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Inside Setup
A puppy playpen setup is great if you have an open planned type of home or large open spaces. It should have a snuggly bed that your pup can snuggle into. I like a bed with sides so if there are any drafts, the pup is able to get away from this. There should also be a portable toilet of some description. I like to use a couple of puppy pads with a grass mat on top of them. Your pup has been toilet trained to the grass mat and knows exactly what to do. Now the idea is not to rely on the puppy toilet but to have it as a backup tool for when you miss the cues your puppy will show you when they need to go to the bathroom. There should be a non spill bowl with water and then a couple of toys. Not to many as this may over stimulate your pup. The playpen should be setup in the area where you mainly hang out as a family. The idea is for the pup to be still part of the family but also have an area where they are safe and cannot get into trouble. If your area is smaller and has door ways, then you could use baby gates and confine your pup to one area only. Please do not let them have free roam of the house at this stage. Once your puppy is toilet trained completely, then you can offer more freedom.
A safe place to keep your puppy is in a playpen setup. So why would you want to do this. Well there are a couple of very good reasons.
- This is a safe area where you can keep your puppy when you are unable to monitor him or her for a period of time. This could be when you are preparing dinner, or helping one of the kids out with their homework or when you need to get some work yourself done. When the puppy is in this safe area, they still feel like part of the family but they are not able to sneak off and get into some mischief.
- This is a must to help you continue the toilet training. If you allow your puppy to have free roam of the house you will totally set back the toilet training. They will sneak off and do a pee or poop somewhere and it could be sometime before you even notice. Then this will become the norm and you will have to untrain this new habit.
- Your puppy does not need to be in the playpen all the time. This is to be used as a tool to help you settle your pup into a routine. Good times to use the playpen are when you are sitting down for dinner. When the pup needs some sleeptime. When you need to leave the room to tend to other things. When you have visitors over and the quests become too much for the pup or the pup becomes too much for the quests. I think this gives you an idea, so common sense should prevail here.
- Please feel free to have your puppy out and about when you can monitor him/her. Once you have had a big play and one on one time with your pup, take them outside for a toilet stop and then bring your pup back in and let them have some sleep time inside the playpen. Pups need to sleep a lot. Then once your puppy wakes up, you can pick them up and take them straight outside for another potty break. If you miss the wakeup stage, then your back up toilet will do its job and you will not experience a mistake in the house.