Help! Can't keep her in her playpen!
 

Greetings,

My wife and I pickup up our adorable little Yorkiepoo 10 days ago. She's a great little puppy, and is catching on quick. However, we have a bit of a problem: My wife and I sometimes have to leave her for up to 4 hours due to our schedules, and we want her to have a larger place to play than her crate.

The first pen I bought was the "superyard XT"... it's 26 inches tall and plastic. Upon putting her in there, she hated it and found a way to get out (when we aren't in the room). So, I returned that, and picked up a 30 inch high metal pen. Well, today she ran up to the door to greet me when I got home. Now, she's only 4lbs and 12 weeks old. When she stands on her hind legs her paws are still a good foot below the top of the pen.

I've tried hiding, as well as staying the room, to see how she gets out. She'll never do anything while we're home but whine, but the second we go out, she's outta there. The other day I stepped outside for literally 10 seconds, came inside, and she was out.

I'm concerned about getting anything taller, as if she's climbing it and falls she could get injured. However, I don't know if she's climbing out or jumping high enough to get her paws over the top and wiggling out.

Does anybody have any suggestions? The only other thing I can think to do is try to make a top for it, but I want to keep her play area as large as possible when we're not here.

HELP please!! Thanks much.

Regards,
Pat, Sara, and Coco

You could leave a camera on her...a video camera perhaps?

Also, you could put flour along the top edge and when she gets out, the flour mess could reveal her path and her method...

She is climbing out of her pens. Schatzie did this too when we had her in a playpen as a pup. It didn't take her long to figure out her "great escape". After her doing so, we removed the playpen as I felt it was no longer safe.

We switched her to a crate after that.

They're infamous climbers. If you just sit on the couch and partially stretch your legs out in front of you, you'll probably see that lil puppy climbing up them.

They'd make great mountain goats! :D

I was going to say to be sure not to leave a collar or harness on her when you are not there in order to prevent it from being caught when she is climbing like that and hanging herself.

If you put a top on it, please be sure it is not something her little paws can be caught in. :(

My chi figured out too how to escape so I made a makeshift cover with large clips and a blanket. I know that there are custome made xpen covers out there that snap on. They are a little more appealing than the blanket, but hey it keeps her in.

Maybe a crate would work better. Good luck

Great advice on not leaving the collar or harness on. :thumbup:

I wholeheartedly agree with the collar/harness recommendations! I think we'll probably just get a large crate, but I wanted to give her a little more room to play. However, we've been quite worried about her getting a little paw caught up in the pet yard, so I guess it's for the best.

Thanks for the advice... I need to get a video camera so I can see what she's up to when we're not here!

-Pat-

Amen to the "mountain goats" - so true!

Joey climbs over baby gates, too. We now stack 2 on top of each other and that works to keep him in the laundry room. I like the idea of putting a top over the playpen.

Here's my latest plan:

I don't want to leave her in a crate, even if it's rather large, for a long time. She already sleeps in one, so to spend another 4 hours a day or more in one isn't my idea of fun for her.

So... I am a pretty handy guy :lightbulb , and am going to run to Home Depot and buy some thin plastic sheets (probably 1/8" thick- not flexible plastic like in tarps- but rather rigid plastic) and cut them to size of the pen panels. Then, I'll drill some holes and zip tie them to the inside of the panels. That way, the whole inside of the playpen is a smooth surface, and she won't be able to climb it. Hopefully I can buy them in clear, so she can still see outside of it. Wish me luck... Actually, I'll feel much better about it as I was already worried about her getting a paw caught in one of the holes and having her fall.

I'll post an update if I get it to work...

-Pat-

Here's my latest plan:

I don't want to leave her in a crate, even if it's rather large, for a long time. She already sleeps in one, so to spend another 4 hours a day or more in one isn't my idea of fun for her.

So... I am a pretty handy guy :lightbulb , and am going to run to Home Depot and buy some thin plastic sheets (probably 1/8" thick- not flexible plastic like in tarps- but rather rigid plastic) and cut them to size of the pen panels. Then, I'll drill some holes and zip tie them to the inside of the panels. That way, the whole inside of the playpen is a smooth surface, and she won't be able to climb it. Hopefully I can buy them in clear, so she can still see outside of it. Wish me luck... Actually, I'll feel much better about it as I was already worried about her getting a paw caught in one of the holes and having her fall.

I'll post an update if I get it to work... let me know what you guys think!

-Pat-

I have been trying to locate the expen covers that I have seen but haven't had great luck. I did find this though, http://www.cherrybrook.com/store/Pro...roductID=62878 and http://www.cherrybrook.com/store/Pro...roductID=62876

If I come across anything else, I will post it.

Apparently my Yorkie (Zack) isn't the only one who can really climb. Zack is only 4 months old and weighs about 2.5 pounds, yet, after having him a week, he figured out how to climb out of his pen (which was 24 inches high). So, we returned the pen and bought a 30 inch one. We have had that one for about 3 weeks, and he has managed to climb out of that one 3 times. He just jumps and jumps and jumps and then pulls himself up. The other day, I heard him crying at around 6 AM. I went to his pen and he had pulled himself to the top and was hanging on for dear life! I think he was too scared to drop down. Anyway, I am quite worried that he will hurt himself. I was thinking about getting a top or the adding clear, plastic interior walls. The top option though makes me feel like Zack will feel like he is in jail. Any downside to the clear plastic walls option (like Pat suggested)?

Pat, how is the project going? Can you post pic when completed?

thanks,
Allan

Allan, I'm going to try to work on it this weekend, and I'll post the results and hopefully a pic or two!

-Pat-

Wow~ Maybe your new design will take off and it will be all because of your yorkie!! :thumbup:

:lol tears soo funny, but true...good luck with the lil' escape artist!

My yorkies are great climbers so I keep them in crates. However, if you want a quick solution, try covering the pen with a bed sheet. If you are afraid the bed sheet will fall off, buy some clips and clip the sheet onto the pen.

p.s. here is a picture of one of my dog escaping the bathroom when she was around 6-8 weeks old.
http://www.geocities.com/tinybittosalt/MVC-004V.MPG

That was a perfect clip of a yorkie mountain goat! :D Mine was 6 weeks old when I brought her home and I noticed how she used her little toenails to dig into the carpet on our patio steps to get up them. They are just about 4 to 5 inch steps, but it was fun to watch her. :D

My little guy did the same thing as a puppy, I got baby gates piled one on top of the other, and he still climbed out!! I don't leave him in anything now, he stays in my laundry room with all his stuff.

UPDATE: My modifications to the playpen are done!

I will test it out tomorrow. Previously, she wouldn't get out of her pen unless we were gone. We tried putting her in there and hiding, and could never get her to jump out. However, the second the garage door closed and we pulled away, she could climb out! A smart little one she is!

Here's the story on my modifications- the plastic was way more expensive than I thought, so I bought smaller sheets. They start 12" up from the bottom, and go to the top. I think it's better that way, as then the bottom is still open for her, but she won't have anything to get her paws on to climb up. Everybody I told about this said "why don't you just get a taller playpen", to which I would always respond "if she's going to climb 30 inches high, what's to say she won't climb 48 inches high, and possibly hurt herself falling or jumping off??" Unfortunately, we don't have a good room to close off for her to stay in... and she licks everything! So we feel better with her in the playpen.

If it's effective in keeping her in there, I'll post a how-to article. However, the project did take me a lot more time than I thought, but being an engineer, I can't resist a good project :) Plus, it only cost $35 which is about what I wanted to spend.

In the pictures, it's very hard to see the plastic. This stuff is CLEAR! The glare gives it away, though, and in the detail shots you can see how it's attached.

Let me know what you think, and hopefully I'll have good news to report when I get home tomorrow and she's still in there (crossing my fingers...).

Later,
-Pat-

And here's the little culprit! I haven't posted any pics of her yet, but she's a 12 week old Yorkiepoo and we are crazy about her! It doesn't show in the pic, but she has a lot of dark brown on her, with lighter patches on her ears, front, and front of her legs. Her new fur is looking silver, though, so it's possible we'll have a light colored puppy named Coco. Oh well, we think she's the best regardless of what color she turns out to be :)

Gret job on the playpen, I really hope the improvements work to prevent your little one to climb out. She is so cute. Adorable. We need more pics of Miss Coco. :)

Pat-

You mods look great. Keep us posted as to how they are working out since I am contemplating doing the same thing. Where did you buy the pastic? What is it called? Did the store cut it to size for you? Also, did you drill the holes with standard drill bits?

Side point - how has has everyone's Yorkies climbed? We had a 24 inch pen and Zack got out of there in a week. Traded it in for a 30 inch pen. He has gotten out of that one twice, but in general, he seems okay. Then, this weekend we stayed at my parents. We had bought a 36 inch pen for Zack to leave at there house. And Zack managed to climb out of that one! He is so small (2.5 pounds; 4 months). I have seen him scale the pen, but i still find it amazing. HGas anyone's Yorkie gone higher???

allan

Allan,

I bought acrylic plastic sheets at Home Depot. It was about $35 bucks for (6) 18"x24" sheets. Unfortunately, they had to be about 23.5" to fit the playpen, so I had to cut off about 1/2", which was a challenge. Also, any kind of plastic like this (acrylic, lexan, etc) is very hard to drill with a regular bit, but if you go real slow and apply almost no pressure it works. I had planned on getting a plastic bit, but they didn't have them and I didn't want to wait for one. I still have to make 3 more panels and I'll be done. She can still get out, but I think she's climbing the sides near the wall without the panels and then jumping over. There's no way she can climb the smooth plastic! When it's all done, I'll let you know if it was worth it or not....

Zack climbed 36" and he is only 2.5 pounds?! Wow, that's impressive! I just picked up a new digital camera, so hopefully I can get a video of how our little Coco is getting out!

-Pat-

We bought a playpen for our yorkie and she got her head stuck in it and we had to get her out. :( We returned it.

Wow! What a good idea on the playpen! I've been looking at pens for traveling with mine, and I didn't like the looks of them either. The plexi-glass/plastic is a great idea.

Pat, how did you cut the 1/2 inch off on the side? I am in the same situation. What type of saw did you use?

It looks great and I hope it works but my Shelby would eat it.

Shelby stopped climbing after we got a higher expen. My next step was going to be one of those metal crates for large dogs.

oops sorry about above post. now I see the kind of plastic. yup, that might do the trick. i bought a roll of that stuff to keep shelby from falling through the rails at the top of the stairs. May not be exactly the same you can use a whole punch on this stuff, then attach it with plastic ties.

http://www.rightstart.com/global/sto...~item~281.html