# Crate stand alone or attach to playpen??



## Sneakers22 (Feb 12, 2016)

I have decided to get a decent sized playpen for my puppy to run around and play in while im not home. I thought about just keeping her in the crate while at work but sadly I wont have anyone to take her for a walk while im gone for 6hrs at most 4 days a week.

Is it better to have the playpen by itself or to attach to crate to the playpen?? Puppy then has her home to sleep in which she can leave and go play and most likely use the bathroom on my floor  which is fine but I want to never have puppy do her business in her crate 

1st time puppy owner in 4 days and counting


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## kdawnk (Mar 26, 2014)

I think it might be a better idea to leave the crate unattached.
People usually come home at noon when puppy raising. If you can do that, I'd try crating in the morning and then move the puppy to the playpen for the afternoon. You want to limit the opportunity to eliminate in the crate as much as you can. If it's attached, puppy might choose the crate to go pee in and have the playpen to play in. Who knows.
I also recommend putting down a layer of plastic and paper or pee pads, you don't want to damage your floors, and you want it to be as easy to clean as possible.

It's not an ideal situation and could _potentially_ take the puppy longer to grasp the house training concept if left to go to the bathroom in an area freely for 6hrs over half the week.


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## Sneakers22 (Feb 12, 2016)

kdawnk said:


> I think it might be a better idea to leave the crate unattached.
> People usually come home at noon when puppy raising. If you can do that, I'd try crating in the morning and then move the puppy to the playpen for the afternoon. You want to limit the opportunity to eliminate in the crate as much as you can. If it's attached, puppy might choose the crate to go pee in and have the playpen to play in. Who knows.
> I also recommend putting down a layer of plastic and paper or pee pads, you don't want to damage your floors, and you want it to be as easy to clean as possible.
> 
> It's not an ideal situation and could _potentially_ take the puppy longer to grasp the house training concept if left to go to the bathroom in an area freely for 6hrs over half the week.


So are you saying leave her in her crate when i leave for work? Use the playpen when im home? Or can i use the playpen while im gone. SHe is only 13 weeks and i dont want her to pee in her crate


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## kdawnk (Mar 26, 2014)

I'm saying it depends on individual schedule.

If you don't want to ever give her the opportunity to eliminate in the crate and you definitely _can't _break up the 6hr day, I'd say put her in the playpen.
Use the crate exclusively for night time.

Puppies cannot hold their bladders for 6 hours so she _WILL_ go to the bathroom at some point. If you don't want her to go to the bathroom in the crate you have to not allow access to it. I think majority of sources say puppies cannot hold their bladders for longer than 4 hours until after 6 months.

Use a playpen when you're going to be gone _longer_ than an hour or two. Especially for a young puppy.
Crate for brief amounts of time, and at night.

That's what I'd recommend.


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## Sneakers22 (Feb 12, 2016)

kdawnk said:


> I'm saying it depends on individual schedule.
> 
> If you don't want to ever give her the opportunity to eliminate in the crate and you definitely _can't _break up the 6hr day, I'd say put her in the playpen.
> Use the crate exclusively for night time.
> ...


Thank you. I will still train her to love her crate in be in it for short amounts of time as well


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## MysticRealm (May 30, 2007)

I plan to put my crate in a small closed off room (my mud room) when I get my puppy so he can go in the crate to sleep, but have some space to move around and pee. I don't think it's too likely that the puppy would choose to pee in the crate if it has more space to move around outside the crate especially if you use the crate at night.

When I got my last puppy a few months ago (he had his shots so could come to work right away), I was super busy at work so knew I owuldn't have the time to let him out enough. So I put him in an x-pen with his crate. He slept in his crate, and pee'd on the pee pads I had in the playpen.


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## ellipana (Dec 10, 2015)

Sneakers22 said:


> I have decided to get a decent sized playpen for my puppy to run around and play in while im not home. I thought about just keeping her in the crate while at work but sadly I wont have anyone to take her for a walk while im gone for 6hrs at most 4 days a week.
> 
> Is it better to have the playpen by itself or to attach to crate to the playpen?? Puppy then has her home to sleep in which she can leave and go play and most likely use the bathroom on my floor  which is fine but I want to never have puppy do her business in her crate
> 
> 1st time puppy owner in 4 days and counting


Is she potty trained? Does she do her business in the crate? Because pups 15 weeks, can't hold it for more than 5 hours.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

I prefer a crate only for house training purposes. Encouraging her to pee on the floor in the pen is going to make house training take much much longer than it needs to.


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## MysticRealm (May 30, 2007)

elrohwen said:


> I prefer a crate only for house training purposes. Encouraging her to pee on the floor in the pen is going to make house training take much much longer than it needs to.


What about if you could not be home for 8.5-9 hours a day? On busy work days I only take a 10-15 min lunch break, just enough to eat, and don't have the 60 min round trip to get home and let puppy out. I can't imagine an 8 week old puppy being able to hold it that long and certainly would not want to train it that it has to pee in the crate as that will make house training even harder than using pads for a few weeks i would think.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

MysticRealm said:


> What about if you could not be home for 8.5-9 hours a day? On busy work days I only take a 10-15 min lunch break, just enough to eat, and don't have the 60 min round trip to get home and let puppy out. I can't imagine an 8 week old puppy being able to hold it that long and certainly would not want to train it that it has to pee in the crate as that will make house training even harder than using pads for a few weeks i would think.



I wouldn't leave a puppy home alone more than 4 hours, period. I would get a dog walker or a friend to let the dog out if I couldn't come home for lunch.


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