Upgrade

It appears that the little box and the small fish tank are already too small to hold our puppies. Not only are the puppies both old enough to start exploring, but Kovy has already started to become an escape artist.

I'm bored in here! Let me out!

It was definitely time to upgrade for a few reasons:

• If Kovy actually manages to pull himself over that box, he's going to hurt himself.
• The puppies don't look comfortable sharing that small box anymore.



Kovy and Muji's makeshift den in the corner of the living room.

• The puppies are at the age (4 weeks) where they are supposed to start instinctively leaving the "nest" to do their business, and a small box doesn't allow for that. 

So here's what I did. I used some boxes and laid down a bookshelf to make a little pen for the pups. Half of it is covered in newspaper and half is covered in wee-wee pads. Yes, that sounds like they are supposed to pee everywhere, but let me explain:

Wet newspaper= success!

The newspaper side is the "bathroom." They soil the newspaper, and instead of replacing the newspaper, we just place another piece on top of the mess. This way, the "bathroom" retains the smell which should make the puppies more inclined to keep returning there. The sleeping side is covered in wee-wee pads because the pads have a plastic lining on the bottom. Should they pee on the bed, we can easily remove and replace the wee-wee pad without it have seeped through to the floor, leaving a fresh-smelling bed.

At first Muji and Kovy were both doing their business all over both sides of their new pen. There wasn't a divider between the bathroom and sleeping area, so I used a bit of Styrofoam wrapped in a towel to separate the two areas. My thought process was that the puppies didn't actually feel like they were leaving the sleeping area to pee. However, if they have to climb out of the nest, they'll actually feel like they left the nest. After about a day of constant supervision and keeping any trace of urine out of the sleeping area, it worked!!