Dogs at Lake Dora

Friday, September 3, 2010

Puppy playpen

I would love to hear more ideas for my puppy playpen. I will post a pic a little later but... so far I have a "potty" area with shavings, a tunnel(made from drain boxes without lids hooked together), a "swing" made from drain pipe hung from the roof over and concrete blocks to jump and crawl through. There is also an area in one corner that has pavers stacked so they can climb different heights. The area is 11'X22' so is pretty big, it can grow while they do. It is covered with pavers except for the potty area and I will need to keep it that way. Last time I had large like 65gal pots partially buried to run into and climb on but the dirt was unbearable! So any and all ideas are welcome!

3 comments:

  1. take a few x-pen panels or the wire door to a vari kennel and lay them flat on the floor for the puppies to learn to walk on that interesting surface. Also put down silver tarps for them to walk on. A mirror (really fun to watch them see that the 1st few times!) I also will take wooden boards from an obedience jump and lay them out raised on each other or on bricks or cinder blocks for the puppies to climb, walk and balance on. Also 3/4" or 1" PVC pipe in 3-6' lengths for them to walk over and around as baby cavallettis learning about coordination and their back feet. Fun toys are go to the toy department at a consignment shop and get things that crinkle, that make funny sounds, that move funny, doesn't have to all be soft, plastic and metal are ok too so they get used to different types of material in their mouths (so if one ever goes on to utility or SD work they can be better prepared for funny things in their mouths) Don't just keep the same things in there all of the time, rotate things every 3-4 days so they get new things to experience. Have a great time!!

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  2. Thank you Katrin! Those are really great ideas and I will try to incorporate at least a few, if not all of them!

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  3. Wobble board. You can improvise on w/a square of plywood, a piece of canvas and a tennis ball. Position the tennis ball in the middle of the board. Lay the canvas over it and start stapling down the edges - keep it stretched tight. When it's all stapled, flip the board over and you've got a nifty wobble board so puppies get used to things moving under their feet and making noise too.

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