224. Beagle pees on papers but poops anywhere.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Yesterday, at Pasir Ris, I met an old friend working in a veterinary surgery. He was an excellent story teller but would not be able to write stories. He made me laugh by saying that the young vet pinched the skin as an injection was made into the back muscle. He petted his lower leg, "The solution shot onto my lower leg. No need to pinch the skin to do intra-muscular injection! "

He had plenty of advices for young veterinarians in private practice and much could be learnt from him if the young ones could take his advices. One advice to young vets is that Singaporean pet owners prefer a fast consultation and not wasting time talking. He may be correct as Singaporeans seem time-pressed. However, certain things cannot be rushed as in this case of explaining about the toilet training of this Beagle.



I could sense that the handsome couple with a boy and a girl were in a hurry. After all, they just wanted a 2nd vaccination. However, they were kind enough to share some information about toilet training for my research.

The Beagle was paper-trained within 1 week after purchase. They had sprayed urine smells onto the newspapers. Papers were placed in a few areas in the living room when the Beagle was let out. Sounds so easy.

But the Beagle would poop everywhere. A lot of times. 4 - 6 times a day. What's the solution? The Beagle was fed 3 times per day. Bowl was taken away after 5 minutes as she downed her feed so fast.

"Did you have a fixed eating schedule?" I asked. Not really.

"Did she poop before or after eating?" I asked. No sure.

My advice was to watch for her signs of wanting to poop. Sniffing, squatting and turning. Put her onto the newspapers. Say "Poop poop". Prevent her from running away from newspapers (this is a tip from the Cocker Spaniel owner in recent case) by cornering her.

Or use the outdoor car porch which can be washed easily. In this case, the Beagle will use that as the toilet area.

The couple said, "The puppy may run out of the house."

"It is best to put up a wire netting at the bottom of the gate," I advised.

I could see that the handsome couple had some appointments. So, I do not know whether I had succeeded or not in give some advices. Stool eating was not discussed. They were in a hurry.

They were kind enough to let me take some pictures to document my research. The first picture was good. It is not easy to get a good picture of a child and puppy. I was fortunate. The puppy kept turning her head sideways. The child was struggling. So, it was hard to be a dog and child photographer! I hope this girl grows up to be a vet as her mum said that was her wish. I advised mum to let her start writing a journal or blog about her pet every week. Can such a young child sustain and be interested in writing and taking pictures about her dog? This will be a first interesting case study as the answers will not be known till she is 18 years old.