# Ex-pen and potty training...



## SnowiesMommy (Jan 30, 2008)

I am getting my little Molly-Snowie (I picked snowie my daughter picked molly) in 3 months. I am going to get my baby a ex-pen with a wizdog and small crate inside it. I will feed her in the pen too. I am wondering of I should leave her to roam around the pen when I first get her or have he in the crate most of the time and only come out to potty for the first month or two. I will have 2 1/2 months to fully train her and train her to be home alone for 8 hrs a day 5x a week. Should I leave her to roam when she is only 12 weeks old or leave my baby in the crate and only come out to potty? :smilie_daumenpos: THANKS!


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

Its a personal choice. I like my dogs to potty on a schedule and with me so I can reward them. Therefore, I don't leave them in a pen and hope they go. I crate them and use the pee pads just as if I were taking them outdoors.


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## carolicious (Feb 25, 2008)

I just didn't like the idea of crate training so we basically used the x-pen like a crate. He had a bed and food bowls in there and covered the whole bottom of the x-pen with pee pads. Then once we saw that he only went in the one far corner, we took away all the other pee pads and now we just put 2 where he does his business. Everytime he started showing signs that he was going to pee or poo, we put him back in his x-pen. We gave him too much access of the house at first I think because he had the entire family room + the kitchen. Since our family spends so much time in the family room together and we would play and let Coby sleep there also, he figured family room = his play/sleep area, must not poop and pee here! so he would always dart over to the kitchen to pee and poo so when he darted to the kitchen we would have to dart after him. But we started feeding him broccoli and carrots when we were in the kitchen so now he associates kitchen as somewhere he gets food = aka don't poop and pee here either! so now, he just goes into his x-pen by himself to pee and poo on his pads whenever he needs to and comes right back out to join us. :aktion033: it only took him a few weeks to get that down and we are all so proud of him


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