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How to keep your puppies out of trouble with the Carlson Portable Pet Pen
This post is sponsored by Carlson™ Pet Products. I am being compensated to help share the Carlson Portable Pet Pen, but we only share information we feel is relevant to our readers. Carlson™ Pet Products is not responsible for the content of this article.
Can you believe our litter of Golden Retriever puppies are already 5 months old!? I still remember six little puppies running around the house, gnawing on the walls like termites, chewing on my slippers, and finding the perfect spot on the floor to pee or poop. So, the question of the day? How to keep your puppies out of trouble? During those early days we had three ways to keep our pups out of trouble:
- A Homemade Whelping Box
- A Laundry Basket
- The Carlson™ Portable Pet Pen
Without the whelping box and the Carlson Portable Pet Pen (oh…and our trusty laundry basket) it would have been mayhem in the house! We did a first look review of the Carlson Portable Pet Pen back in December when the puppies were a mere 4 weeks old (actually I think they might have been a wee bit younger than that).
Today, we take another look at our puppy playpen to see how it held up to the puppies as they got older.
How Do You Keep Puppies Out Of Trouble
I know some of you hate the idea of containment especially when it comes to crate training, but containment is a great way to keep your puppy from getting into trouble. It’s especially important if you have a litter of puppies because quite frankly it’s impossible to keep a constant eye on six curious pups.
We needed an alternative to the whelping box and when puppies are just little guys, containment was as simple as a laundry basket:
Doing laundry with the puppies!
Awww…the laundry basket days. Whenever I needed to clean the whelping box everyone just plopped into the laundry basket. Unfortunately, puppies grow and eventually they were crawling out of the basket. 🙁
At around 6 weeks of age the laundry basket was no longer an option so we turned to the Carlson Portable Pet Pen:
Our Carlson Portable Pet Pen worked great with our litter of pups.
We setup the Carlson Portable Pet Pen in our atrium which was great anytime we needed to cleanup the whelping box or give the pups some fresh air. It was a perfect play area for our litter of pups.
…and guess what? It even works for our 5 month old puppy…kind of…
Our Golden Bear trying to escape the Carlson Pet Pen.
At 5 months old Bear could still fit through the little pet door, but it’s a tight squeeze. A few more weeks and he’ll probably get stuck in that little opening.
Finally our 70 pound mama Raven wanted to give our Carlson Pet Pen a try…
Our Golden Mama wanted to give the Carlson Pen a try.
It was back breaking to get Raven over the side walls. Still on my wish list would be some sort of opening for larger dogs to get in and out of the Carlson Pet Pen.
Bonus points if you know where this movie quote comes from: “You’re not squeezing me through that tiny door.” Think German accent…Answers accepted in the comment section below.
Carlson Portable Pet Pen Video Review
We even had the chance to capture some live action of the puppies in our Carlson Portable Pet Pen. Check out our video review:
And It’s Portable (oh yeah, that’s part of the name)
Yep, the Carlson Portable Pet Pen is not just for home use to keep your litter of puppies out of trouble. If you have a small or medium sized dog you could use it on any outing where you might need to keep your dog safe:
- In the backyard
- At the park
- On the beach
- While you’re camping
By the way, you’ll notice I mentioned small or medium sized dog. We have one thing on our wish list for the Carlson Portable Pet Pen…a door or gate to allow us to get our bigger dogs in and out. It’s a little a lot difficult to get a 70 lb dog over the 26″ side walls.
So, for now we’ll use our Carlson Portable Pet Pen for the puppies which is okay because as service dog puppy raisers we have a new puppy at least once a year.
After all this rambling the question remains: how do we keep our puppies out of trouble? CONTAINMENT! The Carlson Portable Pet Pen is great for keeping puppies, small, and medium sized dogs out of trouble.
What about you guys? What do you use to keep your puppies out of trouble? Do you have a portable pet pen? Tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.
How to keep your puppies out of trouble with the Carlson Portable Pet Pen.
Top Picks For Our Puppies
- BEST PUPPY TOY
We Like: Snuggle Puppy w/ Heart Beat & Heat Pack - Perfect for new puppies. We get all of our Service Dog pups a Snuggle Puppy. - BEST DOG CHEW
We Like: Best Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors. - BEST DOG TREATS
We Like: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites - One of our favorite treats for training our service dog puppies.
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.
James says
This is such a better idea than a laundry basket to keep your dogs out of trouble! Thanks for sharing.
Colby says
We love using the laundry basket! The first few weeks the puppies don’t move around too much and also they stay close together in the laundry basket keeping each other warm. The problem is they eventually out grow the laundry basket and like I said in the video…Enter the Carlson Portable Pet Pen!
Susan - The4legged says
I believe that using this Pen will be helpful for many families whose dogs live in door. My dog is a Dachshund and it’s hard to train him. May be I will try to use this Pen. Thanks for sharing with us!
Clare Kendry says
I would like to order this pen.The Carlson™ Portable Pet Pen really is a great thing to maintain a lot of puppies at a time.
Maria Flores says
This reminds me of the time when I haven’t found out yet about playpens. You would actually take out large laundry baskets to temporarily home your dog’s. Thanks to the innovations, I can now actually use the baskets to do my laundry 🙂 I have a playpen now that works both indoors and outdoors. It houses my dogs safely and securely as well as allowing me to control the space and area where they could roam around the house.
Colby says
The laundry basket worked great when the puppies were little guys, but as soon as they were able to crawl out of the basket the Carlson Portable Pet Pen came in very handy.
John says
I have been using playpens for my dogs for many years but I have not tried Carlson Portable Pet Pen. I will give a try next time.
Thanks for this article Colby.
arlene says
Picking up my 10th foster puppy for Lions Foundation Dog Guides, Canada.
Thanks for all the information to jog my memory of getting a new pup.
All your information is very useful and makes good common sense. It also
is what we learn at Dog Guides for training our puppies.
Getting excited, can’t wait to pick her up, and THANKS for reminding me
of the sleepless nights !
Ryan Olivas says
I’m here to read your article but the photos keeps telling me ” Hey watch us, stop reading” lol.