Hey there! I was wondering, do you have any resources for how to set up a good space for a new puppy? No worries if not, but it seemed like you knew what you were doing! ^_^
Hi, absolutely! I like x-pen setups the most for puppies, especially if they’re attached to a crate. If you get a tall x-pen and either attach it to a wire crate or put a crate inside, it gives the puppy a safe and contained area to be left unaccompanied in. It gives them a little more space than just a crate does which is really great for when you’re leaving the puppy alone during the day. I always recommend feeding in the puppy area so they learn to associate it with good things like food. You’ll want to line the inside of the x-pen with potty pads just in case there are any accidents. A lot of what you can include depends on the specific puppy and how destructive they are, but if you have a puppy who isn’t prone to destroying things you can give them blankets and a nice crate bed. Also include some safe toys that the puppy can play with unsupervised. Stuffed kongs and licki-mats are a really great, safe option to keep puppies occupied when you’re gone. I also really like to have a nanny cam aimed at the x-pen that I can stream from my phone because I get really anxious about leaving my dogs alone, but that’s totally optional. It does lead to cute sleeping puppy pictures though ;)
I’ll attach a picture of the setup I have for Mari, but it’s not exactly what I described because I don’t have enough space in my house for an ideal puppy area.
I gated off the area next to my bed where Beatle’s crate already was, so Mari could have that whole little section. I really like having my puppy area next to my bed so if she cries at night, I can just reach my hand over and offer her comfort without leaving my bed. Unfortunately this setup didn’t last very long for us because I have a spider monkey for a dog and she can now climb the gate, so I just use the crate for her now. Her crate is a bit bigger than it needs to be for a puppy her size so she has plenty of room, but if I had space for it I would definitely prefer to have an x-pen setup for her.
I hope that’s at least a little bit helpful! At the end of the day a lot of your setup has to be catered to your individual puppy but getting general tips from people is awesome.
