An x-pen works better for me.....when you say "crate", do you mean "carrier" or a wire crate that we kennel dogs in at dog shows, usually approx. 28 x 40 inches? If you actually do have a crate, which is a wire "cage" for kenneling a dog, you can put pee pads in the tray in the bottom, put him a bed on one end, and his food/water right by his bed so he has the other end to do potty in. I think an x-pen would be better for a little baby that is confined for so much of the day....you can put that carrier with his bed inside it...like a man cave kinda thing....and position the x-pen around the carrier, so he can run around inside the xpen, and then go into his carrier for sleeping. Cover the entire floor that is enclosed by the x-pen with the pee pads....as time goes by, and he gets older, you can pull up some of the pads and just leave them in one area of the x-pen for him to use for potty. My dogs are crated from around 10pm until 8am...then everyone is up and running around....everyone goes back down for naps at 1pm-4pm, and then everyone is back up, playing, interacting with family, etc, until it is time to go down for the night. Schedules work super, and when they go back into their crates, I cover them with a sheet, and everyone knows it is time to go to sleep.....if you have someone that is home during the day when you are at work, maybe they can play with the baby for several hours, then return baby to the x-pen....then you can take over when you get home! Baby needs plenty of valuable, quality time with you and play time.....then the time he has to be crated wont be as bad on his psyche. |