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Crate vs expen vs small room

2K views 19 replies 8 participants last post by  EvaE1izabeth 
#1 ·
In the past we have crated our dogs (Havanese and other), but after some bad crate experiences with one of our dogs, we are considering using a small room when we need to leave Poesy (our only dog now) home alone. She sleeps in her hard-sided kennel at night and is calm and quiet in her smaller kennel in the vehicle, but we are hoping to give her more freedom during the day when we are gone now and then for a few hours.
I'll be looking through old threads, but if anyone has any new thoughts to share on using a small room, I would love to hear them!
 
#2 ·
We’ve never crated when leaving the house. Puppies we always used an expen set up, then expanded from there as they matured. Our wheaten was penned in the kitchen until he started climbing the 3ft expen walls. Then he was confined to the laundry room, but I hated that since it was dingy and jail-cell like. Then we installed baby gates and he had the run of the main floor of our house when we were gone (kitchen, hallway, bedroom).

With Denver (our current hav) we are still at the expen stage. Not sure what we’ll do when he’s older since he can squish under our existing baby gates (found this one out the hard way). But we have a while to figure it out.
 
#4 ·
We've never crated when leaving the house. Puppies we always used an expen set up, then expanded from there as they matured. Our wheaten was penned in the kitchen until he started climbing the 3ft expen walls. Then he was confined to the laundry room, but I hated that since it was dingy and jail-cell like. Then we installed baby gates and he had the run of the main floor of our house when we were gone (kitchen, hallway, bedroom).

With Denver (our current hav) we are still at the expen stage. Not sure what we'll do when he's older since he can squish under our existing baby gates (found this one out the hard way). But we have a while to figure it out.
Thanks! You mentioned that your wheaten climbed the expen walls. Did he not climb the baby gates as well?
 
#10 ·
Have always used a small hall bathroom with a swing gate across for Cassie when we leave her home alone. We use the gate rather than closing the door because it seems like a nicer arrangement although the bathroom does have a window. Did use a small puppy pen to confine her while we ate dinner when she was small, but my house just doesn’t work for an expen and our kitchen opens into family room so kitchen confinement would have been hard to gate. When she needed a time out when puppy, felt better about not shutting a door on her but using the swinging gate. Did have a hard time getting a gate she couldn’t slip thru.

She has bed, potty pad and water dish in her bathroom...
 
#12 ·
She has bed, potty pad and water dish in her bathroom...
Thanks! Does she only use the potty pad when you are gone or is she indoor trained? Poesy is doing really well with outdoor training. She's had only 1 or 2 mistakes in the past month -- which of course were MY mistakes! I'm going back and forth about leaving a potty pad when we're gone.
 
#11 ·
This is pretty much what we do. While our dogs are crate trained, and perfectly happy in their crates in the car and at night (well, two of them; one sleeps with us ;) ) we keep them gated in my office with a litter pan, water bottle and a few toys when we are out during the day. Each of them was in an ex-pen, however, until they were at least a year old.
 
#18 ·
My dog is indoor-litter boxed trained, so it's easy for us to leave Patti confined to one area of the house when needed. That room is our bedroom that has a patio door where she can see outside. She has water and all her toys in the bathroom... off of the bedroom.

We have a small out-of-state condo and use a gate instead of closing the door in that bedroom, because Patti scratches at the door when its closed and we aren't home. She, also, has an indoor-litter box, water and toys there. In this room, we have a camera set up where we can see and hear what Patti is doing over our iPhones when we are away.

Patti is a jumper and climber but you can buy gates that have vertical bars and they're not going to jump over a 3ft gate unless them have something to jump from

Our utility room opens to a fenced yard that has a doggie door on it. I use to close off and leave our former dogs in that room along with water and toys. They could go outside as needed. They were outdoor potty trained ... too big for indoor training.

Patti will be 2-years-old March 1 and prefers to go outside. She use the doggie door or will ask to go out. However, she still occasionally uses the indoor-potty tray, when the weather is bad, when she can't get outside and sometimes late at night instead of waking us up. :wink2:
 
#20 ·
I intended to use my mudroom this way but it turns out he does better with a window. It was harder to set up when he was younger because all of our windows are in large, open spaces, but I found a way to use the ex pen to give him a small enclosed area that included the window. Now that he’s older he has the whole room.

I think there’s a fine line between getting to know your puppy and considering what he needs while also doing what works best for you and teaching him to be okay with it. And balancing the pros and cons of whatever you choose. In my case giving him access to the window means he sometimes barks at people outside when we aren’t home. Since his separation anxiety is better managed with the window, it’s a trade off.
 
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