Whether you have a new puppy or rescued an older dog, having a new pet enter your space can be difficult for both parties. Crate training your dog is an excellent way to give your new pet a safe place to rest, can reduce bathroom accidents and give them much-needed alone time. The next step toward full-roaming freedom is to use a playpen. That way, your dog can’t roam around the entire house but has more space to relax or play.
My 10-month-old puppy, Imogene, loved her crate from the beginning. But now that she’s getting bigger (she’s a 30-pound-and-growing border collie/Australian shepherd mix), she’s cramped in it. When I leave her for several hours, I now secure a playpen around her crate so she can access her safe crate space but still have room to chew on toys or sniff around.
Imogene helped me test eight types of doggie playpens, including easily portable ones, inside and outside options, and very high ones to curb escapes. I analyzed how easy they were to set up and how durable they seemed while Imogene tested if they could be chewed on and how securely the doors latched. After testing each playpen thoroughly, one stood out as the go-to for her daily safe space.
The Frisco wire exercise pen took the winning spot because it’s easy to set up (it folds open like an accordion with no extra parts), has a double-latched door and a wide variety of heights to keep your dogs enclosed and safe.
Even though other playpens were sturdier — this one’s metal panels can’t be chewed through but could bend if a dog tried to jump out — the ease of setup for this pen trumped the other metrics during our testing. First, it requires little setup. You only need to unfold the panels and situate them in whatever shape you want. Its accordion-style design means all the panels except the last connecting two are already secured together.
This ease of use made the Frisco pen the quickest to set up of all accordion-style pens tested. I could move the panels to fit around Imogene’s crate or even make it smaller if I wanted it to take up less space in my living room. The pen’s size can also be adjusted quickly, which makes it my favorite pen for use indoors.
You can also use optional corner stabilizers to keep its shape, which pop on at the joint where two panels meet. I didn’t feel like I needed to use these with Imogene, as she doesn’t tend to jump at the walls of the playpens, and I like being able to reconfigure the panels for different shapes daily.
This accordion style also helps with storage or transfer during travel; there aren’t extra stakes or rods that can get lost or fall out when packing it away. The pen folds up for easy storage and is about 6 inches wide when folded, so it can easily slide between other items in your storage room or garage.
This pen can also be used outside, as it comes with metal anchors that slip over the bottom rungs of the panels to be pushed into the ground. It isn’t as secure as other pens I tested, which have stakes that are the entire length of the panels, but for smaller pups or dogs that won’t jump at the sides of the pen, these smaller stakes shouldn’t be an issue.
Another safety feature I loved on the Frisco Wire Dog and Small Pet Exercise Pen is its two latches and safety clip. If your dog is Houdini, this will be important. There is a latch at the top and the bottom of the door, plus an extra safety clip if your dog knows how to undo latches. Unlike other pens we tested, the door can be used by a human and not just a dog. That may sound like an obvious need, but a few other pens only had a dog door, which meant I had to climb over the panels if I needed to get into the pen with Imogene.
This playpen has a good variety of heights to accommodate dogs of various sizes. Heights include 24 inches, 30 inches, 36 inches, 42 inches and 48 inches. Price-wise, this pen is also more affordable than other ones we tested; the 24-inch is $34, while the 48-inch is $61.
Overall, the Frisco Wire Dog and Small Pet Exercise Pen is a top choice for a basic playpen that is easy to set up, store and travel with. It has two latches to keep your dog from getting out, offers a good variety of heights to secure most breeds of dogs and can be used both inside and outside.
Everything you need to know about dog playpens
The most important factor when choosing a dog playpen is how well it keeps your dog contained. Is it high enough? Is it secure enough? Can it be chewed through? Luckily, most dog playpens come in various sizes for different surface areas and heights that can accommodate larger dogs. A few we tested didn’t have enough sizing options or weren’t tall enough.
Once you have the correct size pen you want your dog to have, look at how the gate latches shut. Many use a top and bottom latch for extra security, and unless your dog is dexterous, undoing the door shouldn’t be a problem.
From there, think about the materials. Many playpens are made from durable metal, while some are made from thicker plastic. Some portable options are even made from mesh. Plastic gates can be chewed on, though probably not chewed through, while the mesh ones can be destroyed. Imogene quickly made a few small holes in one of the portable mesh pens but stopped short of chewing through it and, thankfully, left the zipper alone.
Another key factor in determining which playpen is best for you and your pup is knowing where and how you will use it. Like the Frisco Wire Dog and Small Pet Exercise Pen, some are easily portable and take no setup. Others require some assembly and have multiple pieces. The pens that were all one piece and only needed to be unfolded were the easiest to transport, set up and store, as they folded back together like an accordion in one connected piece. The portable pop-up pens were a game changer for when I was traveling; they are extremely lightweight, fold up flat and most often come with a carrying case. Then, whether at a hotel or a friend’s house, I could pop open the playpen and stick Imogene inside.
A bonus feature to consider is whether you want to be able to use the pen both inside and outside. Some pens are made to be outside, as the poles that connect the panels are integrated stakes so you can secure them directly to the ground. I tested these inside as well and didn’t have a problem, though I could see these potentially scratching up nice floors. Other options are only made for inside, where there is no way to stake the playpen to the ground outside.
Lastly, ensure there aren’t any protruding sharp edges and parts that your dog could cut themselves on and that there aren’t any areas where your dog could get their paw or head caught. Imogene did get her paw stuck in the slats of one but only when she tried to jump out.
Pet playpens usually start at $50 for four- or six-panel options, with eight-panel options running between $80 and $100.
How we tested
To determine the most secure and safest dog playpens, I tested each one for a few days with my pup, Imogene. We tested various metrics, including if the playpen could be knocked over or chewed through, if there were any sharp edges or spaces where a paw could get stuck, how easy it was to move around or change shape, the material’s durability, and the and variety of sizes to accommodate a variety of dog sizes and heights.
We compared all eight playpens to determine which would keep your dog secure from roaming the house but still let them enjoy a safe space.
Here’s a complete list of the tests we ran and the qualities we considered.
Usage and portability
- Security: For the most critical part of the playpen, security was assessed by seeing how stable and secure the pen was and seeing if it could be knocked over or if a dog could jump out.
- Safety: We checked the spacing of the wires to see if a dog could get a head or paw stuck between them and if there were any sharp edges or elements that could be chewed and swallowed.
- Portability: To measure portability, we judged how easily the pens folded up or could be disassembled to be moved elsewhere. We also considered how easily the pen could be adjusted to change shape.
- Ease of setup and breakdown: We timed how long it took to set up and break down each playpen and took notes on the overall ease of setup, such as if tools needed to be involved or required more than one person to complete.
Specs
- Size availability: We considered the number of playpen sizes available and if there are enough sizes or heights to accommodate most dogs.
- Durability: We considered the materials each playpen is made of and if dogs could chew through them or bend them.
- Extra features: We also judged each playpen based on its extra features, such as its ability to be used inside and outside.
Other dog playpens we tested
The Amazon Basics Foldable Playpen is almost identical to the winner. It is an accordion-style pen, so it is extremely easy to set up, take down and store. It can be staked to the ground outside and has a great price point. The two main reasons this didn’t clinch the top spot are the lack of a safety clip (to be used in conjunction with the two latches) and its four height options, which is one less than the Frisco.
This pen requires no assembly but is heavier and bulkier than the winning playpen, and the height is too short.
When I got this playpen out of the box, it was larger and clunkier than the winning playpen, but it did have some key qualities. Like the Frisco Wire Dog and Small Pet Exercise Pen, the North States playpen unfolds and can be manipulated to the shape of your liking without any added parts. It is made of plastic rather than metal so chewing could be an issue, but it is reasonably sturdy overall.
It can’t, however, be staked to the ground for outside use. You can choose from four, six and eight panels, but the heights don’t change — each panel is 26 inches high, short enough for my 30-pound dog to easily jump over. Some size options only have a pet door rather than a full-size gate as well.
This pen has a quick and easy setup but has minimal sizing and can be chewed through.
The extra-large model of this covered playpen is perfect size for my 30-pound dog, but if you’ve got a pup bigger than that, your pet wouldn’t be able to stand up comfortably at all. The extra large is 23.5 inches tall and 48 inches wide, so my dog could move around and play with toys but could not stand up fully.
However, being able to pop this open and closed easily made it our go-to when we were traveling for a weekend. I could pack this flat in my car and set it up in the house we were staying at so I didn’t have to worry about lugging her large crate on vacation. Imogene did, however, chew through some of the soft mesh sides.
Opt for this playpen if you’ve got a jumper (but not a chewer) or need something portable.
My pup and I really liked this playpen. It’s fully enclosed with a mesh top and has two doors. Because it’s covered, it seems more intrusive to your living space than the open playpens. It can also be chewed through more easily, as it is a soft playpen with many mesh sides.
However, it is much more portable than the others I tested and easy to set up. It just pops open into place. Figuring out the correct way to fold it back into itself required some learning, but once folded, I could easily carry it and slide it flat against a wall and out of the way. If you need a playpen that a dog can’t jump out of or that you want to bring with you to different places, this is a solid choice. This one is more expensive than the similar option by Ruff ’N Ruffus, as mentioned above.
There was no human-sized door on this playpen, and the plastic materials gave me pause.
The main annoyance with this playpen is that it didn’t come with a human-sized gate, just a doggy door, which made entering the area difficult. I had set this one up to go around her crate, so every time I needed to grab her or lead her out of the crate, I had to step over the sides awkwardly. It’s also made from a plastic that seems quite chewable. It did win points because it was easy to set up, as there weren’t any extra parts or stakes, and you simply snap the panels together.
This is one of the heavier playpens I tested, and it’s best used when outside. It’s also quite pricey.
You’ll be spending at least $80 if you need the eight-panel playpen, but that’s only if your dog is short (24-inch height). If you’ve got a taller dog, you’ll need to pay more to choose from the 32-inch, 40-inch, 45-inch or even 50-inch tall playpen. You can also select the number of panels, like four or eight for a smaller pen, or even 48 if you want to build a fence.
Once set up, which took roughly 10 minutes, the panels were sturdy and solid. But this pen is certainly made for outside. The stakes that lock each panel together are supposed to be secured into the ground rather than just resting on something like my kitchen floor. Despite that, I felt confident my dog couldn’t jump out, knock this over or unlatch the door.
This is a hefty, durable playpen that’s ideal for the yard but does take some setup.
The Yaheetech Dog Playpen did have a lot of winning qualities but overall required more setup than the winning Frisco Wire Dog and Small Pet Exercise Pen. The setup wasn’t terrible, though, and took less than five minutes to put it together the second time I tried. I could also set it up by myself, which was a plus.
It has eight panels that connect with large rods that can be staked into the ground for outside use. I used this pen inside and was very happy with how sturdy it felt. My dog couldn’t jump over the 40-inch height, and the door locked securely with no chance of her being able to unlatch it.
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Why trust CNN Underscored
CNN Underscored editors thoroughly test all the products we cover and provide full transparency about how we test them. We have an experienced team of writers and editors with many years of testing experience, and we ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. The writer of this guide, Mattie Schuler, tested dog playpens with her 10-month-old puppy, Imogene, and has been writing about gear since 2011. She’s also written CNN Underscored’s guide to the best dog bowls, the best Kong dog toys and a new puppy checklist.
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