toilet training, house training puppies

Community education supported by www.toapayohvets.com

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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

Sunday, June 18, 2006

333. "Seems to be marking his territory"

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Caucasians account for less than 1% of my clientele. This young English couple's visit was memorable because I was the realtor for the boss of the company and got the boss a condo. That was over 4 years ago when I started a real estate expatriate rental online agency called www.asiahomes.com. Now, associates are taking over my duties as I focus on veterinary services.

"A nice quiet spacious condo in Nassim Road overlooking the house of probably the richest man in Singapore," I said to the couple. "I hope the sprawling bungalow did inspire him to achieve success in the Asia Pacific." The couple had expanded in Singapore.



Saturday June 17, 2006 was memorable in the sense that a brand new police patrol car and 3 other police cars were parked outside the Toa Payoh Veterinary Surgery. There was some police investigations on the 2nd floor of the opposite block but I was too busy to find out what happened. I snapped a picture of the brand new introduction of the police patrol car shown above.

The male 10-week-old Cocker Spaniel puppy was memorable for his moth-bitten coat, crusty ears and numerous small white thick scales on the ear flap.

"How's the toilet training?" I asked, as part of my toilet training survey.

EQUIPMENT - Pee Tray and newspapers

The pet shop sold the owners a large pee pan first. The pee pan was placed at the top right corner of a room. Newspapers were spread around the pee pan. The puppy bed was placed on the bottom left corner of the room. The puppy should use the pee tray while the newspapers coverage would be reduced. Apparently a famous dog trainer in the UK had suggested this method.

"Is the puppy paper-trained now?" I asked as 2 weeks had passed.

"Around 80% of the time. But the puppy does not poop on the tray. He poops on newspapers outside the tray."

The reason would be that the puppy would not want to dirty himself on the soiled pee tray. It was hard for the puppy to let the owners know that the pee tray must be clean and dry.

The trim young English man said, "The puppy seems to be marking his territory. He pees here and there on the floor tiles."

"It is not urine marking at this age," I said. "The puppy has a high sense of smell and is attracted to the floor tiles to pass urine again. Ideally, you should confine the puppy to a smaller area to paper train him."

How to do it?

"If you have a guest bathroom, put newspapers on the floor 100% and barricade the door with a baby gate or fences from a puppy playpen. Put the bed and his eating and drinking equipment on one side. He will use a distant area for his pee and poop. Also, watch for his signals of wanting to pee and poop, like sniffing and turning."

"Where to buy the fences?" the English man asked.

"Any puppy shop would sell them."

"We bought a playpen for the puppy. He cries when he is alone inside the playpen. There is a pee tray under the playpen.

This structure is not a playpen but a crate.

PROPOSAL

1. Confine the puppy in the guest bathroom if nobody is in the condo.
2. 100% newspapers on the floor.
3. Baby gate the door.
4. Pee tray with newspapers on it at one corner.
5. Sleeping and eating area at the other corner.

"Let me know in 1 - 2 weeks if your puppy's skin disease in still present." I vaccinated the puppy.

More needs to be done in this case of scabies but how do the young couple resolve the problem? The pet shop operator had applied a drug called Revolution onto the puppy. There was some improvement in the body's coat but the floppy ears were scaly and had thick sticky crust along the edges.

"Marking the territory" in a 10-week-old puppy is not the same as in a grown up male dog as the intention differs. For the puppy, he is attracted to pee on the same spot with urine smell. If the smell is neutralised with white vinegar:water 1:3, then the puppy would not be "marking the territory". For adult male dogs, urine marking is for the purpose of letting other dogs know through the unique urine smell that the boundaries of the urine-smelly area are those of the dog.

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