Customer Reviews

Midwest Black E-Coat Exercise Pen, 24 Inches by 30 Inches

5 star:		(150)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We have a young, 15 lb. Doxie/Jackie mix who has a LOT of energy. We bought this pen primarily so we could use it as a barrier between rooms, and it works great for that. We use one of the end sections as a "door" for us (and him) that we set against the wall when we want to close off the room; we stretch three of the adjoining sections in short "V"s for the length of the room opening; and then we "fold" the remaining partitions together and set them against the opposite wall. It is completely free standing this way, which means it doesn't rub against the walls (unless our dog jumps against it, which he has been known to do--but it doesn't fall over when does this because of how it's propped against the wall, and that's important). We've also used it as a pen, and it worked great for that too. We wondered if our little guy would be able to knock it over when it was in its pen shape, but if he tried, it didn't come down. We left him in it while we ran errands for a couple of hours, and when we came back, it was exactly as we'd left it. He's pretty well potty trained at this point, but we also wondered if we left him in the pen (rather than his kennel) while we were gone if he'd break protocol and do his business in there since he has a lot more room in the pen than he does in his kennel. But he didn't make any messes at all; so I would recommend it for dogs who are at or near the end of their potty training but still need to be confined while their owners are gone for a short period of time. A final word (no, really, I swear): We really like the black coating. Some friends of ours have a gold pen they offered to loan us, but we don't like the way the gold one looks. The black is more "stylish" (which, let's face it, does matter to some of us), and if the pen winds up rubbing against a wall, the black rubs off a little bit (which is quickly and easily cleaned off) but doesn't harm the wall. (Our friends' gold pen rubbed against one of their walls and left scratches on it.)

This is a very basic ex-pen, in spite of its coating. Having owned several brands, I find that Midwest's tend to rust the most and the earliest. The 42" height is useful for the toys and small terriers (as long as you don't have a climber!), giving enough height security while taking the edge off the weight versus a 48" pen. These pens aren't light! I wouldn't personally use a lower pen for any breed.

Toss the ground stakes, which you'll probably never use anyway, and toss any cheap snap hooks that may be included to close the pen. You'll want to buy some good-sized, solid brass snap hooks, which are a lot easier to use and won't rust. I recommend getting them at least 3" long.

If you can wait, you can find a better ex-pen at almost any decent-sized dog show (or this one, for less money).

We love this pen. It is large enough for the puppy and for an adult or child to sit in and play with the dog. When opened up it spans a very large entry to the great room in our home giving us the ability to confine her to an area of the house. It is strong and sturdy and although she is a puppy I can imagine her using it even as a 30lb adult dog. For larger dogs, I definitly would consider buying the taller 30" or more. This pen is extremely well priced and after shopping around at local pet stores this one was positively the best deal ever.

The Midwest Exercise Pen is a helpful device for pet containment and it has come in very handy for my household. This exercise pen offers a safe refuge for pets and it is metal in construction, adding extra strength and durability. After my previous plastic pen collapsed one day and broke into pieces, I decided to go for something more durable and my search led me to the Midwest Exercise Pen.

The Midwest Exercise Pen provides about sixteen square feet of space and while this isn't much, it does come in handy for a small to medium size pet. This area can be expanded slightly by attaching the open ends of this pen to the opening of a dog crate. I have a metal dog crate and this combination seems to work very well. Not only does it expand the total square footage, but many dogs also appreciate the attached crate because they can crawl inside it when they like, similar to what they do in a doghouse. Besides the play area, the walls of the pen are tall enough to keep pets contained. Panels are sold in varying heights that range up to forty- eight inches. From my experience, I have found that most dogs will stay inside the panels without any need for supervision. Many dogs- even smaller breeds- could easily jump these walls but they tend to stay confined without any problem.

I like the Midwest Exercise Pen but I have noticed a few potential problems that should be pointed out to any potential buyers. First, I don't like that there are only four snaps included. These snaps are intended to attach the open ends together and to prevent the exercise pen from being moved around and losing its intended shape. However, the snaps are not very secure and since you need two of them to close the open- ended panels, you will have only two left, and this means the pen will not be as stable as some pet owners would prefer.

Another area of concern with the Midwest Exercise Pen is the lightweight construction. As I have said, the pen is made from metal but the metal spokes are not very thick. This results in an exercise pen that is very lightweight and thus is not suitable for a larger, more active breed of dog. A large or medium size dog with lots of energy could easily knock this pen over, with the right effort. The ground stakes help to prevent this problem, but if the pen is used indoors or in a garage or basement, you obviously cannot use the ground stakes and you will have to tolerate a little bit of sliding around.

The Midwest Exercise Pen is a very good exercise pen for small to medium size dogs, rabbits, and other pets and I am glad I made the purchase. It isn't perfect and it isn't suitable for every type of dog, due to its limited weight and stability. But this is still a very good exercise pen that lets pets enjoy a little freedom while also keeping them under control.

I have a new baby corgi who - in potty training - thought that the back door was okay to use for both potty and play... which led to potty breaks every 5 minutes, and waiting in the cold for a half an hour at a time for her to go to the bathroom.

This exercise pen (while being very small) was exactly what I needed to 'rein her in'. I set it up in an "L" shape with the 2 other sides of the rectangle being the side of the house and the deck. Now, when she goes outside - we go straight into the pen and potty - then, when she has 'done her business' I open one of the hinged gate sides and let her out in the yard to play.

So, it helped with puppy training, and also makes cleaning up very easy! My only concern is that it is very small, so be aware of the space that you need for the dog that you have and be prepared to buy 2 or be creative with your use of space.

I am very pleased with this product. I can see how it might not work as well for a large dog but it has been perfectly sturdy for our Holland Lop Rabbits. I plan on buying a second pen to make a larger play area for the rabbits. Very easy to set up and take down. I do not worry about the rabbits getting out...at least...they haven't yet :)

I recently became an owner of a 10 wk old Bull Terrier pup. I purchased the unit with the intentions of allowing the puppy to have some roaming space and enough space to place his pet taxi inside (crate training is so vital). The gate is metal with a semi-gloss black finish and comes with four lever locks. The gate can easily be folded and stored away, not to mention it can easily fold into different geometric shapes to accommodate almost any living quarters. The gate stands 30" tall and creates the perfect confinement for a hyper-active dog. My pup now weighs 14 lbs and can still be contained inside the fenced off area. I feel comfortable leaving my house knowing that my dog will still be in the kitchen with no possibilities of escaping and having a field day on my furniture. The package was received promptly with no damages. I would highly recommend this product for anyone with a puppy, I believe that a problem may occur if your pet weighs 25-30 lbs or more.

I have a small dog and a mid-sized dog. I was looking for a way to make sure they had lots of yard to play in but didn't want to put down permanent fencing because I hate trying to manage the grass around the base of a fence. So I bought several of these pens (I think I'm up to twelve of them now).

The trick with getting a dog to not jump over these pens is twofold. 1) Get them in the pen young enough that they grow into just "knowing" they can't do it. And 2) Get them around the pen on a hard floor and knock it over a couple of times. I did this by accident but the dogs now keep their paws off the pen because the clattering noise scares them.

I link the pens together with velcro (zip ties would work just as well), pound a couple of wooden stakes in the ground about one every four sections (I always use two on the sections wiht the gates), and my dogs have most of the yard to themselves and don't try to dig out or jump the thing. And when it comes time to mow the yard, it takes just a few minutes to pull up the stakes (with the pen still velcroed to them), mow through, and then reset the stakes in the same holes. [For a velcro solution, I use something like the Leviton 75' product, just a single roll where I cut off what I need]

A great thing is that these pens are fairly easy to step over (though be careful if you're wearing flip-flops because I always manage to trip myself up and that's a fall you don't want to think about, depending on if you're going into the the pen and how fastidious you've been keeping it cleaned up). Another great factor is that you can change the pen around as much as you like, unlike permanent fencing. I just changed the configuration to make sure the dogs have more shade and to block off access to a young tree that one of them felt she had to dig up, and it took maybe ten minutes. And if you block off an access point, it takes almost no effort to take out a section so you can get through. I like this solution so much that I'm planning on purchasing several more so that I can encompass more of the yard.

The pen has 8 sections hinged together, and includes clips to attach the two ends. The problem is, when using these clips as instructed by the manufacturer, there's a gap between the ends of about half and inch. Our puppy likes to jump up on his back legs, and he got his paw caught in this gap, and could not free himself. Fortunately, we quickly heard his loud yelping cries and rushed to free him, but it was challenging because he was really wedged in tight. He's still limping.

We still have the pen, and have "fixed" the problem simply by tying the ends together with string (so there's no gap), rather than using the clips provided with the pen. (Using tie-wraps or strong tape would probably work just as well.) Unfortunately, this solution negates two nice features of the pen. It makes it hard to open to let your animal in and out, and makes it hard to open to fold-up for traveling. For now, since our puppy is small, we just pick him up rather than open the pen.

If it weren't for this safety issue, I'd give this pen 5 stars. But until the manufacturer addresses this problem, I can't recommend it for small dogs.

These are great and I use it to let my 3 guinea pigs exercise. My babies could get out but my full grown can not. It can be used for many things inside and out and very easy to fold up and store. Love it !!!!