What height of ex-pen for grass training a puppy?

Question

A rough-coated collie puppy will be joining our family soon. Our plan for outdoor elimination is to place the puppy (only when elimination is imminent) in an ex-pen to keep the young pup contained while he/she sniffs and circles and to train the puppy to use just a particular section of the yard. I imagine only needing this for 2-3 months (am I too optimistic?).

Collies can grow quite big, but I can't find any reference to their size at 8-20 weeks of age and am having a hard time guessing the height of an ex-pen needed to contain a 3-4 month old puppy of that breed just for potty time.

I would like to use the shortest ex-pen possible so that my son can move it easily when he mows the lawn (or else he won't, but that's an issue for the parenting SE).

This is the first puppy/dog my husband and I have had as adults, so feel free to answer and comment with additional advice!

Answer 1

2-3 months? That's quite a bit exaggerated. It should be more like 1-2 weeks, especially if you've got some very tasty treats you keep exclusively for "potty time". It took us maybe a week or two to get our puppy so far that he didn't want to go when on a walk. He'd start pulling and running home to do it back home - and to get the treats. He'd actually start to get angry sometimes if he'd go and wouldn't get a treat, e.g. due to us not expecting it. (That behavior fixed itself over the next month or so.)

Also I don't think you'll need any kind of pen to contain the dog. A short leash might be enough, depending on the area you might not even need that. Most puppies won't move too far on their own, especially in the beginning, so just stay there and wait. You shouldn't leave your dog on its own anyway, especially at that age (potential danger of poisonous plants, possibly other animals, etc.).

For a start, you just have to get your puppy to do it there once. Once that's done, every consequent time will be easier, since the dog will prefer the area it used before. In case some accident happens inside your house, you can use that to your advantage, too. Grab the product and place it in the "target area" on your grass. The dog will recognize the smell and reuse the area. You can remove every again after the next time your puppy went there.

Answer 2

Mario has a good answer, but if you are still planning to use an ex-pen, a two foot tall pen should be fine. There are very good reasons to not leave your puppy unsupervised in an ex-pen so 2 feet provides a sufficient barrier if you are there to ensure he learns to respect the barrier.

A single ex-pen only makes a square 4 foot by 4 foot, so it is unlikely to provide sufficient space for the job. If you use the ex-pen against the corner of a fenced yard to make an area, it can be 8 foot by 8 foot which is about the right size if you scoop poop regularly (like every time).

To use the corner of the fence, about 8 feet out from the corner in both directions screw eye hooks into the fence so you can use the clips that come with the ex-pen to clip the ex-pen to the fence. When you puppy bumps against the ex-pen it will stay attached to the fence.