First Time Puppies: DIY Puppy Pen #1

So you are past the three-week mark. Way to go! Your puppies are starting to move around more. They are getting bigger, and they likely are starting to outgrow your whelping box. You will need to make a choice about where your puppies will live next. Large breeders tend to have dedicated kennels and spaces for their puppies past the original whelping stage. However, if you are a home breeder, you will likely be looking for a way to keep your puppies in the house, yet still contained and safe. Enter the Puppy Pen! This is additional space for your puppies to live in for the next few weeks.

Considerations

As you consider how to build your Puppy Pen, here are some considerations:

1. Whelping Box & Puppy Pen All-in-One: There are products on the market that are essentially half a whelping box that you then add additional space to in order to make it a larger puppy pen as your dogs grow. If you opted for our DIY Puppy Whelping Box, then this option won’t work for you, but it is good to know if you decide you want to continue breeding and desire to have an all-in-one solution. Here are some examples:
   
   - Dura-Whelp Whelping Box — Dura-Whelp Whelping Box and Whelping Supplies (durawhelp.com)
   - Whelping Boxes, Breeding Supplies, and Training Pads. (ezwhelp.com)
   - Whelping Boxes – pupez.com
   
   

2. How many puppies you have and their breed: More puppies mean more space needed, and larger breeds need more space. Pretty simple.

3. How much time will they spend in the pen: Some breeders need their puppies to be in their puppy pen close to 24/7. This obviously has many additional needs. If you puppies are in your house, and you plan to raise them inside/outside with oversight and only use the pen for eating, sleeping, and resting, then you have a different set of needs from a large breeder.

With these considerations in mind, we built our first version of our Puppy Pen. We have six puppies, they are Golden Retrievers (likely 10-16 pounds each by the time they leave around 8 weeks), and we usually have them out of the pen about 6-8 times a day for about 30-45 minutes each time to play either inside or outside (we are lucky to have 5 kids who can help watch and train puppies during these times…otherwise we would have a hard time with that pattern). This means the remainder of their time is spent sleeping and resting, so the pen doesn’t have to be as big as it would be otherwise.

When thinking of your own Puppy Pen, keep these considerations in mind and either make your pen larger or smaller depending on your specifics.

Building your Puppy Pen

For the first version/stage of our Puppy Pen, we chose to build a 4’ x 8’ pen. This was significantly larger than our whelping box, and allowed us to gauge what our puppies really needed without giving them too large of a space right-off-the-bat. The supplies you will need are:

1. A metal or plastic puppy fence: You can find these at your local pet store or online. They will come in sizes ranging from 24” to 36” tall, and 6’ to 24’ long. Many come with foldable sizes that can be stacked down when not in use, and can be folded into different shapes. We chose one that was 30” tall with qty 8, 2’ long sections, for a total length of 16’. We bought two of these to fit around the perimeter of our 8x4 pen (8’+4’+8’+4’ = 24’ hence we needed two with extra). Ours came with a built-in gate. Look around and find a style that works good for you.

2. Qty 2, 2x6 boards: These will make the base of your pen and a place to attach the puppy fence. The fence alone is likely not sturdy enough to handle a puppy repeatedly pushing against it, and on a hard surface (your floor), they may be able to nuzzle under it and/or tip it over if they try. We chose boards that were painted to better handle any mess, but most natural wood is also not a problem for animals (though it may stain).

3. Qty 4, L-brackets (and screws): You will use these to attach the 2x6 boards to each other to keep the from moving/tipping. Similar to these, but you can also find them at most any hardware store.

4. Qty 12+, small, straight brackets (and screws): You will use these to attach the puppy fence to the 2x6 boards. Similar to these, but again, you can find these at almost any hardware store.

5. Water Proof Flooring: You have many options here. We have seen people use chipboard or plywood that was painted to provide a water-proof layer. We have seen people use scraps of linoleum. If you are on concrete, you may be able to not worry about the floor. We chose to purchase a 8’x4’ plastic shower panel board that can be rolled up for future storage from Home Depot. Whatever you choose, remember, water-proof!

6. Miscellaneous Tools: We also needed a drill, zip ties, and a chop saw, though any type of saw would work and if you measured before going to the hardware store, they will often cut the wood to length as needed.
   
   

Putting It All Together

1. Connect 2x6s: We started by laying down our 8x4 plastic sheet. We then assembled the puppy fence in a roughly 8x4 shape and then measured the sides. Depending on your fence, the sides will likely not be exactly 8’ or 4’. Cut your boards to measure and fit right up to one another. Screw our L-brackets into each corner to hold the boards securely to one another.

2. Connect fence to itself: If you are using more than one section of fence and/or you need to contain extra sections of panels, you have two options. You can remove panels as needed if your fence comes with completely modular sections. Or, if like ours, it folds on itself, you will need to fold over some of the extra sections to make the shape work as you need it to. We kept our extra sections at the back. Zip tie the sections together to make one perimeter fence.

3. Connect fence to 2x6s: Use your straight brackets to connect the fence to the boards. We made sure our brackets could span two of the fence bars at once, to give it more stability than just one. We put these 2/3 up the board to keep them from bending away from the boards if pushed on by puppies.

That is it! A simple Puppy Pen. As you can see, we made a modification as the puppies grew (about 4 weeks old), and added another stretch of 2x6 at the entrance. Mama can still get in, but puppies can’t get out. (They were starting to climb over the 2x6! Super cute, but not a good arrangement.)

Once a day we take everything out of the pen and clean the floor. We usually line half the floor with a bed and/or blanket, and half the floor with pee pads. The puppies are more or less successful with the pee pads, but not always. As they age you can add toys and, eventually, a food and water dish. Our puppies are funny in that they prefer the cool, plastic floor over a blanket. Go figure! And some still choose to sleep on a pee pad…what can you do!

Let us know if you try this design and how it works for you, or if you find your own design that works better.