Crate/playpen for puppy while working from home

[Hairybaker]

Trying to work from home with 18 week old puppy. He naps a lot and take him out for toilet and play in garden every few hours but when he’s awake I can’t have him nipping my feet or cables so is a playpen acceptable? We have one but he just seems to sit there looking sad which makes me feel guilty. He is in a different room as I need quiet for various calls. Have tried giving him a kong etc but that only keeps him occupied for twenty mins!

Some things I have read online suggest people crate puppies for 4-5 hours during day but that seems awful to me. Surely the above is better but I still feel guilty he doesn’t have free roaming rights of the room! How are people managing it?

Crate is the way forward.
We make Play time, feeding time cuddle time and quite crate time in the day, its important to crate for 2 hours a day as if you have to pop out the dog will be safe. You can increase if need be ours will go for 4 hours but usually its only on its own for 2-3 if we need to as after all you cant take it everywhere.
Some people dont like them and the dog may whine but it will get used to the routine and they usually feel safe in it, leave a cover over it and a towel or bed it will be fine.
No toys as its quite or sleeping time not play time

Definitely a crate. We didn't initially and let him have free roam of the kitchen and regretted it.

We have a crate and he sleeps for up to an hour at a time but then I’ll see him sitting up on the camera. It’s not a problem as I can take him out to wee etc but feel like I’m not getting him used to the rest of the house as he only has access when fully supervised-which is probably the right thing but feeling guilty! Would love him to curl up and sleep under my desk but he would be too distracted and start chewing or biting my ankles! Maybe that is just something that has to wait until he is older!

@Hairybaker Ours sits up too but soon settles back down 😊

Can you not just put a baby gate across the door of the room he's in?

We have never used a crate for ours and he's perfectly fine roaming around a room