My girls are 10 and 11 yrs. old and I still put them in an ex-pen when I leave. IMO they feel safe. Now my Pommie would destroy the house if I let him have free run. He scares me even when I take out the trash so I put him in his ex-pen. If you have problems with your baby climbing out, I read somewhere here on YT to get lattice trim and use zip strips to connect it to the ex-pen.

All three of mine stay in their crate anytime we are away from home. My oldest is 8 and completely housebroken, but I feel they are safer when crated.

I have my 2 y/o Piper in a medium crate from Petsmart and plan on buying a pink crate(PetEdge: ProSelect Fold-Down Crates Fashion Colors) for my new baby Leah. Right now Leah is baby-gated in the bathroom until we get the crate. I have 2 kids who constantly leave stuff on the floor--I don't trust either yorkie to not chew up/eat things they shouldn't have. I know they find things when I am home and I would be devastated if something happened to either one of them. BTW, Piper's 3lbs, and Leah is 2.5lbs--so the crates have plenty of room for them.

Winston is gated in the kitchen while we are away. He is totally potty trained to go outside, I trust him 100%...but for his own safety, I do use a baby gate. I really think all he does is sleep while we are gone...he just jumps right in his bed, when he sees that we're leaving. He's such a good boy!!!

For Chloe I have a playyard from petsmart online ( but I'm thinking of switching to an x pen ...she is getting to be a jumper and the sides aren't to high on mine) I leave her in the playyard with her bed and blankets , toys , pee pad , food/water when we are going out. I never thought to put a crate inside the playyard it for her, Just her bed. She has never been in a crate except when she came to us. She has always just slept in the playyard. I was thinking about using a "cat type" bed that looks kinda like a little dome fabric tent at one time , maybe I will put that in there, so she would feel she has a "crate" to be in.

The longest she is usually in it is 5 hours on Sundays while we are at church, and she sleeps in it at night.

My other dog Sydney does have a crate ( a big on now that she is potty trained) and she stays in there with her blankets , some snacks and toys :) she is 3 years old , so she has no problem holding it till we get home.

I believe this is the ex-pen that I got:

24" Black Pet Dog Cat Play Exercise Pen w/Carry Case - eBay (item 250350560143 end time Jan-03-09 14:35:30 PST)

I got it from ebay with free shipping, and it looks like the same one, with a door in one of the panels.

Lexi was crate trained. When I had to go out for longer periods, and then when I went back to work at the end of the summer, I didn't want to leave her in the crate for too long. I liked the idea of the ex-pen. Plus, we were doing major construction on our house. The kitchen and our bedroom were the only liveable rooms, and when they were working in the kitchen, I needed a safe place to keep Lexi.

I like the ex-pen because it gives her room to walk around. In there are her bed and some toys. When we go out, I put in her food and water, and her litter pan with the pee pad in it. I used to put her crate in it, when the ex-pen was in a corner - the crate would go in that corner. And at night, she would sleep in her crate in her ex-pen.

When we moved the ex-pen, I couldn't keep the crate in there any more because she could climb on her crate and get out of the ex-pen. Now her crate is next to the ex-pen.

Over the summer, we had to be up early as the workers would come at 7. Once the worst of the construction was over, which was when school started and I was back to work, I wanted to grab any time I could to sleep a little later on weekends. But...I didn't want to make Lexi wait too long in her crate. So eventually, I just put her in her ex-pen for bedtime, with her litter pan. That way, if she should have to go during the night, which is pretty rare, or before I get up in the morning, which doesn't happen often, she can go on her own, and we don't get awakened by her barking.

Lexi rarely uses the litter pan in her ex-pen. She prefers not to go in there, and will usually only go if we are gone for an extended time.

HTH! :)