# Keep or ditch the playpen



## vit91 (Nov 4, 2020)

Hey guys, just after some advice regarding playpen.
My Maltese puppy now almost 5 months old, she is potty trained, always on her pee pad sometimes outside.

I got her at 9 weeks and she sleep in the crate in a closed playpen in the living room at night and roam in the house at day time (mainly following me). Recently about a week or two I started to let her sleep in her bed in my room at night with the door open and sometimes I let her sleep on her crate with the playpen open so she could roam outside to see whether she is reliable (not chewing things) and She is quite reliable. She always go pee early in the morning and middle of the night on her pee pad outside the crate ( she had one inside the crate but don’t seem to pee on it)

My concern is when I go back to work, I felt bad leaving her on the playpen for long period of time 4-5 hours as she doesn’t really play by herself (she only play when we are around). So I started leaving the playpen open when I go for short groceries shopping ( longest that I’ve left her is 2 hours) I left my bedroom door open and she just went to her bed in my room sleeping after whinging for a bit.

My concern is if I ditch the playpen, if I have to go overseas she had to stay with my friend and I would assume that they have to put her back in the playpen would it be fine?
Or if I keep the playpen should I let her sleep in the closed playpen at night and let her roam in the house when we are away for work or groceries? Also If I let her back in the playpen at night I find her pretty clingy as soon as she got out from the playpen.

I felt bad if I have to put her to sleep inside the playpen whole night and again when we have to work.

Tia


----------



## wkomorow (Aug 26, 2011)

It sounds like she is trained now, I would give her run of the house.


----------



## Lulu’sworld (Oct 21, 2021)

vit91 said:


> View attachment 275766
> 
> Hey guys, just after some advice regarding playpen.
> My Maltese puppy now almost 5 months old, she is potty trained, always on her pee pad sometimes outside.
> ...


----------



## maddysmom (Mar 8, 2012)

I would keep the playpen up but keep the doors open until you know she can be absolutely trusted not to potty in the house. In fact, I kept my girls enclosed until 10-11 months to reinforce the idea of going outside even though they were trained by the time i got them at 6 months. At 5 months, your girl is still very young. I found with my girls, particularly my oldest, it was a full year without any accidents and she still will go in the house if she gets pissed that im gone more than a few hours on some days.
As for keeping her in the pen, thats plenty big so I wouldn’t feel bad or guilty about keeping her in there. They feel safer in a small space, imo.


----------



## vit91 (Nov 4, 2020)

maddysmom said:


> I would keep the playpen up but keep the doors open until you know she can be absolutely trusted not to potty in the house. In fact, I kept my girls enclosed until 10-11 months to reinforce the idea of going outside even though they were trained by the time i got them at 6 months. At 5 months, your girl is still very young. I found with my girls, particularly my oldest, it was a full year without any accidents and she still will go in the house if she gets pissed that im gone more than a few hours on some days.
> As for keeping her in the pen, thats plenty big so I wouldn’t feel bad or guilty about keeping her in there. They feel safer in a small space, imo.


Thank you for your reply, she is now almost 7 months old. I decided to keep her in the playpen and leave the door open all time. It is where she sleeps at night, We started leaving her 2-4 hours recently and when we go out we let her roam put on snuffle mat with treats. We had camera that spy her and she would howl in the saddest voice ever for at least 15-30 mins and went to her bed in playpen to sleep. When we get home she seems happy but pissed and start to pee in random places in front of us😓😓


----------

