Climbing pen walls to escape.
 

So Luma has been AMAZING at potty training, she never misses, but she was sleeping on our bed while we watched the Footloose remake just now and we put her off the bed to go potty and she couldnt hold it any more. She leaked a little so we put her in time out in her pen.

well we go into the kitchen for five minutes, and I hear a strange noise. Look over and see my baby HANGING BY HER NECK off the wall of the pen. I am so upset, I am crying and I feel like a horrible mama. She's been escaping the pen the past two days when we're not looking and we were wondering how she was doing it...she is only 2.5 lbs, she is 10 weeks, how in the heck...

well I just caught her in the act, she is standing on her bed and climbing over the wall of the pen. Only this time she got stuck and was just dangling there...I feel so bad, I am so worried this is going to somehow cause CT and I'm going to lose her for being neglectful. We took her bed away...ugh.

One of the other dams at my breeder's house was known as Evil Kineval for climbing in and out of her pen over the wall but Luma was SO little we joked about her being a bad influence...now we are worried she will continue to do this and hurt herself....sorry this is so long but I am terrified and feel so guilty...

AND she just did it again. Without the boost from her bed. In the time it took me to use the restroom..wow...I am getting really upset and I don't know what to do. Maybe we need to switch to a crate...she sleeps in bed with us some nights. She can go in and out as she pleases to eat, play, sleep, and potty in there. What the HECK?

We have a soft-sided x pen. it has canvas walls with small mesh boneshaped "windows" to see thru. It is made by Petnation port-a-pen. It has a website listed, but I couldn't find it on the website anymore....

My ZoE scaled the walls of her play pen at about ten weeks old too! Once she figured out how to do it, there was NO keeping her in there anymore. I ended up having to use a VERY tall gate with no vertical bars she could climb, to confine her to one room of the house when I was gone.

Luckily, she potty trained very quickly, so by four months of age I closed all the doors to the rooms I could, and gave her the run of the open part of the house (kitchen, dining room, living room)and kept her potty pads down the hall outside the bathroom.

Your Luma sounds like my Brandi.....a world class escape artist. My Brandi was so smart that should would pay attention to how I put her in her crate, and she would unlatch the crate all by herself. I'm suspecting Luma will do the same thing.


I finally ended up getting a soft-sided mesh expen with a zippered top. I always made sure to put her in from the top and made sure it was zipped up. Because the top was too high for her to reach, there was no way she could escape. In her mind the top was the only way out. Little did she know that the expen also had zippered sides that she never tried to escape from.

Holy Houdini....you've got a little escape artist on your hands !!
I would agree that it's time to crate train her. If you only are gone for short time, crate training should work for you.

This may be helpful: Training Tips - Dawn's Yorkies Ohio

But if you are set on pen training her you may just need to invest in a taller pen. ONe that has sections of gate set up.

Bestpet 36 Black Pet Dog Cat Play Exercise Pen#

Pet yard containment pen by North states at Petworldshop.com

These soft sided pens sound perfect and I need to look into this. I live in an apt with 4 GUYS...all of them messy and I can't let her into the living room while I am gone because she would no doubt get into the trash or run out the door behind one of them...I could put her in the bathroom while I am gone and set up a gate..but would that be cruel??

I have a soft-sided pen (that I now keep in my car for use while I'm there with her, if we are visiting people). I don't kow if your girl is a chewer, but my ZoE would chew through the sides in minutes if left alone in it. Also, ours is an octagon shape and ZoE has flipped it on it's side, while she was inside it, and walked it around the room much like a hamster in a ball. Based on my experience with them, I wouldn't recommend the kind I have (pic below) for unsupervised confinement.

I would try a soft crate with a fuzzy memory foam bath mat inside for her bedding.Trust me!;)

So my oscar is not the only flying monkey in the group.
Omg, i have a 3 ft high x-pen dividing my living room
with his litterbox for potty training purposes.
I got up to go to the kitchen and i heard this little tap, tap, tap behind
me and there he was.
I put him back in the pen turned around just in time to see him climb on the arm of the sofa and leap about 3 ft across and over the gate.
I nearly had a heart attack.
Needless to i do not leave him in there alone anymore...

[QUOTE=yavenay;3853152]Your Luma sounds like my Brandi.....a world class escape artist. My Brandi was so smart that should would pay attention to how I put her in her crate, and she would unlatch the crate all by herself. I'm suspecting Luma will do the same thing.


I finally ended up getting a soft-sided mesh expen with a zippered top. I always made sure to put her in from the top and made sure it was zipped up. Because the top was too high for her to reach, there was no way she could escape. In her mind the top was the only way out. Little did she know that the expen also had zippered sides that she never tried to escape from.[/QUOTE

And she sounds like our Harry - the original Mr. Houdini!! :D

I personally think a huge crate would be the very best way to go for her - we bought Harry the soft-sided mesh expen with the top, but he learnt how to open the zips - and also managed to bite them open :eek:

Another note of caution - he also learnt that he could open the kitchen door by bouncing up and down, catching the handle....:yelrotflm

Good luck! Sally + Harry x

[quote=Harrysmum;3853282]wow sounds like Mei Ling...she can fly over gates, open those wire kennel that latches...somehow she figure to use her paw and push it out and drag it over and once she figured that out there was no stopping her...then i got a bigger one that had 2 latches 1 on top and 1 on bottom...well she doesn't need the top unlatch since she can't reach it anyways but all she needs to do was unlatched the bottom and all 3 of them would be out...so i then got soft sided kennel that has to be zip...when she figured out how to unzip it and if she can't she tears it apart....so now i really need to confine her i have to put her in a large petmate kennel where you have to use your thumb and another finger to squeeze the latch together in order to release the lock...good thing she doesn't have a thumb or else i would be out of options...funny thing is i noticed with every different types of kennel she sit and watches me daily on how to open it and bam she figures it out...

[quote=xxmxaxrxyxx;3853336]Do you think Harry and Mei Ling are related?!!? :D Has she figured out how to open doors yet...?!! ;)

Oh, and Harry learnt that dragging the latch over trick too...I ended up getting a tiny padlock which has worked so far...until he susses how to cut keys....:eek: :D Sally + Harry x

[quote=xxmxaxrxyxx;3853336]Yup that's Brandi.....:D. Fortunately for me now, Brandi has run of the house. I don't crate her anymore at all. She is potty pad trained so rarely has accidents anymore. When I first got her, I confined her for at the first year I had her. In that year's time, I must gone through about several different ways to confine her including locking her in the bathroom. That didn't work, poop ended up all over the bathroom.

they could possible be...i have put padlocks on before but it became a hassle...especially when i tend to forgot where i place the key...and have to go searching for it...on the zipper currently on their large soft side kennel...well yukio my new addition was teething so he starting chewing on it but since his teeth were so small it didn't do anything to it...well here come Mei Ling who started chewing and damage it where it zippers right in the middle..before i would zip all the way up on either side when then i had to zip both to come down and meet in the middle...well i decided to kennel them since i was expected the cable man...and they didn't like the fact that i went upstairs so Mei Ling started scratching and digging and it totally broke the zipper of it that side so all 5 was on the top step of the basement stair scratching at the door to come up...so right now i had to flip the crate around and back it up against the wall and put a black blanket in the back so they don't see no light and use the side zipper to let them out...but i know its only temporary and i may have to get a bigger petmate kennel since they all like to sleep together or be together...without crying out like they are dying if the one or 2 is not in there with them...

:D I tried that turning it round trick too! + the covering it up one...but the next thing I saw was Harry sitting on top of the crate cover inside his crate! Somehow he'd managed to get hold of a little part and drag it in!!! He was sitting there on his little mountain looking very proud of himself...:D

Do you know, I used to find it worrying - but now I'm almost waiting for his next ingenious trick...they're so, so clever aren't they? Mind you, I've only got one to contend with...:rolleyes: Sally + Harry x

Lexi also was known for this. We made the outdoor fence like 6 feet and she would fin a way to scale it. Scared me to death. It was always to be with us. So she always was with me. She got to run free lots. Better then hurting herself. And she always had me in her sights. She was amazing. Sounds like yours want to be with you. I would not leave her in the pen. Exspecially if she got caught by her neck.

I had one kinda like this and Lexi chewed through it she also climbed out of her pens

You sure need a change quick. It's just too dangerous to let her hurt herself trying to escape. Maybe a wire crate that is big enough for her pee pads and a bed. That way there would be no climbing out. I know some of the portable playpens have tops for them. I wouldn't wait too long to do something, she already know she can escape or is determined to do so and she is too young to have free run when you are not there to watch her. Hope you find your solution soon......like today.

Could you tape some cardboard over the top edges of the crate, one side left sticking out over the inside so she can't get over?

Just uppdating, we haven't had to put her in the pen because I was off today so we spent the day consideriing our options. We have a shower curtain under the pen so if she has an acciident it won't get on the carpet. We think if we put the curtain up the inside of the walls she won't have a foothold as it will cover the little rectangles up. We've put it up and are gonna go into the livinng room and leave her in the pen to see. We will be watching her carefully. If this doesn't work my bf's dad is gonna construct a tall gate with no way to climb it and confine her to the bathroom while I work. I work 9 to 12 and then 1 to 5.

"Hanging by her neck"... I'm assuming she had a collar on... which if this is the case... I think it wise to remove it.

Already did. But we took it off because her id clanging against her food bowl was scaring her. By hanging by her neck I meant she was perched over the top of the pen about to jump and she slipped and was holding herself up by her chin.

Is there not one of them that would help you by taking her out doors to potty during the day when you are working?

Are any of them home during the day?

If they chipped in to help, you could get her crate trained and she would be trained in no time at all.

Than you wouldn't have to worry so much about her getting into things while you were away. She could be in her crate safe and sound and waiting on you to get home.

:)
I agree - We also have a soft-sided pen like the picture - Gracie didnt' flip it but she tried so hard to get out that she caved one side in - fortunately she wasn't hurt but she could have been. Freaked me out. She's only 5 pounds at 1 year of age and this happened when she was about 6 months old. I'd go with something sturdy or a gate at the bathroom door. That's probably the safest method - and it's not cruel. The only other alternative would be a large crate - you know, not just a cozy one for sleeping but like one of those doggy apartments that have a sleeping side and a peeing side. Good luck :)