Healthy Indoor Dog Pens: The Secret

Indoor dog pens are a dog walker’s income savior. If you’re a professional dog walker or sitter, then you know that your income takes a hard knock when the weather turns nasty. Neither you nor your pooch clients can or want to go outdoors.

Sometimes the weather is great, but your canine client is recovering from illness, injury, or surgery, and is just not feeling strong enough for the great outdoors. This is when an indoor dog pen and canine exercise equipment will help rehabilitate your dog and bring in income as well. It keeps both of you sane and healthy.

Even if you’re not a professional dog walker or sitter, but you daily walk your beloved fur buddies, an indoor dog pen is essential for those times when you can’t step outside or need a dog to spend time-out after getting in a scuffle with his buddy.

What Is A Perfect Indoor Dog Pen?

Among the distinct types of indoor dog enclosures, indoor dog pens hold a special place. Whether you buy your indoor dog pen from a supermarket chain or a boutique pet store or somewhere online, there are 6 critical factors that every dog pen owner should consider for a competent indoor dog pen to have:

1. Safety and security features to keep your dog from escaping.
2. Size spacious enough for the dog comfortably to exercise within.
3. Sturdy design in plastic, wood, or metal so the dog won’t chew through it.
4. Ease of access to keep clean – nobody wants bad smells and ugly stains indoors.
5. Reliable built-in doggy door so that the dog can voluntarily exit when you don’t want him contained.
6. Collapsible and compact to require very little storage space when not in use.

If the indoor dog pen is expandable and comes complete with a detachable floor, all the better.

Variety In Indoor Dog Pens

The age and size of your dog will determine the kind of indoor dog pen that you choose and whether it should be only for one dog or several.

Let’s consider a key component of any dog pen designed to keep your carpet from dog damage. There are indoor dog pens that come with zippered plastic or canvas floors. Others come with metal snap-on/snap-off floors. One type of floor is not necessarily superior to the other, except during ease of removal, cleaning and replacing, which is a matter of personal preference as to how you do it.

If you want an indoor dog pen without a floor, no problem. There are alternatives. Think of the following points ahead of time, however.

• Mesh and cloth pop-up indoor dog pens are great for puppies and small dogs.
• They serve them as a protective environment fostering a sense of well-being.
• They help prevent illness and injury for curious dogs that get into everything.
• Steel or metal indoor dog pens are best for medium and big dogs.
• They’re tall and strong enough to intimidate some dogs into confinement.
• When expandable to more than two dog, they can be locked together.
• They are indispensable for dog walkers and sitters who have several dogs to care for at the same time and want to keep them from making a disaster area of the rest of the house.

Alternative Floors For Indoor Dog Pens

If your indoor dog pen doesn’t come complete with a floor, there are some alternatives that you can buy from online retail stores.

• Real Grass Bottoms

You grow the grass hydroponically in various size boxes. Depending on the grass box and pen area size, you can either put one or several boxes inside the indoor dog pen. The grass roots absorb the smell and the pee, so the area always looks and smells fresh. Of course, you need to pick up the dog poo and dispose of it just like you do when you walk your dog outdoors. The real grass box can last anywhere between one to four weeks depending on how many dogs use it.

• Metal and Plastic Trays

These come in assorted sizes, or you can have one made to order. They slide in and out of indoor dog pens and are easy to remove to hose down. Choose a rust-free metal one for dogs that chew or a plastic one for dogs that don’t.

• Soft Memory Foam Bed

Whether you have a senior dog with joint problems or a dog that is recovering from an illness, injury or surgery, a soft memory foam bed will ease his aches and pains, and your fur buddy will feel much more comfortable. Get rid of stains and smells without working too hard by buying one with a cover that zips on and off and is machine washable.

• Pee Pads

Senior dogs, recovering dogs, and puppies in the process of potty training, all need disposable pee pads in their indoor dog enclosures.

How To Keep A Dog Healthy Inside An Indoor Dog Pen

Now that you’ve got the perfect indoor dog pen with an easy-to-clean or disposable floor, it’s time to fill it with exercise equipment to keep the dog busy and in shape.

Continuous exercise is important for dogs because:

• It helps them trim down when obese
• It builds muscle and strength
• It preserves their hearts and lungs from disease
• It keeps joints from atrophying, especially in older dogs
• It reduces their anxiety from being encased indoors without movement

In other words, exercise for your dogs has the same benefits as it has for us, reducing stress and freeing the mind and body to experience rejuvenation.

Exercise Equipment To Transform Confinement Into An Indoor Dog Park

The equipment listed below is suitable for both exercise and rehabilitation. They’re designed to require a dog to use different muscles to keep balanced while building stronger muscles in the process.

• Peanut

The peanut is a vinyl or PVC exercise ball with an elongated shape that is useful for building strong core muscles. The peanut is especially helpful for senior dogs with weak back legs, or dogs that are recovering from hip surgery. It also helps to ease the aches and pains of weak or damaged joints.

• Balance Disc

Also made of PVC, the balance disc is an inflatable floppy excellent for improving balance and strengthening dog legs. Used within an indoor dog pen, the disc exercises different muscles wherever you toss it and depending on the level of air that it contains.

• Donut

The inflatable donut is shaped like ball. Your dog will have a lot of fun standing and sitting on this. Like the peanut and the balance disc, balancing on the donut makes the dog use different muscles and strengthens them in the process. The donut is especially excellent for smaller dogs because its flat base makes it more stable and easier to use. For this same reason, it’s a gentler start for a dog that needs rehabilitation after illness, injury, or surgery.

• Wobble Board

A wobble board is exceptional for a dog that needs to strengthen his back due to injury or genetic back and hip problems. It also helps dogs get their flexibility back if they’ve been inactive for a prolonged period after surgery.

Here is view of some of these instruments to consider as part of your indoor dog pen exercise equipment.

Online pet stores offer a variety of dog exercise equipment that you can buy as kits, which include a range of gear and videos with instructions on how to train your dogs to use them, and what exercises and even tricks they can learn to do on them. This is how you can convert an indoor dog pen into a mini dog gym and charge for access to it.

Whether it be harsh weather, illness, injury, or surgery, you need not stop from earning an income by exercising your canine friends.  They can do plenty indoors if you prepare for it. Buying an indoor dog pen and exercise equipment to go with it will prove to be an excellent investment in your clients dogs future and that of your business.