Hello everyone

Well my job is requiring me to be in the office instead of working from home. Our Coco is 2.5 years old and when we leave the house, we put her in her crate...at the most 3-4 hours in the past.

Does anyone use a fence kind of play area? we can't leave her to roam the house..she still chews..but I don't want to leave her in her crate all day....any ideas?

how do you get your Carin to be able to stay at home without restraint, and not tear up or chew things?

Any help would be appreciated we are all going to be in

Thank you

I also crate my dog when I go out. I started using a exercise pen I got at the pet store. It is linked so you can fold it up and store it. I just surround the crate with the exercise pen in my kitchen. So she can move around alot. The pens fold out big. They are for inside or outside. They come in different height but the same widths.

when she was little she chewed terrible but she is l5 months now and only chews her toys. Thank goodness.

Maybe I am just lucky that way.

I think the X-pen setup that Karen uses for Nena is a good idea. Just make sure to have water available for Coco, and have some of her favorite toys in the pen for her. A Kong with frozen peanut butter, or frozen applesauce mixed with some kibble will keep her occupied for quite a while. How long will Coco be confined? It would be great if you could come home at lunch, or maybe have a neighbor stop in to let Coco out for a few minutes to go potty, or even take her for a quick walk. If that's not possible, you should be prepared for the possiblity of having a mess to clean up when you do get home from work. Good Luck!

Those exercise pens last forever. I bought one for my last dog to take on camping trips and it still looks almost brand new over 10 years later (after a lot of outdoor use too).

If I had to take an outside job, I would use the ex-pen and maybe buy a second one to double the space (with two dogs now). I think Desta could hang out without a pen, and maybe the Corgi...but I'm not absolutely sure about him not marking territory if I left for several hours. Then there would be the potential cat terrorizing. LOL

So...I'll just make it 3 votes for the playpen.

Not condoning this particular brand, but if you're a picture person like me, I always find a visual link helpful:

http://65.38.113.194/category/default.aspx...=1&catid=32

I have a "mud room" in between the kitchen and the garage - we put up a baby gate in the door way. It took a little time for Bruski to get used to, but now he loves going in there. We made it a positive experience by giving him a treat everytime we leave, but he has to go and 'get on his bed in his room'. We also leave out tons of chew toys, but he never seems to bother with them.

I think the key is a routine - Bruski now knows that we wake up, take showers, go to work and he goes into his room for the day. We have a dog-walker that comes and excercises him for about a half hour each day, so that cuts down on his chewing as well.

I guess we are lucky. We haven't had to crate our Cairn Zen since he was one year old. He is 3 1/2 now. I really believe the secret is excersise. We are up at 4:30 AM and

my wife takes Zen to a school yard every morning 7 days a week. She makes him jog on the leash for approximately 45 minutes and then lets him loose to play with his buddies who

also show up each morning. Meanwhile I do all the prep work that is needed prior to going to work. Things like making the bed, lunches, coffee, etc. Then I get the food and

water ready for the dog and cat. At 6 AM they come home with Zen being very hungry and his tounge hanging out from his morning excersise. From then until we are ready

to be off to work at 7:30 AM he just hangs around barking at neighbors who are up now and walking past our living room window. My wife says he is excersising his vocal cords.

At 7:29 he is waiting at the door for us to leave. Reason: About a year ago I started giiving him a couple small treats just as we leave the house. He is now conditioned and can't

wait for us to leave. When we come home in the evening he is usally sound asleep under a bed or in his favorite chair. I know he doesn't sleep the full eight ours we are gone

because I can see that he has pulled out his toys and left them around the living room, however, he doesn't chew anything other than his toys. Although we still have holes in

the carpet from when he was a puppy he change 100% almost to the day he became 1 year old. I know I am bragging (and why not) but we think he is now the perfect dog.