The Beauty of Exercise Pens
Just what IS an exercise pen or x-pen? It is a management tool that “show dog” people have long known about. Essentially, it is a doggie corral. It gives dogs and puppies more freedom than a crate and can help teach so many things to dogs. For puppies, an exercise pen is much like a play pen for babies. There are made of many brands, colors, sizes, and materials.
Why use an x-pen? First, puppies need to learn that confinement is a nice thing. I see so many puppies given too much freedom too fast and the result is poor manners, difficulties in housetraining, and unneeded stress when they must be confined at the veterinarian or a boarding facility or when traveling. Confinement is a life skill. It is necessary for puppies to learn how to cope with life on an almost every day basis. If you have a non-shedding breed, that puppy will need to be regularly groomed by a professional. At the groomer, a puppy will have to be comfortable in a crate or a small exercise area. If a puppy becomes sick, they will likely have to stay overnight at the veterinarian. If they are comfortable with confinement, a kennel stay will be less stressful which is important to the illness they may already be fighting. The pen is an excellent place to put a dog that has had surgery and needs to be quiet for a few days at home.
When bringing a puppy home, an exercise pen keeps your puppy safe when you answer the phone, or make dinner, dine with the family, or any time that you cannot directly watch your puppy. It’s an easy place to put a puppy so they cannot chew electrical cords or furniture. Yet it gives them enough space to play with toys, walk around, drink and eat and still be a part of the family nearby.
We can teach a puppy to sit for petting and going through doors with the help of an exercise pen. Simply require the puppy to sit before they come out of the pen or getting attention.
Exercise pens can be a great way to introduce puppies to other dogs in the family, while protecting all of the dogs from unintended nips or potential squabbles that might lead to injury. Dogs need time to build relationships with each other. A puppy in an exercise pen lets the older family dog feel safe from jumping, biting and puppy demands. Yet, both puppy and older dog can learn to relate to each other through the exercise pen. The pen gives the puppy a chance to learn to read the body language of the older dog. They can lick and sniff each other until they can build a trust.
Gradually, the puppy and the older dog can then spend supervised time together outside the exercise pen and have a chance to gradually build that trusting friendship.
With an older dog, such as a rescue that you want to introduce to your other dogs, it continues to work much the same way. A rescue can be introduced safely to the other family dogs through the exercise pen in the same way puppies can be introduced. Gradually, they are brought together in larger spaces, like the backyard where they are supervised.
I take several exercise pens, and put them together when I go camping so my dogs can have their own comfortable “corral” where they cannot run off to get lost or bother other campers in the campgrounds.
With some creativity, an exercise pen can be a great teaching tool and a way to prevent unwanted or unsafe behaviors.
Copyright Fran Jewell, IAABC CDBC, NADOI Certified Obedience and Tracking Instructor 2015
