Here is my situation:
- My 4.5month old japanese spitz puppy spends time in his large playpen on the deck (shaded) infront of our living room since he was young. He was only put in there initially to aid his potty training, and now he is only put in there to eat(or he'll get distracted and stop eating) and when we go out or when we work in the garden like mowing the lawn.
- He really enjoys being in there and he finds it very comfy and he has toys water etc etc. He has news paper in there which he used initially (when garden was not accessible) but now he is used to doing his business in the garden only.
- During the week, he is left alone anything 3-4 hours during the day while i'm at University and 7 hours on one of the days. The 3-4 hours, he actually just sleeps through the entire time in his playpen. the 7 hours however he's starting to get uncomfortable (we think) because he no longer wants to go toilet on the news paper(its far from his food & bedding).
so now we are thinking of leaving his playpen door open so he can access the backyard and his den when we are out for that 7 hours day. We have a large garden, 2 meter fencing, no hawks etc, not too hot, plenty of shade. He always plays outside with us and we haven't spotted anything that can hurt him in the garden.
Should i start leaving his door open? I know a lot of people don't think this is a good idea, but according to my situation is this the best idea? Should i start to remove the playpen and replace with a doggey house? (the playpen is inconvenient for our circulation atm)
of course when we come home he stays indoor with us (though he sometimes runs outside to the garden and plays by himself in his pen) We don't want to leave him stuffy indoor as he enjoys the wind outside and we don't want him to potty inside, plus we have alarms.
Thanks
- My 4.5month old japanese spitz puppy spends time in his large playpen on the deck (shaded) infront of our living room since he was young. He was only put in there initially to aid his potty training, and now he is only put in there to eat(or he'll get distracted and stop eating) and when we go out or when we work in the garden like mowing the lawn.
- He really enjoys being in there and he finds it very comfy and he has toys water etc etc. He has news paper in there which he used initially (when garden was not accessible) but now he is used to doing his business in the garden only.
- During the week, he is left alone anything 3-4 hours during the day while i'm at University and 7 hours on one of the days. The 3-4 hours, he actually just sleeps through the entire time in his playpen. the 7 hours however he's starting to get uncomfortable (we think) because he no longer wants to go toilet on the news paper(its far from his food & bedding).
so now we are thinking of leaving his playpen door open so he can access the backyard and his den when we are out for that 7 hours day. We have a large garden, 2 meter fencing, no hawks etc, not too hot, plenty of shade. He always plays outside with us and we haven't spotted anything that can hurt him in the garden.
Should i start leaving his door open? I know a lot of people don't think this is a good idea, but according to my situation is this the best idea? Should i start to remove the playpen and replace with a doggey house? (the playpen is inconvenient for our circulation atm)
of course when we come home he stays indoor with us (though he sometimes runs outside to the garden and plays by himself in his pen) We don't want to leave him stuffy indoor as he enjoys the wind outside and we don't want him to potty inside, plus we have alarms.
Thanks