Hi everyone, Jack is now 14 weeks old and so far he has been in a crate attached to a puppy pen while we are at work and this is working well. My worries are that he is a big boy and I wanted to know how where you all leave your pups once they out grow the pen. I have not closed him in the crate it is merely his bed and at times I work 4 hrs and someone visits him. He is full of beans and I don'w ant to crate him for so long. So what do you all do? Thanks Elaine
My girl was always fine in her (largish) crate in the kitchen. Not a chewer though, and quickly graduated outwards to more rooms. She was a right crate-lover though, which I think started as we made it her cozy cave, and was a place she always got her kongs when we went off to work. They are all different though.
We ditched our crate quite early and let him have the run of the downstairs. Might sound crazy to some (we thought we were a bit crazy) but all he wants to do is sleep on the sofa so he was much more settled when he could do this instead of being stuck in a crate and he has never been destructive! I don't think it would work for all but giving our puppy more room definitely made him more settled when being left alone. Just make sure he has plenty of his own toys to occupy him so he doesn't go for your furniture!
We give Nibbler the run of the hall kitchen and living room - bedrooms are locked - he just goes from one sleeping place to another - usually curled up on sofa - has chewed a wee bit of skirting board but would have been worse if more confined.
How big is your pen? Mine stayed in hers until about 6/7 months if I ever had to go out. She's not a destructive pup and I never had any issues with her chewing furniture etc. It was more because my other two disliked her intensely as a young puppy and, even though they had got over it by about 5 months, I didn't entirely trust them enough with her until they had time to cement their relationship.
