116. Pee platform trained but Golden Retriever still soils apartment

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Full of urine smell. Puppy naturally attracted to the ammonia smells of the floor tiles not obvious to the owner. Using the same mop and water bucket is the common practice. The ammonia smell is still present in the mop.



Flush mop thoroughly with a water jet. Step on it to dry it. Then rinse floor. This mop will have much less dog urine smell than just using a bucket of water for cleaning the mop after mopping.

115. Tug of war with impressionable Golden Retriever promotes aggression

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Children are great trainers but they may train the young puppy that biting hands are all right. Such puppies grow up to bite people.



Stop the habit at the first 2 weeks after purchase.

114. 2 months after purchase, Jack Russell still messes apartment,. What to do?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore



If there is no success in toilet training after 2 months, start confining to a small area to begin paper-training.

113. Young girl does not know how to toilet-train the new puppy

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Don't know how to toilet train the mini-Maltese

This is common situation. There is no Singaporean book on what to do after the puppy is purchased. There are many puppy books written by Westerners on sale.

"My 14-year-old daughter (slim child) bought the puppy while I was in Hongkong," the mother said. "Now, I need a veterinary health check as the pet shop guarantee money back if this mini-Maltese is not healthy."



"You mean she went to the pet shop and just bought the puppy without parental consent?" I asked the mother, around 40 years old, migrated to Singapore 15 years ago. However, the Hongkong accent was still present.

"No," she confirmed. "Her dad gave permission over the phone."

The veterinary check was all right. There was pus in the right ear canal. I phoned the groomer of the pet shop and he agreed to clean up the ears. Still, I had to teach the young lady how to clean the ears. No ear powder, put 10 drops of ear ointment and so many things to do.

Mum wanted the puppy to go to the toilet in the backyard. At night, it is kept in a cage in the kitchen as it might be too cold outside. But how to train this puppy to do its business when required?

The pet shop sold them a cage but no instructions on toilet training. It is too time-consuming to do the explanations and many employees just do not really know the different situations. A packet of puppy training pad (like the pampers for human babies) was bought. This is the pet shop's recommended method.

In this case, the intention is to have the puppy's toilet area outside the house. Yet it is free to roam inside the house. It messes the house. How to make use of what is bought to build a kennel for the mini-Maltese and keep the inside of the house clean?

It is too time consuming for me to explain to every new puppy owner as each situation is so much different. Puppy behaviour must be understood. It takes a lot of time to borrow books from the library and to surf the internet to get the information for various situations.

Details of research and case studies will be written up in Singaporean: Toilet Training Your First Puppy, by Dr Kong Sing.

112. The Miniature Schnauzer was not afraid of the lady owner

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Barking but spiteful Miniature Schnauzer. Negative reinforcement (caning) plus positive reinforcement (verbal praises) used. lst 7 days, puppy soiled the apartment.




Put its nose to smell and then onto newspapers placed on the kitchen and master bedroom floor. The owner put him on the newspaper which had been urine-sprayed. Caning on back.

Successful in being paper-trained in 21 days. Still goes to the tiled areas when the couple works. Why so spiteful? Barks but kept quiet for one hour when the male owner showed him the cane. But not with the female owner. Why? Singaporeans. Solutions in Toilet Training Your First Puppy. Dr Kong Sing's book.

111. The Bichon Frise X Maltese is 90% paper-trained after 6-8 weeks

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore



I saw the puppy (picture above) during the first vaccination.

The puppy was kept in a playpen inside the bedroom. The playpen was made of 4 fences forming a square. On the top left, newspapers with urine spray aid were place. On the lower right, a cushion as bed was place. The water bottle was attached on the lower left. The feed bowl was placed on the lower left WHEN the puppy was fed twice a day. The food was removed within 15 minutes.

For the first 7 days, the puppy was trained as the young lady who loved literature was at home. Then she had a job.

This is the report I received at the 2nd visit when the puppy came in for vaccination. She was 14 weeks old then.





lst 3 weeks: Urine aid sprayed on newspapers.
lst week: The puppy pees on the edge of the newspapers. She stepped on the newspapers to pee, but pees on the edges.
Gives command "Potty".
Praises given when she pees or poops.

lst few weeks: No paper shredding but after one month, she does shred papers.
After 6 weeks, 90% paper and 10% goes to the toilet floor.

The owner could not understand why. A "Pee be Gone" Spray was used to spray on the floor and then the spray was wiped with a tissue paper. It seems to be ineffective in neutralising the smell.

Poops 2-3X a day, usually after breakfast and dinner. Pees a lot, as often as 10 minutes' intervals. Free access to water. Drinks a lot.

NOW, the PLAYPEN is opened up, like a "W" so that she can have access to the newspapers. Still in the bedroom. 2 ends of the playpen lean against the bed. As the puppy is so small, the playpen fences do not collapse on her.

110. Did the Chocolate Labrador pee in the condo lift? "Crate" training.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"Did your 3-month-old Chocolate Labrador Retriever control his bladder from 21st floors to zero every morning?" I asked the English lady. At around 7 a.m, she would bring the puppy downstairs. Puppies need to pee on waking up. Such young puppies pee a lot of times a day. How did she prevent him from soiling the condo lift?

"Well," she said. "He did pee once. Now, I distract him by talking to him in the lift till he reaches the grass."

In Case No. 47, I recommended crate training at the apartment. Put the puppy inside the crate. Every 2 hour, on the hour, take him out of the crate. Put him on the puppy training pads to pee. Put back into the crate. She wanted the puppy to go downstairs. She modified my proposal and successfully housetrained the puppy to go downstairs.

The fixed schedule, based on an average of 1.5 hour confinement in the kitchen, is as follows:

7 - 8 a.m.
Before breakfast, take the puppy into the lift to go downstairs for walks. Passes stools and pees.

12.30 p.m.



Back from work. Take him downstairs for walks. Passes stools and pees.

2 p.m, 4 p.m Outdoors.

6 p.m Dinner.

7 - 8 p.m. Take him downstairs for walks.

10 p.m. Outdoors. Later if the owner is not at home.

When I saw this puppy on Oct 10, 2005, the owner said that he has no accidents for the last 1.5 weeks. The puppy was housetrained in 2 weeks following the schedule. He is free to roam the apartment but the bedrooms are locked as the wooden parquet floors can be scratched by his paws. He likes to sleep on the marble flooring. He does not like the crate.

A baby-gate confines him in the kitchen when he is naughty. The owner uses floor cleaners to remove the urine smells when he pees on the floor in the first 2 weeks.

A successful story.