I came across this product, Cool Runner Pro Series Aluminum Enclosure and thought I had found the product of my dreams!
Lightweight
Collapsible
Vertical only Bars!
Voila!
The PERFECT PEN!
I ignored the huge expense, thinking that this enclosure would be my savior!
I chose the 36 inch high by 30 inch long (8 section) to the tune of $400+.
I was so excited to get this pen and use it! I use exercise pens regularly for adoption events, containing puppy litters, closing off an area to dogs and much, much more!
The first experience with this pen was a 4-month-old Pup. He was a larger puppy than I would usually contain but needed to contain him for specific reasons.
Positives:
Lightweight, Easily Carried, Setup is relatively easy, Vertical bars prevent climbing out of the pen.
Negatives:
The dog(s) can push this pen around with ease; scratches the floor (wood or slate), No tools to help weigh it down or attach to prevent movement, the “unit” is hard to carry as the panels, even with the velcro attached as shown, separate and drag.
The picture to the right shows the unit collapsed with the velcro bands fastened around and the handles. Looks good, right?
Well, when you actually carry it the middle sections sink a bit and can drag on the floor. This didn’t work for me.
Now, we’ll move onto the other experience with the pen.
So it was pretty obvious to me that this pen wasn’t usable for larger puppies but I decided to try it one more time. I had just started fostering two – 8 wks old Greyhound puppies and thought they would be an ideal size to try out this pen again. These pups are much smaller and I can set it up in a room that won’t allow them to push it around.
I set it up and put the pups in it!
TaDa!
I left the room for a minute and came back to find one of the 4 puppies OUT OF THE PEN!!
Oh darn!
Can’t it even contain these smaller pups?
I had to find out how this little girl was getting out so quickly!
Before I knew it she was back IN the pen!
Oh great!
I sat and watched her a bit and discovered she could sneak her way through the larger openings between the panels.
I saw her wiggle through the front openings of pen (Red arrows point to the areas where there is ample room for a puppy to get through). She simply went out and went back in at her leisure.
OK, so maybe she was a smaller female and actually not indicative of puppies in general, after all greyhounds are very slim! It was then that I saw the larger male do the exact same thing…a little harder to sneak out no question about it, but he did it over and over again.
So my opinion of this pen (and I have used several pens in comparison) is that it is NOT worth $400+. The vertical bars aren’t a benefit if the puppy can squeeze through 8 openings on the expanded pen.
I had put aside the high price hoping that the benefits would be worth the extra money, but I was proven WRONG! The Pen I use (and will continue to use) is the Courtyard Kennel, a modular pen that is very flexible and adopts to a lot of places and uses. It’s sturdy and the only real downfall is that puppies can climb the panels. So until someone else addresses the weaknesses of existing expandable pens on the market I will continue to use the Courtyard Kennel!
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