Gunner Kennel Alternatives

What a Gunner actually is, from the certification list

The G1’s reputation rests on one verifiable fact and several good ones. The verifiable fact is that it holds 5-star CPS certification — in Small, tested with a 30 lb dog; Medium, 45 lb; and Intermediate, 75 lb— under protocol CPS-002-016.01, and the certification covers the kennel with its strength-rated anchor straps, which is how it has to be installed to mean anything. The good ones: a double-walled rotomolded shell on a welded aluminum frame, a paddle latch with a key lock, and backup safety latches top and bottom.

Two facts about the original matter before you shop for a substitute, and both come from Gunner’s own documents. First, there is no CPS-certified G1 Large or XL — CPS has not certified them at any weight. If you have a 110 lb dog, a G1 Large is an uncertified crate, and this is the most misunderstood fact in the whole category; we go through it on the G1 review. Second, Gunner’s lifetime warranty against defects explicitly does not cover destruction done to the product by the pet, and Gunner sells a separate steel Chew Kit for high-drive dogs — which is a fair admission that the base shell is chewable.

None of that is a criticism. It is simply the specification, and it is what an alternative has to be measured against rather than measured against the brand’s reputation.

If you want the certification: there is one answer

Independent crash certification in this category is issued per product and per dog weight, and the certified list is short. Across every crate in our registry, exactly one other product holds current CPS certification: the Lucky Duck Lucky Kennel, 5-star at Medium (50 lb), Intermediate (75 lb) and Large (110 lb).

For most dogs, that makes it a straight comparison and the Gunner is usually the cheaper of the two. For a big dog it is not a comparison at all — above 75 lb the Gunner has no certified size, and the Lucky Duck Large is currently the only CPS-certified crate anywhere tested with a 110 lb dog. If your dog is over about 90 lb and you want certification, this is not the better option; it is the only option.

Read two things in its warranty first, because they are unusual. It is lifetime against manufacturing defects for the original purchaser only, it excludes pet-related chewing and scratching like almost every crate here, and it excludes “Dropping or impact damage”— so the kennel is certified for a crash and not covered after one. Also note the certified configuration includes Lucky Duck’s own ratchet straps, which are sold direct. The whole certified field is on the crash-tested crate roundup, and what the certification does and does not cover is on CPS crash testing explained.

If you want the box, not the certificate

Plenty of people buy a Gunner for a truck bed, a dog trailer, a hunting rig or a kennel run, where a crash rating is not the point and what matters is a shell that survives being thrown around. That is a much cheaper problem.

The Dakota 283 G3 Framedis the closest object: a single-piece rotomolded polyethylene shell with no bolt-together seam around the middle to split, molded and assembled in the USA, a keyed paddle latch on the model Dakota sells as its high-security kennel, and 40 vent holes plus a drain hole on the Large — which is what a shell in an open bed actually needs. It is cheaper than a Lucky Duck and it is not crash certified; Dakota publishes no crash test of any kind.

Its real weakness is the strapping. Dakota specifies no dedicated anchor points— its Amazon listing says the built-in handle “doubles as a convenient tie-down point”, which makes the carry handle the connection, and nobody has tested it as one. Dakota’s own warranty then excludes damage from falls due to lack of tie-downs. Strap it down properly through the frame, not just the handle. We work through the truck-bed case specifically on the truck-bed crate roundup.

If you want aluminum, and the warranty sentence to read first

The Impact Collapsible is the aluminum alternative, and it genuinely collapses, which no rotomolded crate does. It is the same material and build as the crate that carries Impact’s strongest warranty.

But read one sentence on Impact’s own guarantee page before you spend Gunner money on it: the Dog Damage Guarantee “only applies to our High Anxiety crates and does not apply to our Collapsible or Stationary crates.”A lot of buyers assume the reputation travels across the range; it does not. Dog damage, paint issues and normal wear such as scratches are all excluded on this model, and it is not CPS certified despite being marketed for travel. That is the comparison in full, and we set out the brand’s whole warranty picture on whether Impact crates are crash tested.

If the crate never leaves the house

Then you are not shopping for a Gunner at all, and you should stop paying for one. Two crates do this far better per dollar.

The Diggs Evolv has the best latch engineering in our registry: a dual latching system Diggs states cannot be opened from inside the crate, which defeats the paw-and-nose escapes that beat a single slide bolt. It publishes five size bands by dog height andweight, which almost nobody does, and it comes apart into panels for storage. Two caveats: Diggs is often remembered as a certified brand, and it is not — its only CPS certificate was on the Passenger Carrier at 18 lb and it has been delisted — and its warranty excludes damage caused by dogs that chew the product.

The MidWest Ultima Prois the budget pick, at roughly a quarter of a Gunner. It is heavier wire than a standard folding crate with genuinely useful double doors, it folds flat, and it is cheap. It is also the clearest example of marketing standing in for a spec: MidWest calls it “professional-gauge” and then will not publish the wire gauge. Its slide-bolt latches are the easiest type for a determined dog to defeat, and the hard limit is the car: in the Center for Pet Safety’s crate study, MidWest wire crates failed, and CPS’s own conclusion is that wire crates should be treated as distraction prevention rather than protection. For escape artists specifically, read the escape-proof crate roundup.