121. RESOURCES: Home alone puppy - Extend confined area

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

SOURCE of article below is from:
http://www.la-spca.org/education/dogs/house_training.htm

The most challenging part of the housetraining process is preventing the pup from eliminating indoors. Until the puppy is housetrained, you will need to provide constant supervision. When you are unable to supervise, confine the pup to a relatively small, safe area. Always take your puppy out to eliminate just before confinement. A wire or plastic crate provides an excellent area in which to keep the puppy when you cannot observe it.

If the puppy is home alone each day for long periods, restrict it to a larger area such as a small room or exercise pen. The area should provide enough space for the puppy to eliminate if necessary and rest several feet away from a mess. Place paper at the sites where the puppy is likely to eliminate. To associate good things with the confinement area, spend time in the area playing with the puppy or simply reading nearby as it rests there.

A PICTURE MAY HELP TO EXPLAIN ABOVE. In Singapore's situation, many young couples work and the puppy is left home alone. The apartment is too small to give the puppy his own room.

Use fences. An extended play area confining the puppy may be useful. The puppy seldom wants to eliminate in its wire crate which is its sleeping and play area. To prevent him from stepping on his stools, extend his confined area using fences.




The fences to extend the area of the wire crate shown in the picture below can be bought from the pet shop in Singapore and are relatively inexpensive. The fences can also be used to partition gardens or boundary between two neighbours. One Miniature Schnauzer owner told me that such fences (used in the garden/back porch area) avoid conflicts with her neighbour's garden dogs and permit her to view her puppy from the indoors.

120. No messy playpen for this Whippet of mine

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"No stepping on stools and urine for this Whippet of mine," the long-haired retired national sprinter said to me when I asked how he toilet-trained his Whippet.



Years of dog-keeping experience. Reads a lot. He knows all about toilet-training puppies because he told me in great detail the different situations and reasons for doing the training.

Don't ask him to write. He can talk for hours but do not ask him to express his words for future generations. Maybe he is worried that his command of English is no good. But few people have good command of English.

Write down in point form. Pay a ghostwriter to write for you if you can't write.

So, what's the secret of his housetraining this beautiful whippet?

1. e spends full-time with the new puppy for at least 7 days. Advises take 2 weeks' leave.

2. The puppy is kept inside the kitchen. So, no playpen as it steps on stools. This is a common complaint. A bed on the right hand side and newspapers on the left hand side. He says that puppies tend to go to the toilet in the opposite direction to the sleeping area.

3. Spray urine training aid onto the newspapers. This is bought from the pet shop.

4. Know times. The puppy goes to the toilet on waking up, after drinking or eating and when circling, sniffing and looking for someplace.

Catch the puppy peeing in the apartment. Say "Hugo, No." Bring him back to the kitchen to pee. Introduce him to what you want to do. . Scold the puppy in the ACT of peeing, say "Hugo, No" and bring to the kitchen's newspapers.

5. Watch for signs of the puppy wanting to go to the toilet. Carry him to the newspapers. Say "Toilet". If he does not do the correct way, no treats. On the first day, he uses the newspapers. By the 7th day, he is 100% paper-trained.

Now he whines if he wants to pee. So that he can get treats.

6. Feeding. 7 am & 7 pm.
2 times per day. He does NOT take away the food after 15 minutes as the whippet is very slim. Taking away food is frequently recommended in puppy training books and by the pet shop operators in Sngapore.

The whippet eats slowly in the morning, so food is left for him the whole morning. He eats fast after a long walk before dinner. Do not walk the dog under the hot afternoon sun.

7. Water. 24 hours available. Drinks a lot.

8. Stools. Morning and evening after eating.

9. Sleeps a lot.

As for the owner, he is happy to keep as many dogs as possible. The whippet gets along well with the older chihuahuas. However, he has to be careful as the whippet may bite them. The whippet is a natural stray cat catcher, he says. So, is there a stray cat problem in his place?

VARIOUS TIPS FROM HIM.

1. The mop used to wipe away puppy urine. Many owners do not realise that the mop is smelling of urine. The more they mop, the more urine spreads to the floor tiles. Urine attracts the puppy to pee there. So, the owner cannot understand why the puppy prefers the floor tiles to the newspapers.

Use a water jet to spray the mop. Or use a separate mop.
If you use the same mop, flush with lots of water. Step on it to get rid of urine smell instead of putting the mop into the pail of water (with dog urine smells).

Mopping the floor. Do not use chlorox. Mop + plain water will do. One dog almost died. Do not use bucket of water or soap as these contain ammonia or urine smell attracting the dog to pee on mopped areas.

Good idea. No ordinary dog owner will think of that.

2. Male dogs urine marking territory or walls. Every time you bring the male dog downstairs, do not let him walk near trees or lamp posts. So, he can't follow other dogs to urine mark the objects. When he goes home, he will not lift his leg to mark on the apartment walls. Train him to squat to pass urine. Give treats.

Good idea again.

3. Barking. Say "enough" when puppy starts barking indiscriminately. Training begins at young age.

4. In summary, Observe your puppy behaviour, and read a lot. Not just blindly adopt advices.

119. Golden Retriever pup and an older Spitz in a townhouse

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore



New puppy but big breed. The Golden Retriever is now 6 months old. He barks to let the owner know that the soiled newspapers must be changed. If not, he pees outside the papers. He drinks a lot, from a water bottle attached to a fence. This fence is part of a playpen and is slid in and out, behind the fridge, to barricade the entrance to the kitchen. Poops 4 x times a day. Fed 3 X/day including snacks and lamb bones. "Looks skinny to me," I commented.

However, the Golden Retriever can leap out of the fence now. "Once he ate all the breakfast food," the husband said. A busy working couple. The Golden Retriever is put inside the kitchen as and if he still pees on a spot in the living area and on the rug. Needs monitoring when left in the living area. I advised neutralising the urine smell of living area and rugs, with vinegar:water 1:3 and let me know. Time-pressed couple.

No time to train him. Now it is harder to train him? The 1.5-year old male Spitz was paper-trained in 7 days as she was trained full-time. Goes to drier patch if newspaper is soiled. 2 pieces of the Straits Times paper. He goes to the grass in the morning and evening. This Spitz can control his bladder and bowels when kept inside the apartment.

The Golden Retriever is still a puppy. Will need further housetraining.

He has elbow sores because he crawls on his elbows, like a commando. Needs to pay close attention as elbow sores are itchy. Licks a lot to balding or dark brown elbows. Advised owner to keep elbows clean, dry and not itchy. Easier said than done. Elbow sores seem to be common in apartment or indoor-kept bigger breeds in Singapore if busy owners have no time to groom the bigger breeds.

In this case, the younger dog did not learn toilet training from the older dog. One reason being that the urine smell in the living area and rug has not been effectively neutralised. Otherwise he can be left in the living area and kitchen area when home alone. Food stealing is common amongst puppies.

It is hard to train them not to steal food unless one has lots of time to do so.

118. What is a wire crate + door + pee tray?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore



Several pet shops in Singapore do sell the wire crate to house the new puppy. How it is used successfully depends on the puppy's intelligence and the owner's training and attention to training.

In Case 117, it has had been successfully used. The puppy training pad was the toilet area for the new Mini-Maltese on day 1. In other cases, there is a lot of frustration.

In most Singapore pet shops, the puppy is housed in non-collapsible wire crates with doors and pee trays. The pee tray catches the urine and stools. Newspapers may be put on the pee tray but not on the flooring of the wire crate.

Toilet training of the puppy after purchase of the wire crate then depends much on the puppy and the owner.

117. Success in day 1. Puppy training pad-trained from day 1 for mini-Maltese

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

SUCCESS ON DAY 1.


"I have owned various breeds before," the 50-something-old lady owner accompanied by her adult daughter said when I enquired about toilet training. "But this mini-Maltese is most intelligent. He pees and poops on the puppy training pad on the first day."

I knew the puppy was housed in a wire crate in the pet shop. No puppy training pads were used as these added up to the expenses of operating a pet shop. The puppy training pad is excellent for a white puppy as it keeps their feet clean compared to newspapers which grey the paws.




The owner bought the wire crate with door and pee tray. The puppy training pad was cut into quarters. On the top left corner, the pad was placed. On the right half, the towel was used as a bed by the puppy. On day 1, the mini-Maltese just pees and poops on the pad.

The reasons for success:
1. The pad has an attractant urine odour. The puppy was attracted to use it. If you buy pads for human incontinence use, from the discount stores, you may not be successful. However, later on, you may buy such pads.

2. Being absorbent, the pad is dry. A puppy likes dry toilet area.
3. Feeding is outside the cage.
4. Water bottle is hung on right side of the cage. So, there is more crate space for the puppy.

"Did the puppy shred or shift the pad?" I asked the happy owner.
"No, he does shift the pad up and down the left half of the wire crate."

I advised taping the pad to the floor as the puppy may shred later on. The owner has the puppy for only 7 days and had come for vaccination.

The puppy similarly used the pad outside the crate too. However, he pees on the fabric cushion bed meant for him to sleep. It will take time for him to realise that the cushion is his bed.

Once in a while, I hear success stories of toilet training the puppy lst day after purchase. But these are uncommon. Restriction of the puppy to a small area and neutralising the urine odour on floor tiles or the cushion bed are important in toilet training. Puppy training pads are convenient, keeping the paws of the dogs clean.

Discount stores do sell human incontinent pads. These cost much less than the puppy training pads if you know where to find them. Obviously, the human ones do not have an attractant of urine smell compared to the puppy types. So, you may not be successful in training the puppies after purchase if you do not have knowledge of why the puppy is attracted to pee and poop, based on smell.