Help me make my puppy love his playpen

[Puppypuppypuppy]

I have a nearly 12 week puppy. He obviously spends loads of time with us but I’m finding it impossible to get anything done. I need to be able to leave him for short periods in his playpen. This has his crate in it, food and water bowls. He sleeps in crate at night with door closed quite happily. But doesn’t like being shut in the playpen during the day. Any toys I put in he brings out. If I leave him in there with food he ignores it and whines. Any advice for me? What could I leave him with to keep him busy and happy for 20 minutes.

On the plus side he will sit while I’m working and play happily for periods of time, just not in his pen!

Hi OP, our dog is 9 now so it's been a while, but IIRC we did manage to get her enjoying the playpen eventually.

One strategy was to sit in it with her (is that possible?) initially and get her really interested in her toy/food/game, then leave her.

We had a little puppy-sized Kong which we put some peanut butter inside and I remember that being very successful for a while! But also not-yet-washed yoghurt pots, cardboard boxes she could happily destroy bite by bite, etc.

BTW I'm not sure she was ever happy in a different room from us initially. Can you stay in the room just outside the pen? Or is your end goal to actually close the door on her? That will be harder and you'll need to build up to it, I think!

Good luck :)

Thank you! I’d like him to be happy on his own safely in there for short period of time - only about 20 mins. He’s not keen on peanut butter sadly at least not so far.

Try half a frozen banana stuffed into a Kong; my DPup loves that.

Great idea! Thank you

I could have written this myself!

My pup is 17 weeks now and I've found what he likes and doesn't like. He's not a fan of the banana in a Kong, but he LOVES the lickmat covered in peanut butter or the Kong puppy spray. It gives me a good 20-30 mins to get stuff done!
Recently I've started cutting apples into slices and that also keeps him busy but I would be afraid to give the Apple to a 12 week old incase they choke.
Invest in one of these.. they are great!