232. The mini-Maltese saw me and knew she had misbehaved in shredding the newspapers.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

The mini-Maltese was 14 weeks old and was looked well fed. The young man asked whether I remembered she had fainted and recovered after treatment by me after he purchased this puppy at around 8 weeks of age.

There were a few cases of mini-Maltese puppies at 8 weeks old fainting or having fits. The common cause was low blood sugar as the Maltese did not eat or was too busy or tired to eat.

"How did you keept the feet of the mini-Maltese so white?" I asked the young man.

The playpen of 4 panels of fences plus newspapers is located under the rubbish chute in the older HDB apartments. In the first few days, the Maltese was soiling the whole apartment when let out of the playpen.

"I find that the 8-week-old Maltese has not developed mentally compared to a 12-week-old; so she could not be toilet-trained," the young man said. "At 12 weeks old, she just ran to the newspapers on the rubbish chute area whenever she needed to go to the toilet."

I did not dispute his observation of mental development. "How do you paper-train her?" I asked again. The puppy could not have just decided to go to the newspaper toilet area when she turns 12 weeks of age."

The young man did spend time training her. Scolding and light spanking when she had accidents. He used tissue paper to soak in the urine. He carried her onto the playpen. Then he left the tissue onto the newspaper and told her "pee here". After 1-2 weeks the puppy was paper-trained.

So, it was a whole process.

"How often she pooped a day?" I asked.

"3-4 times a day because she ate a lot. Around 3 teaspoonfuls of dry puppy food left in the feed bowl throughout the day."

For mini-Maltese, it is best to give her food all day so as to prevent low blood sugar developing. The owner was away at work and so would not be able to supervise her. If food is not restricted to twice a day, the puppy would poop more than two times a day.

"Does she shred the newspapers in the playpen?" I asked.

"Sometimes. I scolded her and lightly caned her when I see that she had shredded the newspapers after I come back from work. She knows she has done something wrong before I punish her."



Actually, the puppy could see the anger in the owner's face and reacted in fear of being punished. To human beings, the puppy "knew" she had misbehaved by shredding the newspapers. This behaviour had been reported by other owners. They attributed "guilt feelings" to puppy misbehaviour.

The owner said, "I took up the shredded newspapers and said 'cannot bite.' After some time, she never shredded newspapers."

This mini-Maltese was well looked after. There was no point in me giving my point of view of the "guilty reaction" of the mini-Maltese. It is commonly reported that the puppy cannot feel guilty for misbehaviour performed some time ago but could sense the displeasure of the returning owner.

The reason the Maltese never shred papers was that she was let out of the playpen and confined in the kitchen under supervision. Since she had more space and training, she became paper-trained fast and not confined to the small playpen.

This mini-Maltese slept by herself in the kitchen and just went to the newspapers under the rubber chute.

"Was she sleeping by herself in the first week?" I asked.

"No, the first 2 days, I took the playpen into my bedroom. It was tedious taking the playpen in and out. I just ignore her whining and she was all settled down to sleep by herself after a few days."

Free feeding instead of twice per day for 15 minutes, time spent toilet training and the use of soiled tissue papers are significant aspects of the toilet training of this mini-Maltese.