Crate bedding for traveling puppies
I've shipped puppies in the past, and each time the bedding got all wadded up in the back and the puppy was on the cold, hard plastic usually damp from its own mess. For my last litter I came up with this solution and it worked fantastic!
(1) Cut a piece of cardboard to the interior dimension of the crate floor. I used part of a box that our puppy ex-pen was packaged in.
(2) Lay an extra large puddle pad on the floor, absorbent side down. Center the cardboard on top of it.
(3) Fold in the edges of the puddle pad and tape to the cardboard. This will be the stiff insert that keeps the blanket from bunching up.
(4) Lay the insert on top of a piece of fleece. In this case, I cut up one of the blankets that the puppies had been raised on, so it was full of comforting smells they were familiar with.
(5) Fold blanket around the insert and staple along the edges.
(6) Place another puddle pad inside the crate [not pictured] and then put the blanket insert on top of it. The puppy now has absorbent bedding that wont slide around or get bunched up.
(7) Finish preparing the crate with bowls, personal effects, toys, etc. One of our puppy buyers mailed a shirt that had her scent on it, for the puppy to get used to.
BONUS: See the socks? Those are stuffed full of the fur that momma shed while she was nursing the puppies. It took only a matter of seconds to sew the ends shut. They give the puppy a comforting scent of mom for the trip to their new home. A puppy from a previous litter still takes her "sleepy sock" to bed with her.
(8) Once the puppy arrives the blanket can be un-stapled from the cardboard (throw the insert away!), cleaned, and kept. One of the puppies from this litter still loves and carries around his blanket, now 8 months old.
(1) Cut a piece of cardboard to the interior dimension of the crate floor. I used part of a box that our puppy ex-pen was packaged in.
(2) Lay an extra large puddle pad on the floor, absorbent side down. Center the cardboard on top of it.
(3) Fold in the edges of the puddle pad and tape to the cardboard. This will be the stiff insert that keeps the blanket from bunching up.
(4) Lay the insert on top of a piece of fleece. In this case, I cut up one of the blankets that the puppies had been raised on, so it was full of comforting smells they were familiar with.
(5) Fold blanket around the insert and staple along the edges.
(6) Place another puddle pad inside the crate [not pictured] and then put the blanket insert on top of it. The puppy now has absorbent bedding that wont slide around or get bunched up.
(7) Finish preparing the crate with bowls, personal effects, toys, etc. One of our puppy buyers mailed a shirt that had her scent on it, for the puppy to get used to.
BONUS: See the socks? Those are stuffed full of the fur that momma shed while she was nursing the puppies. It took only a matter of seconds to sew the ends shut. They give the puppy a comforting scent of mom for the trip to their new home. A puppy from a previous litter still takes her "sleepy sock" to bed with her.
(8) Once the puppy arrives the blanket can be un-stapled from the cardboard (throw the insert away!), cleaned, and kept. One of the puppies from this litter still loves and carries around his blanket, now 8 months old.
Comments
They sell reusable training pads that are like a blanket and pee pad in one. I was a little skeptical at their utility, but the reviews are very positive. Just wash with a little bleach and they are good to go.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=24487
For in the carrier, it would still need a stiff insert I think.
So yeah, does seem like they might think of fabric=pee as ok.
@poeticdragon, under the fake grass is a neat idea. Bonus of being washable like a regular blanket and smelling familiar when the time comes.
We started potty training with astro turf at 3 weeks old for the last litter. No piddle pads exposed, because an entire litter will just shred them in seconds anyway and someone is always sleeping on it. We did put piddle pads under the astro turf. We'd change the pads underneath and take the grass out to be hosed down once a day. (We had two different squares of grass.)
I have never needed to use pee pads before (except in the way Poetic dragon is using them in a crate with an very very young puppy). Then suddenly I had a dog who was peeing in her crate all the time, and I had to use them to keep her and crate dry. And everything I thought I knew about housetraining has not worked on this girl!
Sometimes you just get more difficult dogs that others!
But I was mostly commenting on how Claire was, probably rightly, concerned that the peepad/blanket idea for baby pups still might complicate later house training.
The top layer will be a synthetic wicking layer, one that moisture moves through but that does not get wet. This would be microfleece, microsuede, or something similar. The next layer is something absorbent, of course, because the moisture has to be held somewhere. The bottom layer is waterproof keep it from getting on the floor. The layers can be sewn permanently together, or they can be a sleeve or pocket into which the absorbent layer is put (because the waterproof layer impedes washing and drying of the absorbent layer, it can be more effectively cleaned if you can remove the absorbent layer).
If I were to make this crate pad reusable, I would make a sleeve (maybe similar concept to a pocket pillow case) where the top was wicking and the bottom was waterproof. I would have a sheet of rigid plastic (currogated plastic? Or any ole piece of discarded plastic cut to size?) that I would wrap an absorbent layer around and then slide the sleeve over that. It would all come apart and wash thoroughly, but stay in place for a trip. At least, that's my theory.