Confinement areas like crates and playpens, give us a way to confine our puppy when we cannot supervise them and gives puppies a place to rest and amuse themselves.    

There is great value to having a puppy playpen.   It allows you to leave puppy unsupervised for short periods of time without risking accident.  It allows puppy a place for uninterrupted rest, and self directed play.   Importantly, a pen also allows puppy a refuge from overly enthusiastic housemates or visitors. 

Playpen considerations. A standard x pen is 4 feet by 4 feet.   This is large enough for puppies up to 25 pounds.   ALWAYS choose a much taller x pen than you think you will need, your breeder can provide guidance, but for my GSD puppies we recommend 36 to 44 inches tall.  I often use my x pen just like a crate once my dog is grown up.

• Set your playpen up near the toileting door, so the puppy can be let out of the pen and immediately go outside.
• If you need to use a litter box in your playpen, put this area as close to the back door as possible.   We definitely want the puppy to learn to associate the toileting door with relieving itself.  That way if we do have accidents, they are most likely to be right by the back door and not scattered around the house.
  
  
• Your playpen should have three zones. 1. A resting zone (either a crate or bed), 2. A play zone (and you need to have an assortment of pacifiers) 3. A toilet zone. 
•  If your puppy will be confined in the playpen for more than an hour, or is under 10 weeks,  you can reasonably expect it will need to potty and you will need to provide a litter box.
• What your litter box is made of depends on your breed and size. For my GSD puppies I use a 24x 24 inch rabbit hutch pan with alfalfa pellets or an XL cat litter box pan work well. 
• I also sometimes use a 24 x 24 inch Pooch Pad (a washable potty pad) instead of the litter box.   The Pooch pad is often brought back out when my puppies is a bit older, and less supervised just in case it runs to it’s potty bells or potty door and nobody notices or gets there in time.   I place the toilet (pad or  box) right inside the back door, because if the puppy is unable to hold it until I get there, that pad will catch the accident.

Confinement should never be overused.  A puppy who is confined to an x pen or crate is not going relieving itself on your carpet, but it’s also not being socialized, it’s not learning life skills, moving their body, and not building human bonds.  

 So, please, never over use confinement.   Puppies are time consuming, and there is just no way around that, they need opportunities to use all their natural instincts and behaviors, to move freely, to smell everything, chew on a few things, play, cuddle and be a happy dog.   It’s our work to provide these things in abundance.