333. American Cocker Spaniel and the playpen

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

As I had scribbled solutions to the paper-training situation of the Cocker Spaniel, I promised the lady owner that I would write a proper report and give to her.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. If I don't write immediately, I would not have time or remember the case although the scribbling on the envelope would remind me. My teenager son had lost his Identity card and his mum was more stressed. You would have thought that teenagers would induce less stress but the obsession with video gaming till 4 am, sleepy in classes, poor academic performance and complaints from teachers are great stresses for mothers who believe in academic excellence.
(Blog 332). http://puppytoilettraining.blogspot.com/2006/06/332-mothers-negative-mental-attitude.html


In the case of the American Cocker Spaniel, I could sense that it was quite stressful for the mother too. The puppy belonged to her daughter.

SITUATION

Two weeks had passed. The 3-month-old American Cocker Spaniel puppy was not paper-trained.

In the playpen, the right 2/3 marble flooring was covered by newspapers. Below the newspapers was a plastic sheet to prevent the urine from soiling the marble flooring.

In the left 1/3 floor, a towel bed was put on the top left corner. A water bowl was placed on the bottom left corner. I presumed the plastic sheet was below the towel and water bowl to protect the marble floor.

The puppy did not always sleep on the towel bed. Many towels were changed daily as he stepped and soiled the towels.

SOLUTIONS.

1. As there is a foreign domestic worker, the ideal solution would be CRATE TRAINING.
I did not have time to discuss this.

Basically, the puppy is kept in a crate such that he can only stand and sit. But not able to pee and poop. The maid takes the puppy out of the playpen every 2 hours and put him into a small area to pee and poop. Reward with treats and praises.
If there is no elimination, back to the crate and take out again every 2 hours. The time formula is N-1. N = age of puppy. At 3 months old, N-1 = 3-1 = 2 hours of urine holding. As the puppy grows older, it may be 3 hours. The formula is a guideline for crating the puppy not a rigid mathematical formula for success. No puppy should be crated more than 4 - 6 hours, depending on age.

With a fixed schedule of eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, the puppy would learn to hold his urine and poop till he goes to the newspapers. Newspapers would have the urine smell. Crate training method is excellent if you have the manpower and patience.

2. PLAYPEN
100% newspapers. Fixed schedule for eating. Water bottle at one end so that the puppy has access to the water anytime but not after 8 p.m.

Observe and record where and when the puppy pees and poops. Feed 2 times a day. Remove feed bowl after 10 - 15 minutes.

If the puppy is let out, only allow him in one room under supervision. Not allowed to roam the whole apartment.

Observe for signs of elimination (turning, sniffing). Carry him to newspapers (with urine smell) inside the playpen and say "Pee pee". Reward with treats and praises when he performs.

Preferably sleep near the puppy at night to watch for signs as the puppy may need to go to the toilet at 3 am. (Signs of whinning, restlessness).

BEHAVIOUR

The puppy is attracted by urine smell to go to the same spot for elimination. He also wants to sleep and eat in a clean area.

Neutralise all urine on the plastic sheet and playpen with white vinegar:water 1:2 or get a pee pan to protect the marble flooring. Put 2nd piece of soiled newspapers on pee pan as you need to change papers frequently.

A fixed schedule of feeding and playing.
FEEDING TWO TIMES PER DAY. No supper or extra food times. The puppy poops usually within 30 minutes of eating if there is no distraction of playing by children and others. Let him poop first before letting him out. Take away water after 8 pm to help the puppy to control his bladder.

PROFESSIONAL PUPPY TRAINERS - RESIDENTIAL TRAINING
There are such people providing residential toilet training of puppies. But due to parvoviral infections killing puppies, I would not advise puppies under my care to be toilet trained. Puppies normally have no protection till 2 weeks after the 3rd vaccination. Why take the risk?

In conclusion, confined area, fixed schedule for feeding and exercise, signs of elimination, positive reinforcement using treats and praises. Must have time to train puppies. Same as for teenagers. They just go in the wrong direction if adults don't have time or knowledge to train them. Puppies are easier to train than teenagers, I think.

Email to judy@toapayohvets.com if you have any queries. Each puppy is different. Sometimes, it is the lack of full time training, the lack of knowledge in toilet training or the intelligence of the puppy that affect early success.

With full-time training success in paper training is from 4 days to 4 weeks, in my survey of more than 300 puppy owners in this blog.

332. A mother's negative mental attitude affected the 18-year-old

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

June 23, 2006. A bright sunny afternoon. I promised the owner of an American Cocker Spaniel puppy to give her a proper report. I had scribbled on an envelope the proposals on paper-training but it would be difficult to understand.

Yet, I had to go to Zone X, a video game arcade in Toa Payoh. My 18-year-old son had lost his wallet including his ATM card, Identity Card, EZ Link card (bus card) and $12.00 yesterday. He was to go to Depot Road to register for National Service today.

"Did you go to the counter at Zone X to enquire whether anybody had returned the wallet?" I asked him at 8.30 am as I drove him to Depot Road Army Camp to enlist. "No" he said. "My friends and I checked the floor in Zone X for a long time. We found nothing. I believed my wallet dropped out from my bag."

"He would not find the wallet there," his mum interrupted before I could say "Go and check out. The teenagers at Zone X must have stolen his wallet and his Identity Card would be valuable for illegal immigrants. His mobile phones had been stolen by teenagers. So, no point asking. He should listen to my advice to keep the IC at home as his EZ link card would be his IC. He lost his IC once and did not heed my advice."


He had his passport photos in his wallet and so would not be able to have time to make another EZ link card. I asked him to take mum's first.

With so much maternal negative mental attitudes, the son did not go to enquire. He made a police report and was inconvenienced. 36 hours had passed. Why would I go when he was not proactive?

I had so many things to do. He was 18 years old. Let me get inconvenienced and learn the hard way.

I made an effort. At the counter, I introduced myself as the father and enquired about a lost wallet.

"A red ATM card inside and an Identity Card?" the 2 young managers asked me.

"Yes," I said. I showed them my identity card and mentioned my son's name. And would you believe it?

Everything was intact. Somebody must have picked up the wallet and given to the managers. I offered $10.00 but the men declined. I thanked them.

A parent is a role model for a teenager. Both parents must have consistency in training a teenager or child. But it is not possible in real life. Mum usually wins because they are closer to the kids.

Unconsciously, the mother's negative vibrations rubbed onto the teenager and even onto the spouse. Had I not gone to Zone X, the wallet would probably be lost later or kept there for some time. Replacement of the IC and other cards take a lot of time.

331. Urine marking the teenager's bed

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"The Maltese pees under my bed," the fair teenager with glasses said twice. "He also pees in the living room and on the sofa legs." Father and daughter had brought the 15-month-old Maltese for his annual booster and I presumed he had been paper-trained in the apartment.

"He lifts his leg to pee on the wall," the father said of the recently clipped and clean Maltese. "He poops 1-2 times per day in the living area."

"Urine marking will make the apartment smelly," I said.

"No smell at all," the father said.

"Your nose may not detect the smell. Did your friends visiting you complain about the urine smell?"

"No," the father said.

SOLUTIONS

1. Neutering him is not a guarantee that he will stop urine marking. If done earlier at 6 months, it is possible that he will not urine mark. This was not an option.

2. Confine him to the balcony. If the dog is leashed at the balcony he will not poop.
When unleashed, he will poop 5-10 minutes later. Don't leash him. Let him urine mark the balcony.



3. Neutralise the apartment including the bed and walls with vinegar:water 1:2 so that the dog can't detect the marked areas. Supervise and prohibit him from urine marking (if possible). Use positive reinforcement training methods.

I don't know whether the solutions would work as urine marking is established and he is a male dog. Over the years, the apartment will smell of urine although this may not be obvious now as noses are used to the smell. It will be very difficult to clean up.

It would be good for the teenager's bed not to be sprayed with urine as I feel that she may not like this behaviour.

330. 2 women afraid of the Shih Tzu's bites

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"So naughty at home, quiet as a mouse at the Vet," the young lady laughed as she placed the carrier bag with a gold and white Shih Tzu puppy inside, onto the consultation table. "Always chasing me to bite me when I am back from school."

"Did you jump onto a chair when the Shih Tzu puppy wants to bite you?" I asked the chocolcate-brown sunburnt teenager. Probably she had indulged in water sports under the hot afternoon sun.

"His bites are very painful," she said. "He keeps chasing me to bite my ankle."

"Does he bite your father?" I asked.

"No," she said. "My mother runs away from him as he bites her."

"Biting or nipping by puppies is a common natural behaviour," I explained. "They mouth you as a way to communicate with you. These bites can be painful and must be discouraged. If you run or scream, the puppy gets a reaction and bites more."

Many lady owners and children don't know what to do as they are first-time puppy owners.

"Maybe you can say 'No' as you use a roll of newspapers to smack the floor when the puppy wants to bite. Distract him with play, a toy, a treat or praise when he does not bite."

TOILET TRAINING

The lady owner puts the 13-week-old male Shih Tzu in a crate with a pee pan below. On the right half of the pee pan, she sprayed toilet training aid onto the newspapers. In this way, she hoped that the puppy would associate elimination with papers and become paper-trained.

It is unusual to paper train this way. Usually, the puppy is in contact with the papers instead of through the wire flooring of the crate with newspapers below the wire flooring.

Night - sleep inside the crate.
Daytime - Roam the whole apartment.
Poop - anywhere. 3 x per day. Fed 8 am and 7 pm. Sometimes poop in crate, esp. morning.

Pees - sometimes go into crate. "Depends on his moods," the teenager said.

Was this method successful in paper-training?



"No," the teenager said. "Sometimes he refused to get into the crate when he is out. So he pees outside the crate." The puppy had free run of the whole apartment and so would not want to be crated for the past 3 weeks. Paper training was not successful.

"For paper-training, put newspapers outside the crate," I advised. "Use white vinegar :water 1:2 to neutralise all urine smells on the floor of the apartment rooms."

"Watch for signals of wanting to pee and poop," I said. "When you see the signals, put him on the newspapers."

The puppy is learning. He needs to be trained. Time must be spent with puppies as with teenagers if you want to win his or her heart. The interests and passion for puppy is play. For teenagers, it is music (arts) and sports (play). So, an owner must know how to train the puppy to the appropriate behaviour (not biting at ankles) by directing its playful bites to no biting.

329. Singapore's high rise and small breeds - house training is common problem

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

House-training for small breeds in high rises - a big common problem in Singapore and presumeably in cities all over the world.

1. Routinely has accidents. Need to be trained again.
2. Crate, Pen or tether the dog near the paper or pad.
3. But the dog must learn to hold his urine. Otherwise he goes to the paper or pad 20 times a day even at the age of 10 months.
Not common for puppies to still go to pee 20 times a day at 10 months of age, in my survey of over 300 puppies.

328. One-Room toilet training

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Owners in Singapore and in other countries make a mistake of giving the puppy too much freedom. Best to start in one room near the toilet e.g. ground floor room next to the grass area. Restrict the pup to this room till she no longer has accidents. Then give access to another room. In this way, the puppy knows the toilet location and let you know when she wants to go the toilet.

328. One-Room toilet training

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Owners in Singapore and in other countries make a mistake of giving the puppy too much freedom. Best to start in one room near the toilet e.g. ground floor room next to the grass area. Restrict the pup to this room till she no longer has accidents. Then give access to another room. In this way, the puppy knows the toilet location and let you know when she wants to go the toilet.

327. No 2 dogs are alike in dog training

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Certain dog breeds learn differently from other breeds. Sporting, Herding and Terrier groups are highly motivated, persistent and responsible. Non-sporting and working grups are persistent and receptive to sound but no visual learning. Hounds and toy breeds are visual learners and have high levels of persistence.

In the same beed, no two dogs respond to the same training methods. Some learn by trail and error. Some by error-free learning. Recognising such derrence is important for succesful dog training. Change dog trainers if one trainer has been unsuccessful in training your dog.

326. Clicker used for toilet training?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Over 300 puppy owners surveyed. None used the clicker for toilet training in the survey in Singapore.

A clicker is a box with a metal plate which make a "click" sound when pressed.

Clicker training makes use of the clicker to click and treat a dog that has performed to the owner's expectations. Rewarding behaviour that the owner likes. Part of positive reinforcement training (no punishment).

Clicker makes a consistent sound unlike verbal cues (good boy) which depends on our tone or timing which may be delayed, confusing the dog.

METHOD

Click once and give a treat immediately. Repeat. Soon the dog associates clicks with treats. Do this for short periods like 5 minutes. For toilet training, only click when the dog has just peed or pooped.

Next, say "pee pee", click and give treat when the dog eliminates. Give treats only after the dog obeys the verbal command and click. Later, no clicking but just verbal command. Re-train occasionaly with verbal command, click and treat.


Every dog is different. So, the clicker method may not work for all dogs.

325. The mini-Malteses were paper-trained in 4 days

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

2 Mini-Maltese puppies female and male, 3 months old, were paper-trained within 4 days. They were kept in a bedrom. The lady owner notes where they pee and poop. She puts a big piece of newspapers over that area. She also use a piece of tissue paper to soak up the puppy's urine and put on the newspapers.

So both puppies were paper-trained this way within 4 days.

There was an older Maltese that use the same spot for the toilet area. So, it was the smell of urine.

The smell of urine in a particular spot is a strong attraction to the puppies. They were not distracted and also had some intelligence.

To the owner, it was blissful that there was no problem getting the puppies paper-trained so fast.

324. Cue words: Susu and kaka for the daily-coughing Jack Russell

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

The brightest yellow luminous modified sari worn by a good looking lady caught my eye. The colour fluoresces like the yellow luminous marker pen on my study desk. lady in her forties and a man with greying hair brought the tricolour male, 3-month-old Jack Russell was in for consultation of a cough lasting 4 weeks.

Every day, the puppy coughs a few times. Otherwise he was eating normally. He was not hyperactive like some Jack Russells.

"It could be a bacterial infection or chewing and swallowing rough things or both" I pressed the puppy's throat. The puppy lowered his head and coughed two times. Normal throats do not evoke coughs on palpation around the Adam's apple. Treatment was given.



"How's the toilet training for the past 2 months?"

"The puppy is paper trained 40% of the time but poops anywhere," the lady said. "At night, he would go to the master bathroom and eliminate on the newspapers on the pee tray."

The cue of "Suss (pee)" and pointing the the master bathroom was sufficient to make the puppy go to the master bathroom at night. The puppy sleeps in the bedroom at night, so he would not dirty the "den".

But during the day, the puppy had freedom of the apartment. The cue of "Kaka (poop)" did not work. What's the solution?

PROPOSAL

1. Know the times of poopging by recording. Usually it is after meals.
When the puppy shows signs of wanting to poopy (turning, sniffing, circling), bring him to the pee tray (new newspapers) and say "kaka". Praise and reward if successful.

2. Stop supper. Milk was given at 10-11 pm. Total meals per day were 4 times. So, the puppy poops at least 3x per day.

Areas for peeing sometimes differ from areas for pooping for some puppies. Reasons could be dislike for soiled pee tray or distractions or lack of a schedule for pooping after eating.

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.