Antonio Ballatore of Animal Cribs talks design life and rescue dogs

Dog O’Day – Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on on the show?

Antonio Ballatore – “You know, it changes week to week. I like to watch it as they come out, I like to be surprised along with everybody else. The goat episode was probably the funniest, because I kind of went back to my Italian roots and put on my tracksuit and did some goat yoga, that was a fun one. Cause I grew up with goats, too, and I used to have to clean the goat house, which is traumatizing as a kid, but now I finally get the build the ultimate goat house that’s easy to clean. That was a fun one. They’re all cool, man, at the end of every build I’m like, ‘This is my favorite one so far!’ and then next week, ‘Oh, no, THIS is my favorite one!’ So it’s kind of like that, it’s hard to target it.”

It seems like a great group of people to work with.

“Yeah, the crew’s pretty tight. We did our first season in Seattle, the second one in LA, and in LA we were able to bring in some of my friends from other jobs, artists and resources. It’s definitely a cool crew and specialty guys, specialty artists, that’s part of what makes it fun, too, to get to showcase their skills, too.”

What are you hoping the audience takes away from the show?

“I think it’s important for people to realize, well, I think people know already, that these pets are our family, and it’s just like if you’re going to make a baby nursery for your baby. Make something cool for the animals! They have this unconditional love, and I feel like our pets deserve the best. Don’t be afraid or intimidated to make something cool for your cats, your dogs, your lizards, whatever it is, and bring them that enrichment to make them happy, too. Bring everybody together, make sure they’re safe and happy, try to give them a cool setup. If people get that from it, I think we’ve done our job.”

What would be your dream project to work on?

“As to which animal? I’d love to get bigger, do something crazy… [thinks a moment] I mean, it’s open to anything, really, I’m open to anything from alligators to lions to whatever. I’ll try everything. I’d go anywhere, I’d do anything, I’ll build anything. I love the challenge – each season, each episode we get bigger and better, so…who knows where we can go with it?”

New episodes of Animal Cribs air on Friday nights at 9 p.m. ET.