crating question

My pup is 9 weeks old. We have a crate plus a puppy playpen that we've made appropriate for her current size. My question is, while at work which should I put her in? I was going to do the crate however the breeder suggested she is too young to hold her bowel/bladder for that long so thought the playpen would be best for now with paper down. Do you agree and give reasons for either way please!!

If you're going to be gone longer than about 2 hours at your pup's current age, a space where she can potty in one spot and sleep/eat/drink/play elsewhere is best - if she has to sleep where she potties she'll learn to eliminate where she is because she has no way to move away and that will make housetraining/crate training much more difficult.

The larger area could be a puppy playpen or a puppy proofed bathroom and should be at least twice the size of her crate, ideally a bit larger to provide plenty of room to move away from any eliminations. Use paper or puppy pads - several layers would be best since many pups will move the substrate around - start with the whole floor space covered and then once you know where s/he is going you can consider slowly removing pads/papers from the areas that are kept clean.

As a note, if you use the bathroom, make sure the pup can't chew on the pipe (usually not metal) that goes from the tank into the ground. I've heard of a dog chewing the pipe which created a water leak.

I do agree on a large area instead of the crate.

For Tucker we used a play pen while we were gone and put a puppy pad in it. He used the pad the first day and then held it from then on out.

thanks so much for your fast replies!!