I will be welcoming home a new puppy on 1/21. I am trying to figure out how I am going to arrange things when I am gone to work. I have a 4 yr old lab boy Samson. He was crated until he was 2. I am thinking of two options for new puppy. 1. Crate him and leave Samson out like normal, or 2. set up an xpen in the living room attached to crate and keep Samson and puppy together. The crate is in the living room. I have a fabulous pet sitter that will be coming over at the 4 hour mark. I am away from home 9 hours a day (includes my commute). Pet sitter may sneak over more than once a day but right now, it's set at one visit a day. She has been Samson's sitter since he was a pup. She is wonderful.
My concern with the crate the puppy (Asher) option --- it will stress both of them out by not being able to be together? Then my concern with the xpen is that Samson will get excited when pet sitter arrives and will accidently step on Asher. It's 100% play time when the pet sitter arrives and the boy goes a little wild with pure excitement every time she arrives.
Looking forward to some advice! I'm super excited to get this boy home.