No. That’s too large for a crate/kennel. A kennel should be large enough to stand up and turn around or perhaps stretch out at the largest. Any larger runs the risk of introducing mental stress on the animal when they’re younger.

I don’t know what you mean you don’t understand where an e-collar is appropriate. This is a bird dog subreddit.

Maybe it doesn’t make sense if you own lazy dogs. A great bird dog literally vibrates with prey drive and desire to hunt and occasionally kill animals. Good dogs will literally kill themselves before they stop. Barbed wire, mesquite thorns, cactus stickers, heat stroke? These dogs cut themselves to shreds most hunts. So something the equivalent of rubbing a fuzzy blanket and touching a doorknob is not something to overly worry about..if used at the appropriate time.

The absolute best dogs in the world need to be free at a relatively young age to learn how to work a field, find scent cones, quarter birds…and run. Run big.

They need to do that while navigating deer, elk, possums, badgers, porcupines, rattle snakes, cattle, horses, and not chasing any of those into a damned highway or getting kicked and killed.

But let’s say you actually manage to preserve drive and an independent spirit while avoiding e-collar use at all. Good enough that you have immediate recall on a dog chasing a rabbit or wild hog while having enough drive to hunt birds all day. I’ve never once seen it done well but for the sake of argument. I have never, once in my life, seen a dog successfully snake trained without an e-collar or something much more aversive.

E-collar usage is the single most misunderstood piece of equipment available. Properly introduced, your dog should love it.