X-Pen: Whoever Mentioned It, THANKS!

So I'm pretty sure that it was here at MyCorgi.com where I came across someone's casual comment about an "x-pen."

Never heard of it, so looked it up in the Great Encyclopedia of the Ether (i.e., Google), saw pictures and pricing online, and thought...hey! That's just what the breeder was using to contain the pups in her living room! Not only that, but after yesterday's hilarious comedy of errors & puppy mischief, THIS thing looks like the answer to the human's prayers.

So it was off to PetCo, where they had the things for almost reasonable prices. One variety has little plastic cylinders wrapped around the bottom rung, supposedly to protect one's floors.

Worked great to keep her out of trouble all day. As long as she could see me, she was calm. In fact, she fell asleep and snoozed most of the day. That wasn't so great, since she was up about once an hour all night long... But it was mighty nice while it lasted.

So whoever made a fairly recent (I think) offhand mention of the x-pen: thanks! :-)

This will solve the problem of how on earth I'm going to work with a tiny puppy underfoot. Client inflicted a new iteration of his 255-page single-spaced MS on me yesterday...the kind of thing that requires uninterrupted stretches of time to focus on. Too bad you can't make a living chasing puppies!

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Comment by Laura Rochette on March 11, 2014 at 6:44pm: Ditto to what Beth says. I used one when Lucy was a puppy. I only took her out for walks and to play with her in the living room. It also helped the cats adjust to her. She is now a great dog around the house, no longer chewing her way in or out of everything. In fact, I just delivered my ex-pen to a friend who just adopted a 12 week old Corgi puppy, along with a couple of baby gates, which can also be useful. I think I ran into ex-pens when I was researching taking care of a puppy and beginning to purchase things to ready the house for Lucy's arrival.

Comment by Vicky Hay on March 11, 2014 at 11:01am: Vinyl idea is good, too. Mercifully, my entire house is tiled. The joint is virtually dog-proof. So a little pee and poop here and there: easy to clean up, easy to disinfect. Interestingly, she doesn't seem to go inside there. I've been taking her out regularly, though, and she seems to be learning to "oook" a little when she feels the urge. To the extent, I imagine, that puppies can be said to feel urges...one gets the sense that what goes in just blithely goes out, with little notice by the proprietor.

We HAVE discovered the interesting joys of electric cords, though, and so clearly she'll need to be partitioned away from those whenever the human can't watch her every living, breathing second. This contraption is going to go a long way toward keeping our little pistol safe.

Comment by Beth on March 11, 2014 at 10:13am: I know I've mentioned them in the past, but I'm not sure if it was my comment you saw. I could not have survived Jack's puppyhood without one. He was active and quick and could not be trusted for 15 seconds without having someone's eyes on him.

He matured into a well-mannered non-destructive dog who is very mindful of house rules, but he had so much energy as a puppy!

I also put a piece of cheap vinyl flooring underneath to protect my real floors. I got that tip from a breeder.