What are some good things to do when leaving a puppy at home for the day

Our family recently acquired a standard chihuahua puppy, and we have to leave her home when we leave for the day. She is now about 10 weeks old. We've been leaving her in a newspaper-lined playpen with a blanket and food and water, and leaving the radio on softly hoping that the music and voices will comfort her. Is there something we could be doing better? She squeals when we leave, but we only leave her for a few hours at a time, and always spend all evening with her.

The best place to leave your puppy or dog is in a crate. Be sure that puppy has plenty of room to stand sit and turn around.

If you are going to be for a period of time I would recommend a large crate so that puppy has a place to go potty. You will find that putting a wee-wee pad down in the back of the crate in case of emergency is a great idea. Easy to clean up. You will want to make sure the crate is large enough that puppy has room to lay down and play without getting into the potty area of the crate.

If you are going to be gone longer than 1 hour I would recommend having water available for your baby. Some breeds drink a lot of water to keep up their health, so its important that they have access to it. If you are afraid your puppy will make a mess with a water dish you will find that one of the licky water bottles that you can attach to the side of the crate is awesome. If you get one with the ball and spring in it , it will help to keep the water from leaking out. Even if your dog has never used one of these licky bottles they will catch on very quickly.