toilet training, house training puppies

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Location: Singapore

A veterinary surgeon at www.toapayohvets.com and founder of a licensed housing agency for expatriate rentals and sales at www.asiahomes.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

160. Six ways to toilet train a Singapore puppy?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


6 Ways to Toilet-Training puppies in Singapore?

Few books write in detail about toilet training. From my research and talks with owners of new puppies at my Surgery, there are at least 6 ways to toilet train a puppy in Singapore.

1. PAPER TRAINING - newspapers, training pads, pieces of carpets/rugs
2. CRATE TRAINING
3. OUTDOOR TOILET TRAINING
4. PLATFORM + PEE TRAY
5. PEE TRAY
6. LEASH to a small area for bigger breeds.

1. 8 WEEKS OLD. Move away from the nest to pass stools. Do not urinate during sleep.
Can control bladder and bowel movement for a few minutes but people must watch the movements to pass stools and urine. (SIGNS: Circling, sniff around the ground in circles). Some can tell owners to remove the stained papers by barking.

2. 16 WEEKS OLD. Can control bladder and bowel movement.
3. 32 WEEKS OLD. 95% of puppies can control bladder and bowel movement unlike human babies (3 or 4 years old).

3. MISTAKES.
3.1 Not anticipating or noticing the SIGNS.
3.2 Letting the puppy "all over the house".
3.3 The instant it has finished eating. Take outside to garden if outdoor training.
3.4 Easily distracted by being taken out to the garden or newspaper. Patience.
3.5 Push the puppy outside and expect it to pee or poo without training and patience.
3.6 Inconsistent training.
3.7 No specific toilet location. Sometimes papers, sometimes outdoors. Beating the puppy. Make it smell its own urine or poo expecting it to understand that it has misbehaved. Roll of newspaper to slap puppy on back or slap the floor. Slap the puppy's face. Still a common method of training amongst Singaporeans who learn this method from older people or friends.

No longer recommended as it makes puppy frightened of owner. Physical punishment said to contribute to fear aggression, submissive urination and other bad behaviour.

3.8 Use of proper floor cleaning detergent to neutralise the dog urine smell. But some owners buy the wrong type which reinforce the urine smell and then wonder why the puppy still misbehaves at the spot.

4. REWARD
4.1 Eliminate on command "Poo here", reward with treats or praises when it performs.
4.2 Clicker method. Whistling method. Electronic collar method have been used.

5. RAINY DAYS,WINTER. Disadvantage of outdoor toilet training. Newspapers best. Confined area e.g. playpen. Recent newspapers, not those kept for long time (rat urine etc). Newspapers at door, then shift to garden.

6. TWO PUPPIES OF SAME AGE. Difficulty. One messes the playpen. The other may try to be clean.

7. PUPPY LEARNING FROM OLDER DOG. Sometimes successful.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS OF LOCAL PET SHOP OPERATORS IN SINGAPORE

8.1 Feed twice per day although many puppy books recommend 3 to 4 times a day.
Feeding twice a day instead of free feeding disciplines puppy and help in reducing stool formation. An 8-12-week-old puppy passes stools 3-4 times a day but pees a lot of times.

8.2 Drinking water not given before puppy sleeps. Helps to control bladder.

8.3 Puppies making noises at night - May want to go to the toilet or ask the owner to change newspapers. Owner sleeping. Unaware. Goes up to beat the puppy for making noises offending neighbours.

9. Successful owners - Less than 7 days. Some puppies associate newspapers well and just move to pee or poo on the newspapers on reaching home. Some don't know and shred papers. Some take more than 2 months. Some never successful because the house is full of urine smells and the older dog just pee or poo on such spots and get beaten.

9.1 Sleeping with the puppy overnight. When it wakes up, bring to the toilet. Owners who do that will find that toilet training within 14 days successful. Take leave. Usually owners don't know about this method.

9.2 Worst case. Use Crate training. Put in small crate for 1 hour for 8-week-old puppy. Take out to playpen with newspaper. Observe. Pees or poos. Back to crate. Next hour, repeat. 2 hours for 12-week old and 3 hours for 16-week-old. Needs time and supervision to be successful.

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