282. British Bulldog wakes up owner at 3 am.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Sunday Mar 26, 2006. 3 pm. British bulldog, Female, 10 weeks old.

Came for vaccination. Puppy seems so tired. Just plonked on consultation table and doze off. Like a teenager with late nights. Wakes up for few minutes. Then doze off.

"No vaccination as the puppy may have been incubating a disease. After 7 days, the disease will show and if vaccinated, the puppy will suffer badly or die." I said.

The young couple understood.

"Any coughing heard?" I asked.

"Yes," the fair slim lady owner said. "This puppy has ringworm at the breeder's side. The pet shop (seller) gave me a tube of cream. Will she ever recover her health?" Beautiful rings about 1 cm in diameter to 1 mm were found all over the body. Nose, paws, belly, body and many hidden places.

"You want to return the puppy?" I asked.

"Poor baby," the lady said. "Do all puppies have ringworm?"

"Not all, but ringworm is a common skin problem of puppies in my practice. Usually gets cured within 20-30 days on medication and wash."


"Will it recur?"

"That depends on whether the puppy gets infected again from the environment," I said.

"Can people get it?"

"Yes," I said. The couple went to wash their hands at the room sink. "People with poor skin resistance or damp skin," I said. "Not every adult gets it."

"I can't kiss the puppy?"

"No, unless you want ringworm on your face."

This puppy has very clean habits.

1. Toilet area in the utility area. Playpen with newspapers on left side. 1 water and 1 feed bowl. Always spill the water bowl and wet herself. So, pee and pooop on newspapers. Newspapers changed few times a day. Accidents sometimes on the right lower corner, but mostly on newspapers on left 50% of playpen.

2. At night, sleeps on a towel inside a basket in the bedroom. Covered by another towel as blanket.

3. "The puppy does not pee or poop inside the basket throughout the night?" I asked. That was surprising.

"She whines at 3 a.m. We carry her to the papers in the utility area. We want her to know that the utility area is the toilet area."

So, this was the secret of success. After peeing, they use baby wipes, play with her a while and then she sleeps. Later on, the puppy will be sleeping in the utility area once paper-trained. The couple is very good and patient, ready to wake up past midnight to do a good training job.

4. Another secret is that she was tired out as she sleeps around midnight.

No wonder the poor baby dozes off in the consultation room. Reminds me of my teenaged son who goes online gaming till the early morning. You can find him sleeping in the afternoon or dozing off whenever he is not occupied.

One adolescent boy and one young puppy. Both have no time to sleep and must catch up their sleep during the afternoon!

5. The couple was advised not to tire out the puppy so much. They were working. I guess the weekend was the only time to play with the puppy. I have had not seen such a tired puppy during my toilet training survey of over 300 puppies at the Surgery! The survey over past 2 years should be ending soon. As always there are new findings.