puppy escape artist!!

tulipi

Hi guys,
My puppy is 6 months and I started with crate training her when I got her at 9 weeks. My plan was to gradually give her more space as she proved herself to be trustworthy in terms of toilet training, until she could be given free roam around the house. So she now has a little fabric play pen that gives her a bit more space which she goes into when we're going to bed or if she is left on her own for a couple of hours.

Well, she's a great escape artist and very clever, it's actually kind of amazing. The fabric pen has zips for the entrance. She's figured out how to undo the zip from the inside of the pen and now I come home or arrive into the sitting room in the morning to find her roaming around. When she first managed it I realised it was I was zipping up higher to one side and she knew if she scratched at it and pulled down it would open. then I started pulling the two zips to the bottom because she didn't know about pulling to the side. Now she's figured that out. There haven't been any accidents yet and she seems quite trustworthy but I'm concerned about giving her so much free roam so young when she hasn't been fully toilet trained very long. I don't want to end up going backwards. What are your opinions? My concern is that she might chew some wires when she gets out and I'm not there to monitor her. Along with the toilet training concerns.

Also, she's almost cat like - i was wondering if anyone had seen this before. She's very food motivated and has managed to jump on the dining table despite being very small to get to her food cup that was up there. Then I started keeping it on the kitchen countertop and she figured out that she could jump onto the bin and then up onto the countertop. Then I put it on the 4th shelf of a bookcase. The bottom few shelves have nothing on them and she's able to jump into a shelf and jump up and around onto the next one up etc to get at the food - she's actually climbing shelves... Is this normal?? Is she just very clever? It seems amazing to me

portgirl123

What breed is she?

tulipi

She's a pug

andreac

Get a metal crate, she wont escape from that.

tulipi

I have a metal crate but I was trying to gradually give her more space. So the pen gives her more room to roam around while still having her crate etc. Yet a safe confined space while I can't watch her.

That's one clever puppy!
Get her one of those kong things with food in the middle that everyone is always raving about? Keep her entertained and caters to the "food-motivated" bit?

tulipi

Ya i have a kong, She has a ton of toys. I got her one of those mental exercise toys on zooplus for dogs for christmas because I think i'm going to have to do a lot to keep her entertained.

I have a babygate... Perhaps I could keep her confined to a room for a while and then gradually give her more space that way rather than use the pen. the only other option would be to lock the pen but I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. She would probably get distressed because she's used to being able to open it now. And would cause it to collapse on her or something in frustration

**Vai**

U say u trust her and there have been no accidents yet so whats the problem? I'd let her be as free as is possible without putting her in danger. If there are certain place u dont want her to go, just spell it out for her (or use your babygate).

tulipi

So I trust her in that she knows that she should go outside. but when she's in her pen she just goes to sleep. When she escapes she takes her toys out and plays with them and roams around. When she moves around after a sleep, it's then she needs to go and I'm not convinced that her bladder can hold it that long yet. She's a small dog firstly and then also still quite young. We haven't had any accidents yet since she's escaped but like i say, her getting out is a new thing and also I do still keep a close eye on her to see if she might need to go.

But then besides that I definitely don't trust her when it comes to chewing stuff she shouldn't. Like my furniture... I came in and my armchair has bite marks in it now. Also, while our sitting room is puppy proofed for the most part, we do have lights with wires etc and i don't want her to be chewing them. I would prefer that she be older, get past the puppy chewing stage before I let her roam around without my supervision.

Yenwod

tulipi wrote: »

She's a pug

Are you absolutely sure she's not a cat disguised as a pug