# Crate vs Play Pen



## CaseLogic

I was reading "BEFORE You get your puppy", a book made available online and linked in one of the threads here, and it talked about A Doggy Den (i.e. crate) vs an exercise pen.

The crate is a good way to make them learn to "hold it", since they don't want to use the bathroom in their bed. But the playpen gives them a little more activity (bed, little puppy toilet, toys, etc).

The book suggests that you use your playpen for long-term confinement, and your doggy den for short-term confinement. However, I've heard mostly of people sticking to strictly crates here on the forums. Do you think the playpen/crate thing is a good idea? Would having a puppy toilet interfere with training them go outside (it suggests to put grass-like material inside the puppy toilet)? If I'm gone for more than a couple hours, should I leave them in the playpen? Or should I just go all-out crate?

Here's a link to what I read:
http://www.openpaw.org/Pet_Basics/confinement.html


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## skelaki

I use both crates and ex-pens. I use crates for short-term confinement but if I have to be away all day and have no one to take a puppy out for potty breaks I'll put the crate (with door open) inside an ex-pen and put it in the kitchen usually with papers and/or pee pads down on the floor so that the pup does not have to do it's business where it sleeps. Then, when I get home I clean everything up using an enzyme cleaner on the floor just to make sure there's no lingering odor. It's not ideal but unless you're lucky enough to work from home, not have to work at all, or can get home/afford daily pet sitter services you'll probably have to do something like this for a time.


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## sheltiemom

I also used both. I used x-pens with the open crate inside right at first, when I had to be gone more that hour or so, and figured they wouldn't be able to hold it anyway. After the first couple of weeks of having them I moved to crates only at night and when I was gone, and the x-pens were for when I was home but couldn't have them under foot, like if I was vacuuming or something. Then after about for months they could jump/climb the xpen pretty handily so we did away with that. Now they are seven months and fully potty trained and they get to be free in the house most of the time. We keep them in our bedroom at night and only use crates for when we are gone.

As far as puppy pads, I think it does interfere with training them to go outdoors, but if the pup is very young and you are gone all day, the pup won't hold it even in a crate. I think it is worse if it gets in the habit of going in the crate, so if you are talking more that 2 or 3 hours and you don't have anyone to come over and let it out to potty, I'd give the puppy more room.


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## Dakota Spirit

-raises hand- Heres one more person that used both. When Dakota was really little she slept in the closed crate at night and while we were out of the house. However as she got a bit older we started open crate inside a x-pen, like others have mentioned. This way she was free to run around a bit without fear of getting into anything not puppy appropriate.



> As far as puppy pads, I think it does interfere with training them to go outdoors, but if the pup is very young and you are gone all day, the pup won't hold it even in a crate. I think it is worse if it gets in the habit of going in the crate, so if you are talking more that 2 or 3 hours and you don't have anyone to come over and let it out to potty, I'd give the puppy more room.


I guess it would depend on the dog. We used puppy pads with Dakota while she was really young and still had no trouble transfering the training outside.


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## CaseLogic

Dakota Spirit said:


> -raises hand- Heres one more person that used both. When Dakota was really little she slept in the closed crate at night and while we were out of the house. However as she got a bit older we started open crate inside a x-pen, like others have mentioned. This way she was free to run around a bit without fear of getting into anything not puppy appropriate.
> 
> 
> 
> I guess it would depend on the dog. We used puppy pads with Dakota while she was really young and still had no trouble transfering the training outside.


How young is "really young" - if I get this puppy from the breeder, it'd be about 12 weeks old.


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## Dakota Spirit

CaseLogic said:


> How young is "really young" - if I get this puppy from the breeder, it'd be about 12 weeks old.


Dakota was 8 weeks old when we got her, so your pup would be a month or so older then she was. Depending on how the breeder raised him (potty-training wise) he might be fine without spending night in the crate. Save for maybe a few accidents caused by being in a new area


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## sheltiemom

What breed? I got mine at 8 and 9 weeks. I heard that toy breeds need go go out more frequently, but a little larger dog may be ok in a crate.

My experience with puppy pads was weird. I used them for a couple of weeks with Ripley, and for a while after he seemed to like to go on rugs. When I took up all my rugs he finally stopped going inside. I put them back out recently and have had no problems since. I don't know if it had to do with the puppy pads, but that was one of my theories.


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## CaseLogic

sheltiemom said:


> What breed? I got mine at 8 and 9 weeks. I heard that toy breeds need go go out more frequently, but a little larger dog may be ok in a crate.
> 
> My experience with puppy pads was weird. I used them for a couple of weeks with Ripley, and for a while after he seemed to like to go on rugs. When I took up all my rugs he finally stopped going inside. I put them back out recently and have had no problems since. I don't know if it had to do with the puppy pads, but that was one of my theories.


Pembroke Welsh Corgi


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## Durbkat

I made snoopy a large play pen that is just some wood I got from home depot and bordered his play area and got him a dog bed and let him sleep in that at night because he got up 2 to 3 times a night and would want to stay up for an hour and run around before going back to bed and him constantly doing this was interfering with my job, making me really tired, so I let him sleep outside the crate and if he needs to go potty he can.


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## Cheetah

I used a crate only with Shippo until he was potty trained - this meant either coming home more or taking him with me if I had to go somehwere for a long period of time (friend's house, family, etc.). After he was potty trained, I started using the expen for long-term confinement.


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