# Questions on ex-pen usage



## Havamom10 (Apr 10, 2021)

Hello
I am a new dog mom and don't have experience with dogs. We have had our Simba for about 3 weeks and he is now 12 weeks old.
I have some basic questions about his ex-pen habits and what we should and shouldn't do. 
For the first week, we kept him in an 8-panel ex-pen and he adjusted well to this space. He came litter box trained from the breeder and we continued the habit at home.
The second week, we gave him full reign of the home and he started having accidents. After some good advice from this forum, we have now limited him to a single room and his accidents have greatly reduced (no more than one or two) in the last week.
While he sleeps in his pen (on a bed or the floor), he wants to be taken out when we wakes up. He is associating the pen with sleep. 
Questions: 
1. Is this the right behavior? That is, keeping him in the pen for sleep time and out when he is awake? 
2. I work full time (from home at this time) and cannot have my eye on him at all times. Should I be leaving him in the pen during these times or allow him to walk around? He has not been destructive or gotten into trouble. He just walks around and sometimes curls up at my foot and goes to sleep. 
I want to confirm if this is ok.
3. We have still not left him alone at home since we got him 3 weeks ago. Should we be training him to be alone for short periods of time? What is the best way to approach this without causing anxiety? 

He is only 12 weeks old and I don't want to overwhelm him. But I also don't want him to think that I'll always be there around. 
Looking for some guidance on building some good foundational habits for my boy!
Thanks in advance!


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

If he’s not getting into trouble it’s fine for him to be with you sometimes, but definitely start leaving him in the pen for periods of time during the day. Mine was the same way and didn’t get into trouble but he needed more practice at that age being in the expen by himself, especially because he didn’t like to be alone.

I usually had a morning routine that included breakfast, playtime, and a few minutes of training. I was working from home for a short time when we brought our puppy home long before covid, and it tired him out so he would sleep in whatever room I was in. This was great for room specific potty training, in my home office and in other parts of the house when I worked on my laptop, but it would have been better to alternate it with returning him to his expen for blocks of time.


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

Based on general advice, 1-2 accidents a week is too much to be letting him have any free time when you're not watching him like a hawk, so I would never let him out wandering around. You could move his pen to be beside you (or around you


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

Havamom10 said:


> 1. Is this the right behavior? That is, keeping him in the pen for sleep time and out when he is awake?


Keep him in his ex pen until he is 100% reliable indoors


> 2. I work full time (from home at this time) and cannot have my eye on him at all times. Should I be leaving him in the pen during these times or allow him to walk around? He has not been destructive or gotten into trouble. He just walks around and sometimes curls up at my foot and goes to sleep.
> I want to confirm if this is ok.


Have a second smaller pen in your office. Keep him in the expen until he is 100% reliable. Certainly take him out to play on occasion, but keep an eagle eye on him at all times! If he starts to sniff at a particular spot or start to circle, pick him up immediately and take him to his litter box or whatever you are using. After he finishes, take him out for more play. These dogs aren't stupid, they quickly catch on with lots of consistency and repetition of a desired practice is rewarded with praise, play, or treat.


> 3. We have still not left him alone at home since we got him 3 weeks ago. Should we be training him to be alone for short periods of time? What is the best way to approach this without causing anxiety?


Start off by just leaving the room for 5 minutes. Do not return if he starts hollering, that will only reinforce to him that his complaining will get him some reward. Gradually extend the time, by going out of the house into the backyard, then run errands, etc. When you return whether it be 5 minutes or two hours, don't make it a big deal. Walk around the house for a few minutes (ignore his whining or barking) and then let him out or pen or crate when he settles down. Play with him a little bit if he wants recognition.

REMEMBER THE DESIRED BEHAVIOR DOES'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. IT WILL USUALLY TAKE WEEKS OF PRACTICE AND REPETITION WITH CONSISTENCY TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED BEHAVIOR.


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## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

DO NOT allow your puppy to roam the house. He's peeing and you're just not catching it. You will never get him housebroken if all him to roam free. It will be a long while before you can turn him loose. Attached are recommendations about Indoor-Housebreaking a Havanese.


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## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

If you're office is away from the ex-pen, just shut the door and go to work after you've gotten him up. Play with him and feed him breakfast then put him back in the ex-pen, with all his toys, food, water and potty tray and play soothing music. Provides some noise and distractions from outside noise.

Patti is 3-years. If we leave her home-alone we put her in our Master Bedroom where she sleeps, close the door and turn on music. 

Since you normally work outside the home it's best to start leaving him alone right away. He'll adjust. You might need to put earbuds in your own ears and play soothing music if he cries. 

What is your work schedule outside the home? You'll need to have someone come in during the day if you're gone 9 or 10 hours a day.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> If he’s not getting into trouble it’s fine for him to be with you sometimes, but definitely start leaving him in the pen for periods of time during the day. Mine was the same way and didn’t get into trouble but he needed more practice at that age being in the expen by himself, especially because he didn’t like to be alone.
> 
> I usually had a morning routine that included breakfast, playtime, and a few minutes of training. I was working from home for a short time when we brought our puppy home long before covid, and it tired him out so he would sleep in whatever room I was in. This was great for room specific potty training, in my home office and in other parts of the house when I worked on my laptop, but it would have been better to alternate it with returning him to his expen for blocks of time.


THIS!!!


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## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

Mikki said:


> If you're office is away from the ex-pen, just shut the door and go to work after you've gotten him up. Play with him and feed him breakfast then put him back in the ex-pen, with all his toys, food, water and potty tray and play soothing music. Provides some noise and distractions from outside noise.
> 
> Patti is 3-years. If we leave her home-alone we put her in our Master Bedroom where she sleeps, close the door and turn on music.
> 
> ...


Of course, I don't mean to leave your 12-week old puppy alone for a long full work day. If you are going to be working long hours ShamaMama has a good write up about how they handled Shama and what they did to prepare her for when they went back to work as school teachers. Perhaps she'll see your post or you can PM her and ask what she does and how she transitioned Shama.

My husband and I are retired but we were not with Patti 24/7. I have an office next door to our home and my husband has a Man-Shed and maintains 11-acres so we are in and out of the house several hours at a time. When Patti was 12-weeks old when we left the house for whatever reasons, Patti was left in her ex-pen. I don't know if she cried when we left the house but she was fine when we came back. When I could trust Patti in that ONE room we left the ex-pen open and she could wandered in out when we left but was confined to a safe, dog proof area. 

Since you are working in the home you may have to close your door and let the puppy cry for a while. If that's hard to do then get some ear-buds to help you through the transition. Turn music on the puppy. Or, Bailey may play and sleep and not do anything.

We live in a home and don't have neighbors so we did not have to worry if Patti cried. However, when we go to the mountains to spend the summer we stay in a condo and have close neighbors. We have cameras in the home and one morning when we went hiking we left Patti in the MB. She barked and howled off and on the entire time we were gone. The next time we left her, I opened the bedroom door and put a gate up so she couldn't leave the room and turned the TV on to a music channel. Patti never barked or howled again. She learned we were coming back and perhaps the opened door helped. And, it was a new place and she may have just gotten more comfortable.

Havanese are very social dogs and need companionship but you can leave them for short periods of time. Half day. Several Hours. Even long periods if it's not frequent such as a 9 or 10 work day five days a week. If you are doing that ShamaMama is a good one to consult.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

If you don’t have an extra portable expen, I found them really useful at that stage. I have a nicer wood gate in my home office and several inexpensive Midwest type expens that I still find useful, especially with a somewhat open floor plan. I used them to block off rugs when I first introduced him to a new room, or block off doorways to other rooms or halls, cut a large room in half, and sometimes just to keep the space small enough that I could pick him up quickly if I needed to. It helps with potty training for a puppy to spend time in different parts of the house in an controlled way, so if you work in a particular part of your home most of the time it’s a way to start generalizing his potty training to that room without really doing anything other than preventing him from wandering. Alternatively you can do room specific potty training by playing with him in different rooms of your house, directly engaged with him so that you can pick him up to take him potty if he needs to go, so he begins to see those spaces as part of his home. I see this as an extension of expen training, and by systematically doing this room by room over time, it really reinforces those skills and provides practice generalizing them to new environments. I had a unique opportunity to see this progression over time because we were remodeling several different rooms in our house during our puppy’s first year and he spent time with me in those rooms. 

But the really, really important part is that he is not having accidents at all before introducing any new space, and you start small. IMO, he is very unlikely to have an accident in a space under a desk for instance, if he’s not having accidents in his expen, he’s gone potty, you’re sitting at the desk, and he can’t wander off. If he doesn’t have access to the potty he’ll need to return to his expen more often, but that works out well because then he can have some alone time. 

Definitely don’t keep him with you all of the time, because he needs to see his expen as a place he can relax and be alone. Gradually increasing the time you leave him over a couple of days can help if he’s not settling down well, but don’t stretch it out too long because he is at the most adaptable age right now. It’s better to practice 10 times over 2 days than 10 times over 10 days. Once you work up to 15-20 minutes he has the skills he needs for 2 hours or more so it’s just a matter of making sure he’s left alone every day, even if it means being creative because you are home all day  I say this as someone who did a terrible job of this during covid, so please don’t make my mistake!


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

Mikki said:


> Since you are working in the home you may have to close your door and let the puppy cry for a while. If that's hard to do then get some ear-buds to help you through the transition. Turn music on the puppy. Or, Bailey may play and sleep and not do anything.


OR you could end up with a dog like Perry who is perfectly fine to be in his crate as long as he knows you're in the house... it's only when we leave that he howls and carries on (  for being ok in his crate at times...  for howling when we're gone)


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## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

LOL! Their little dog Howls are so Soft and funny. Recently, after leaving the house a couple of times my daughter and husband has told me Patti has Howled which surprised them. I don't know if this is a new thing because I left the house or if Patti could hear sirens the humans in the room weren't hearing.


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