Before we bought Meg (sweet naive souls that we were) we tried to plan ahead. Our kitchen is open-plan style, which isn’t great for a new puppy, so some friends lent us their ‘puppy pens.’ They had two kinds, both used successfully with their Weimaraner puppies. One pen was fairly solid and not too big—ideal for in the kitchen. The other was lighter and bigger—perfect for the garden.

We collected Meg from the breeder, brought her home and placed her in the kitchen. After knocking over a plant, running round, peeing on the floor, etc in about two seconds, we put her into the first puppy pen. For a minute or two, all was calm. But Meg had no intention of staying inside the playpen, she wanted to be with us. When I moved away, Meg used the bars of the pen like a ladder, climbing up to the top. I managed to catch her as she fell backwards (very dangerous). Clearly this was not a safe place to leave her unattended. We assembled the lighter, larger puppy pen—maybe the larger slats would be too wide for Meg to climb. They were. Meg did not scramble up the sides, instead she used all her weight to heave into the corner, which obligingly slid across the kitchen floor. Meg triumphantly reached me, dragging the pen behind her. Not a success. 

We now had nowhere safe for Meg to be left. She had a crate, for sleeping, but it was small, too small to be left in. (The idea of ‘crate training’ in case you have never done it, is that you gradually introduce the puppy to a crate, which then is their safe place, like a den in the wild. When toilet training a young puppy, you have a bed-sized crate so the puppy cannot sleep at one end and toilet at the other which encourages them to form bladder control. Of course for this to not be cruel, the owner has to very frequently, day and night, take them to an appropriate place to toilet. The timing depends on the puppy. For Meg, it took one night, we never had another accident. For my black Labrador puppy it took 10 years and I’m not completely sure she ever fully understood where she was supposed to pee.) We needed somewhere else that was safe to leave hyper-active puppy unattended during the day.

It was a problem, solved by Husband-Fixer-Man, who set off at about 8pm, determined to solve the problem. He spent some time on the internet, then informed me he had found the biggest crate available, it was available in Argos about 10 miles away, they were open until 10pm, he was on it! Off he went. Some time later, he returned with the biggest box ever fitted into a Land Rover. From it emerged a crate, which when assembled took up a sizeable amount of kitchen floor. It was huge. It was also Meg-proof. She could not climb the walls, she could not move it along the floor, and it was big enough that I felt she could safely be contained with her toys when I was unable to be on puppy-duty. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

Over time, Meg moved from the smaller crates, and the huge crate was the only one we kept. It has been useful when we have guests who don’t like dogs, or guests who are fragile, because Meg can be shut inside and everyone is safe. She likes it, and even though the door is rarely shut unless we have visitors, she generally chooses to be in there and sleeps in there every night (with the door wide open). However, the top has become a dumping place for things. Over time old towels have been stored there, toys she no longer uses, odd bits of gardening equipment. I am not naturally tidy, and I stopped ‘seeing’ what was dumped ‘temporarily’ on top of the crate. Plus it took up a huge amount of kitchen floor.

I decided it was time to move it out. Meg rarely needs to be shut away, and when she does she can be put into the utility room. (To be fair, she hates it in there because she can’t see what is happening, so she would much prefer the crate stayed.) I experimented with putting a nice comfy dog bed inside the crate, planning to move the crate when something else had become her bed. She hated the comfy cushion. For a few nights she slept squashed next to it in the crate. Then she abandoned the crate and slept on the doormat. Then she tried to remove the comfy cushion from the crate and when that proved too difficult she tried to eat it.

I removed the partially shredded cushion and put it in the dustbin, replacing it with a towel. Yesterday, we removed the crate. I placed the towel in the same spot on the floor, and told Meg this is her bed. Meg lay on it. Later, while we were eating, I told Meg to go to her bed. She went and sat on the towel. This morning, when I came into the kitchen, Meg was asleep on the towel. Sorted. Very little has been easy with Meg, but being adaptable is one of her strengths. She understands her ‘bed’ is the towel. No crate required. Perfect.

I’m now enjoying my spacious kitchen. Thanks for reading. Have a good week.

Take care.

Love, Anne x