiar dogs who are afraid of the dark, in general, a dark environment is highly favored by dog to have a good sleep.
Therefore, you should ensure the pet crate cover is too opaque that allows the sun rays to filter through and disturb your dog’s fiesta.
Porosity
On the other hand, having a thick layer of fabric as a dog crate cover will definitely block out much of, if not all, the sunlight, it will cause the dog crate to feel stuffy and suffocate your dog. Without a breathable material, the dog crate cover will not allow air to flow through itself and ventilate the interior of the dog crate. This will create an extremely stale environment and cause immense discomfort your dog.
Often, it is a matter of finding a balance between porous material and an opaque one for the case for a dog crate cover.
Durability
An extra factor that should not be overlooked is the durability of the dog crate cover. The material should not be compromised on its sturdiness because don’t forget we are dealing with playful furballs here. They like to fidget and chew at things that pique even the slightest of their curiosity. If you got a bad material, it will be damaged soon regardless of how perfectly porous and opaque it is.
The Petsfit Durable Dog Crate CoverPetsfit Durable Dog Crate Cover is the best soundproof dog crate cover you can find in the market. It is made of a dark colored material that thickly padded to effectively shut out sunlight. At the same time, it is also soft to the touch for the comfort of your dogs. Apart from the front flap covering the entrance of the dog crate, this crate cover also has a top opening and 2 meshed openings on the sides for better ventilation. The meshed openings do a good job to promote airflow but not allow too much sunlight to enter the crate, making it a very thoughtfully designed product that places the dog’s comfort in top priority.
Acoustic Panels
Getting a dog crate cover, while easy, fast and convenient to setup, it is not the most effective to totally soundproof your dog’s crate. It does the job only to a certain extent. For the ultimate solution, add on some acoustic panels to hear the difference.
The Science Behind Sound Absorption
Sound is the transfer of energy through a medium. Sound energy exist in the form of kinetic energy realized as vibrations of the particles that make up the medium that it is traveling through. The medium can be in water or air, and the vibration of the water molecules or air particles transfer the sound energy as the sound wave propagates.
As the particles vibrate, over time and distance, they lose energy, resulting in a softening volume and eventually silence. To reduce undesirable noise, while we cannot do anything about the time and distance required, we can do something with the medium it is traveling it to speed up this attenuation process. Multiple experiments and researches and showed us that the answer to noise reduction is material science.
Glass wool or foam and spongy material are made of very fine minute fibers that are extremely effective in exhausting vibration energy in waves. Hence, sound wave that passes through them will suffer a great loss in energy and thus loudness upon propagating through or reflection. This phenomenon is more significant when the frequencies are higher.
Best Acoustic Panels
[Acoustic panels, like those from Siless as shown](https://amzn.to/2piF79M), is made of studio grade acoustic foam which is incredibly effective in absorbing sound by reducing its strength as it propagates through itself. These panels also has a non flat surface which prevents soundwaves from simply reflecting off its surface plainly. Armed with a jagged surface, these acoustic panels increase the surface area to catch reflected soundwaves. Combined with a sound absorbent material, it makes the perfect killing machine – for sound.
How To Install Acoustic Panels On a Dog Crate
While getting a dog crate cover incurs some financial burden, acoustic panels require some DIY. Currently, there is not one dog crate cover in the market that is made of acoustic foams, so this has to be added on to the dog crate cover.
You can use cable ties to tie the acoustic panels to the dog crate on all sides. For the side of the entrance to the dog crate, you may tie only the top part so that the panel can act as a gate that can be lifted easily when the dog enters or exit. Of course, you can cut the acoustic panels to reveal only the door since the foam is soft and can be easily trimmed.
It will be better to combine it with dog crate cover, so that there is at least a final layer before the sound waves exit and reach the interior of the dog crate. You can attach the acoustic panels to the dog crate cover by sewing on either side of the velcro on the dog crate cover and the acoustic panels. It is quite a bit of work but will definitely worth the effort to see your dog sleep peacefully.
Moving Blanket
If that sounds like too much work for you and you would prefer to save some money, you can give moving blanket some consideration. Official moving blankets that are made professionally are different from your average blankets that you would associate with your bed. They are are thickly padded with a mixture of polyester mesh and cotton fabrics, highly durable and resistant to pull and scratching damage.
These blankets are made so because they are used to keep cargo from damages and in the household, they are used to ease moving heavy furniture around the house without causing any scratching on the floor. They need to be thick in order to be fit for such heavy duty chores, but at the same time, they are easily washable and can be folded easily for convenient storage.
Get the Sure-Max 12 Moving & Packing Blankets from AmazonSure-Max 12 Moving & Packing Blankets from Amazon. These blankets are pretty large and can any small or medium size dog crates without any problems. It is inexpensive and you can always buy another for if you have a bigger dog crate. They are highly durable and effective as verified by their previous customers on Amazon When it gets dirty, you can also easily switch the blankets and send the dirty ones for laundry.
If this is too many blankets for you, you can get only a single piece here, although it is more expensive without the bulk purchase.
On top of that, you can use the blanket for what it is meant to be used for – moving furniture – when you are attempting to give your house a new look. That gives the moving blankets multiple use cases and a handy utility household item.
Final Thoughts
These are the 3 ways that I find effective in soundproofing my dog crates. They are extremely effective to seal out all the noise in the surrounding to ensure your dog can the as much tranquility as possible during its sleep.
Did these methods work for you? Do you have any alternative and effective methods of soundproofing your dog crates? Let me know in the comments below!