359. Follow up. Leash training. Now urine marking sofa sets.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"Will the neuter guarantee that the 9-month-old male Shih Tzu will not urine mark the sofa set corners?" For the past month, he had started urine marking the 4 corners of the fabric sofa. "It is very stressful for the wife as she had to remove the yellowish urine stains from the stained fabric.

"It is a heavy set, so it is not easy to shift it to sun it as you suggest. She used vinegar which gave a strong but temporary smell to the living area. It is very difficult to do that as the dog keeps going back to urine mark the corners."


"No guarantee," I said. "When he started urine marking?"

"At around 6 months of age. I brought him downstairs and he started urine marking the walls of the void deck. He started marking my daughters' bed," the father of 2 slim be-spectacled pre-teen daughters said. The girls had reminded him that the dog now urined marked only the corners of the sofa set.

"How do you stop him urine marking the daughters' beds?"



"We closed the bedroom door," the father said. "Then he went to mark the master bedroom's bed. We close the door too. Now, he did it on the sofa. Vinegar did not work or we did not neutralise effectively."

"It is not a matter of effective neutralisation," I said. "It is a natural instinct of some male dogs. You did not discourage him when he urine-marked downstairs.

"I propose to spray the corners with insecticide spray. But it will be very smelly.
Baking soda powder to soak up the urine, water to wash it, followed by vinegar method may or may not be successful."

The dog was not so active as it had just been neutered and was recovering from anaesthesia. He had already licked and bitten his scrotal area to get at the wound which had been plastered with a strip.

Would this neutering stop his urine-marking habit? It is hard to say. However, if done earlier at 6 months, it is possible that he would not urine-mark his territory.


PAPER TRAINING.

A picture of him being leashed in the balcony was posted by the owner and recorded many blogs ago. A playpen with the aluminium pee pan was bought. The urine training aid (very effective, according to the owner) was used. However, the puppy messed his paws.

So, a leash method was advised. A bigger area of the balcony floor was covered by newspapers. The urine spray liquid was put onto the newspapers. It was successful.

Later, the newspapers were put onto the aluminium pee pan and the puppy was paper-trained successfully. Until he started urine-marking the apartment furniture. The owner's friend told him that neutering would resolve his problem. But he had delayed for 3 months. So, the surgery to remove his testicles might or might not work. Only time will tell.