At around three to three and a half weeks I moved Jules’ babies into their big puppy pen and introduced them to the UGOdog litter box system. That box works well until they are about five weeks old. By then, they are going potty more and it’s easier to switch over to the regular litter box system that we use until they go home. This is just a plastic container about 34″x 15″x 6″ with a layer of the wood pellets in the bottom. The first one I switch them over to has part of one side cut down for easy access for little legs.

This size fits perfect in the smaller puppy pen but still takes up about half of it. I also switch from the sheepskin type beds to a fuzzy blanket. The pellets stick to the sheepskin bed making quite a mess. The blankets are easy to just give a little shake to and the pellets fly off, making washing blankets much easier. Since the box still takes up about half of the pen, it makes it an easy target for puppies to potty in and not make mistakes.

Then as they get a little bigger, they will graduate to a larger puppy pen. By then they will have a good grasp of using the litter box and will go to it for potty breaks.

At this age, I switch the toys around so they have something new to investigate almost every day. They have time exploring outside of the puppy pen too although they’re not really bold and adventurous yet, which is typical of this age. And of course, there’s cuddle times, toenail trims and weigh-ins so they can get their de-wormings.