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

Saturday, December 10, 2005

207. Teach the puppy to go to the bed

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


Say "Go Bed" to puppies with new bed. Some may not know it is a bed and will pee on them.




For basket cane beds, some puppies chew on them and get intestinal upset or blockage. Monitor your puppies like a hawk.

206. Will the marble flooring be affected by vinegar?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


It is hard for me to give a definite reply. The Golden Retriever has been toilet-trained outdoors. But the puppy sometimes has accidents at home. This may be due to his attraction to the urine smell. I proposed a vinegar:water 1:2 solution to neutralise the smell and therefore the puppy would not be attracted to pee on the floor.



"Would the vinegar bleach the marble flooring?" I had no answer to this.

Readers who know, e-mail to judy@toapayohvets.com. Many thanks.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

205. Malteses learn from 2-syllabus commands

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"The Maltese learns fast if you give 2-syllabus commands," the lady with the big eyes said to me. "Commands like 'No, No' or 'Girl Girl'.

This was the first time I heard of this requirement. Why Maltese only? She said she read this somewhere in the internet and had applied this method very successfully.

She gave an example of how she toilet-trained the Maltese.

SPOT A. The Maltese pees on a prohibited area. Use a piece of dry cloth to soak up the urine. (see picture of Maltese sitting on cloth).

SPOT B. The desired toilet location. Dry floor of her toilet smeared with the pungent puppy housebreaking aid. Around this smeared area area, smear the puppy's urine from the piece of dry cloth.

If the puppy goes to SPOT A (as she is attracted to the urine smell), ask her "You want to pee pee". Bring her to SPOT B. Press her head down to smell the urine. Say "pee pee".

If the puppy performs, praise her "Good Girl" and give her a food treat.



"Why do you need a house-breaking aid when you can use the puppy's urine?" I asked.

"The puppy's urine dries up and will not be as smelly as the housebreaking aid." she replied.

I would not argue with her although I thought the puppy training aid was redundant. She would use bleach to wash the piece of cloth to get rid of all the urine smell so as to re-use the cloth again. She uses less than 1/3 of the puppy training aid.


She had used this method with success in an older dog and had reproduced the same success with this Maltese. In the first week, the puppy messed up the whole maisonette apartment. She was on leave for those 7 days and closely monitored the puppy for signs of wanting to pee or poop.

On the first night, the Maltese peed in the bedroom but subsequently did not.
A lot of hard work she said, following the puppying around, watching for signs of turning, squatting and sniffing, bringing her to the toilet to say "pee pee" on the toilet floor.

If she pees elsewehere, she will be locked up in the storeroom for 30 minutes. A time out method.

It took 2 weeks to toilet train her. Now she goes to the toilet herself and even at her mother's apartment toilet too.

Monday, December 05, 2005

204. E-mail research. The Husky in the Aluminium Crate

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Met the family and thanked the girl who sent me the Husky picture earlier. The Husky was in excellent condition when I saw him yesterday at the surgery. She replied to my e-mail queries as follows:



>From:
>To: ...
>Subject: Re: Siberian Husky-Frosty, Thanks for Picture
>Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 15:32:03 -0800 (PST)
>
I thank you for emailing the pictures of the cage. This will be very
useful for my book to be written for first-time puppy owners. Toilet-training
book for first-time puppy owners.

You got a nice composition of the puppy as both eyes are visible in the picture. If possible, please let me know his toilet-training routine for my
research.

>1. His date of birth.
26th of June 2005

2. What time he is fed?
9 am and 4 pm

3. How many times?
Twice.

4. Do you take his feed bowl away after 10 minutes or leave it there?
I would take the food bowl away after 10 minutes.

5. Per day, how many times he goes to pee? This may be difficult to answer.
Frequently. Rough estimation would be around 8 times or more.


6.1 Per day, how many times he passes stools?
No less than 4 times per day.

6.2 When he passes stools?
He passes stools usually after meals.

6.3 Where he passes stools?

On the Grass.

7. I believe he goes to the grass to pass urine and stools. Please confirm.
Yes

8.1 Is he learning toilet training from an adult dog?

Yes, I guess he is learning toilet training from the adult dog as he went onto the grass to pass his stools without us teaching him during the first two days when he first arrived.

8.2 Does he use the same location for his toilet as the adult dog?

Yes.

9. Does he sleep inside the aluminium crate at night?
No. He does not like being cooped up in the cage so he would bark and whine incessantly thus we tie him in the backyard at night where he sleeps.

10. Does he bark a lot if left alone?

Yes. He yearns for attention and would whine especially if we were to pat the adult dog instead of him. But at times he's fine being left alone running around with the adult dog as well as at night when he's sleeping.

11. Is he toilet-trained in the sense that he does his business in one or two spots in the garden now?

Yes. Actually we did not even toilet train him ourselves, he just figured it out himself which is quite surprising.

12. How long it takes for him to be successfully toilet-trained?
He got the gist of it after around three days.

13. Did you give commands like "pee here" or scolding on week 1?
No.

14. What were the training done during the first week after purchase? Or he is left alone to follow the bigger dog?

We taught him to follow basic commands like 'sit', 'come', 'go' and 'lie down' which he did very well. No, he does not follow the adult dog when training is concerned.


All these questions are important for my case study. Will appreciate your time in replying.




ACTUAL E-MAIL REPLIES BELOW.

In reply to your questions,

1. 26th of June 2005
2. 9am and 4pm
3. Twice
4. I would take the food bowl away after 10 minutes
5. Frequently. Rough estimation would be around 8 times or more.
6. No less than 4 times per day. He passes stools usually after meals.
On
the grass.
7. Yes.
8. Yes, I guess he is learning toilet training from the adult dog as he
went
onto the grass to pass his stools without us teaching him during the
first
two days when he first arrived. Yes.
9. No. He does not like being cooped up in the cage so he would bark
and
whine incessantly thus we tie him in the backyard at night where he
sleeps.
10. Yes. He yearns for attention and would whine especially if we were
to
pat the adult dog instead of him. But at times he's fine being left
alone
running around with the adult dog as well as at night when he's
sleeping.
11. Yes. Actually we did not even toilet train him ourselves, he just
figured it out himself which is quite surprising.
12. He got the gist of it after around three days.
13. No.
14. We taught him to follow basic commands like 'sit', 'come', 'go' and
'lie down' which he did very well. No, he does not follow the adult dog when
training is concerned.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

203. The Shih Tzu liked to pee on carpets and corners

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore



Seldom do I encounter a 4-year-old asking a vet so many questions while I talked to the father. The emotional, intellectual and physical development of the 4-year-old seems to me, to be that of a 7-year-old. She should be able to care for this Shih Tzu puppy.

The toilet training had good results.

In the first week after purchase, the puppy messed up the whole house. This is a common complaint with other owners.

"What you do to toilet train him?" I asked the owner.
"Monitor him closely. Look for signs of the puppy wanting to go the toilet, put her on newspapers with the housebreaking aid sprayed on. Say 'pee here'.

If he pees on the wrong place, spank lightly on back, saying "Not pee here". Bring him to the newspapers to pee.

It takes about 2 weeks to paper-train him.

The puppy is paper-trained. Crated when the owner is at work. He will "bark" to ask to go to the newspapers.

The puppy liked to pee on the carpet. Carpet was steam-cleaned and removed.

"Puppies love soft area to pee." I said. "The carpet is like grass."
Did the steam remove the ammonia smell of carpet and the floor, so that the puppy would not be attracted to the smell to pee on it? The puppy was monitored closely and not permitted to go to the carpet. So, there was no answer to the question.

A family member crated the puppy when the owner was at work. This is quite a good idea as he is not paper-trained and cleaning up after the puppy is not some pleasant task for some family members. Small puppies like this Shih Tzu can pee everywhere in the house as it is not practical to watch him all the time.

Also, the puppy may run away through the front gate. I advised the owner to cover the lower part of the gate with wire netting.