Big step -- no exercise pen

[elainfavourite]

Simba is almost six month now and we just started leaving him in the front room during the day, no exercise pen! Based on his previous performance, we would never image we can move on this quick. New yorkie parents, be patient! Your baby grows so fast and become a lot more "understanding" faster than you know.

We have to leave him with my boyfriend's brother for a week in Dec. They have a Morkie who has full run of the kitchen and family room during the day. We feel we need to train Simba to live without the exercise pen, so he won't be a disaster during that week.

Simba usually holds for eight hours during the day in his exercise (Good Boy!) and occasionally has accidents in the apt if he's sick or it's raining outside . And he learnt not to chew on chord and he doesn't like the furniture over his chew toys (lucky!)

So we started puppy proof the front room on Monday. On T and W, we left him in the front room for almost eight hours everyday. He did great! During the day, he just slept in his bed as he did before in his exercise pen. No accidents (yet) We are really proud of him

Just a month ago, I was posting and asking when can we leave our pup home without exercise pen, when they gonna stop going potty every half hour ... Simba just become a big boy before I even realize We do 2 potty trip in the morning, 4 to 5 in the evening and sometimes one extra trip around 3 AM. We can see the middle of the night trip is less often already, hoping to get rid of it soon

Yorkies are the best!

[joyce evans]

Good Boy Simba!!!! I know your mommy is proud!

[Teegy]

way to go wee Simba that's fantastic

[MauiGirl]

Congratulations Simba, on the newly earned freedom. That is great!

My expen has a little door, which I started leaving open after I felt it was safe, and I was surprised that often my pups liked going back into the pen to their bed when they could have been out. I think they liked the safety, so I kept it up for quite a while. It was also a handy place to place them if I had people coming over or workers in the house.

[Sunnydayz]

I also have started letting Gizmo stay out during the day, while I keep a close eye on him, and he's done wonderful. He's 4 1/2 months old an is so smart !!! I still keep his food and water, along with a potty pad holder in his pen and he goes in and out all day. He will switch toys in there like every 30 minutes haha, and he puts the one he was playing with back away. I too have one that has an arched doorway, so he can come and go as he likes. I got him a really soft large faux fur bed that I put right in front of the coffee table outside his pen. He will just go take naps on his own whenever he feels like a break :-) I also have an extra potty pad holder outside his pen, and that is what he uses when he's outside of the pen time, and between walks. We do a lot of playing fetch and tug a war, as well as playing chase. I actually just open his pen when I get up in the morning, and he doesn't go back in till bedtime at night, around 9 pm. He's not had one accident, so I'm thinking I might expand his access to include the kitchen as well, because I have it blocked off right now, but he's doing so great I'm going to see what happens with giving him more room.

I'm more worried about once I give him full house access because the down stairs is all hard wood floors and travertine stone in the kitchen, but the stairs and upstairs is all long shag carpet :-) does anyone have experience with introducing them to carpet after hard floors? This is where I think I might run into accidents, although I do have a large area rug in my living room, and he hasn't pottied on that but it's a very short pile rug, compared to the carpet in the other areas.

[Zoey Zendaya]

Throw down a rug first and look underneath it once in a while.....they can pee the minute you look away.

[Maximo]

Good boy, Simba!

Originally Posted by MauiGirl

Congratulations Simba, on the newly earned freedom. That is great!

My expen has a little door, which I started leaving open after I felt it was safe, and I was surprised that often my pups liked going back into the pen to their bed when they could have been out. I think they liked the safety, so I kept it up for quite a while. It was also a handy place to place them if I had people coming over or workers in the house.

Max didn't want to give up his xpen until he was over a year old. My big baby. I have brought out the xpen a couple times when he was really naughty, and he looks at me like, "I'm not a baby anymore! Why am I in here?" It's so funny.

We still use the xpens when the boys need to be contained. They don't mind when they know they are just being kept safe.

[MauiGirl]

Originally Posted by Maximo

Good boy, Simba!

Max didn't want to give up his xpen until he was over a year old. My big baby. I have brought out the xpen a couple times when he was really naughty, and he looks at me like, "I'm not a baby anymore! Why am I in here?" It's so funny.

We still use the xpens when the boys need to be contained. They don't mind when they know they are just being kept safe.

That is so funny. I haven't put mine up in a couple years as I'm using 2 panels from it as a barricade near the front door. I wonder if I set it up again and put beds in it if they'd go in it again, willingly. Lately I just put them all in my bedroom when I need them safely out of the way.

[gracielove]

Good for Simba. Giving a little more free space at at time is usually best. Overwhelming them with more than one room can lead to accidents.

Hope Simba does well during his "vacation."

[elainfavourite]

Thanks everyone for the reply
Update: Simba has been doing great for four days now No accident during the day (yet). When I get home, he's usually in his bed and sitting up waiting for me.