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Advice needed for pups playpen area!!


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Hi everyone! I've been lurking the last few weeks as we've been preparing to bring our little BC home, and given that I always see great advice on here, I thought I'd see if anyone can help.

 

We've got a 9-10 week old BC who is, honestly, the easiest pup I've ever owned. The only problem is with the playpen we've set up for her for when we have to leave her for longer. We had originally planned to include the plastic bottom of an old rabbit cage with wood shavings in it as a toilet (she was used to going on wood shavings at the farm where she was born); I then added some cut grass, as that's what she's used to going on at our place. After that, she started going pee in the box, and sometimes had even asked to go into the pen and gone pee in the box!

 

The problem is that when I leave her in the pen, sometimes she plays with the shavings and throws them around everywhere. Similarly, she chews on whatever bed/blanket/towel we've put in there, even though she has toys in the pen - sometimes she burries the toys in the toilet and then digs to get them out, throwing shavings/wood clippings everywhere!

 

By biggest concern, aside from her potentially eating the blanket, etc material, is that if she's alone for longer and throws the shavings/grass all over the floor, she'll start going on that on the floor.

 

Does anyone have any advice for what to put as a toilet? It doesn't seem to matter if she's tired out before she goes in the pen, she'll take a nap and then start making a mess! We need to be able to leave her in there while we're at work, so she needs a toilet. I'm trying to avoid the puppy training pads as they're expensive and I've never had much luck with them with other dogs (although this is the first puppy I've had to leave in a pen all day, in my past lives someone was always around).

 

Thanks in advance!!

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I know I'll probably get some backlash on this, but my puppies have never had an issue holding it for 8 hours while I was at work. If I can make it home at lunch I do, but they usually just sleep while I'm gone. I just made sure to let the puppy outside right before I leave and when I get home. I would be careful teaching a dog to go anywhere in the house, as it can encourage accidents. If you are not worried about the consequences they do make indoor fake grass potty patches I've seen them at petco and petsmart. You can probably get them online too.

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I had a plastic box (think storage kind) with shredded newspaper in it for a Very Short Time.

Pup decided that was definitely more fun to play with than do his "business" in.

At that point, I decided he could pee and poop outside. And he learned it rather quickly!

(Granted, about the longest he ever had to "hold it" was about 4 hours; but even then, he was holding it a good 8 hours overnight.)

 

As far as bedding: I got a large piece of scrap linoleum from a flooring store, to put over my carpet.

I laid a large (old) quilt over it. Then I put the x-pen over that.

This way, all edges were under the pen, not loose inside it.

That did seem to help with the "this is more fun as a toy than a bed" problem.

 

Good luck!

diane

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