361. Follow up. 2 Schnauzers urine mark every 3rd lamp post.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"You remember me?" the expatriate asked. "Actually I remember your BMW 350 L," I joked. "I like the BMWs. I seldom see the "L" series parked outside at my surgery. So, I always remember. I guess it is a male thing to like BMWs."

The 2 owners of 2 Miniature Schnauzers now had grown up dogs rubbing their ears after grooming. That was why they came for consultation.

The grooming was well done. I think it is always a pleasure to see professionally groomed Schnauzers with their eye-brows curling out and their big eyes visible. This is a personal preference.

The ears were very painful after grooming. Such things happen. Maybe the dogs moved or the ear hairs were too abundant and too difficult to pluck.

"You remember your recommendations on paper-training?" the expatriate asked.

"I remember the condo was 2 levels. The dogs were kept inside a bathroom." I had documented this case in a blog 6 months ago.



"Well," the expatriate said. "After relocating the 2 puppies and giving more space for the toilet area and two pee pans, the dogs were paper-trained within 30 days. Newspapers were put on the 2 pee pans in the living area on level 1. This condo has living areas on level 1 and bedrooms on level 2.

"At 5th month, they were brought downstairs at 6 am., 8 a.m. 7 p.m and 9 p.m.
At 7th month, they they go downstairs at lunch time."

That makes it 5 times outdoor a day.

"So, how many times do they poop and pee?" I asked.

"Poops 2 times after meals. But they pee every 3 lamp post!" the expatriate laughed.

"They are males and are doing urine-marking," I said seriously. It is fortunate that the dogs don't urine mark the condo as the owners have had time to take them out.

360. Man proposes, God disposes. The old mutt stopped breathing under anaesthesia

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Man proposes, God disposes.


"This 12-year-old dog must be operated as he keeps licking the skin tumour in front of his male organ," the father said. "My daughter would like to see him lead a normal life."

The daughter was in her early twenties. A quiet be-spectacled lady. Not a word from her when we met in the consultation room.

"She wants to be around for the dog during surgery," the father said.

"It is not possible because I don't operate immediately," I said. "But she can take the dog home on the same day."

I had advised surgery only after 10 - 20 days of antibiotics but the father did not turn up. He must be a busy working person. On a second appointment, the dog had fever and the surgery was postponed. So another course of antibiotics. Now the dog was on the operating table on a Thursday afternoon. I could not schedule surgery on a week end as that would be very busy. Surgeries are best done on week days as there is much less pressure of waiting pet owners.



This mutt was very thin. I had not seen him biting, but the owner muzzled him for the picture pre-op. He was not an ideal anaesthetic agent. "My daughter is against euthanasia," the father said as I told him that the dog had a few other skin tumours and might have internal tumours too.

"He is eating and well," the father said. The young adult daughter had not wanted to get rid of an old friend just because he had several skin tumours and it would cost money to operate and remove them.

But would he survive the general anaesthetic? I disliked such operations and would have preferred that he let other veterinarians take the case. Sometimes, it is not a matter of losing revenue, but a matter of heart breaks and anger facing anaesthetic deaths of high risk patients. The father knew the risks. The antibiotics should have got rid of the bacterial infection.

But how about the ability of this dog to take anaesthesia. Why was he so thin? Has he some internal problems? Of course, blood tests and X-rays could be done. But the owner usually wants the least cost veterinary fees. It is understandable as the cost of living in Singapore increases every year despite what the politicians and economists say.

"The dog stopped breathing," Nurse Ann who was monitoring the anaesthesia said. His turn had turned moderately cyanotic. His chest movements had stopped. After all the precautions of medication and postponements, he was now at death's door.

I understood and remember the English idiom of my primary five school days - "Man proposes, God disposes".

Would this be the end? It is very stressful to the vet when the dog dies under general anaesthesia. Owners can be understanding but the family members can never forgive and forget.

"Stop anaesthestic and give pure oxygen," I compressed the dog's narrow chest with my hand regularly to watch signs of return to breathing. No signs. Compress the chest 5 times, wait and repeat.

A flicker of breath was seen as the rebreathing bag expanded. It took around 10 minutes to get the dog to breathe regularly. The big reddish skin lump in front of his prepuce was removed. It looked like a haemangioma. The other bigger lump on his sternal chest area was not removed as I did not want to prolong anaesthetic time and be stressed by a second event of likely death.

The young girl was waiting for her best friend who had just escaped death on the operating table. The dog went home soon after surgery. It would have been so much safer if he had been operated a few years ago when the lump just appeared and he was stronger and younger.

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.

358. Paper-trained in 2 days by "talking". Authoritative training.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Her friends and the dog groomer were impressed. This male Miniature Schnauzer was paper-trained, not "toilet-trained" in just 2 days over the weekend when he was purchased as a puppy. What was this lady owner's secret?

It is a rare success story. I took a picture of him when he came for his annual vaccination at 15 months old.

"No urine marking?" I asked the lady owner with boyish cut hair style.

"No," she said. "He does not even lift his leg to urinate." Many adult male dogs need to lift a leg to pass water.

"How do you toilet-train him, remind me again," I said. She had told me one year ago.



"He is not 'toilet-trained'" the young career lady replied. "He is paper-trained. Over the weekend after purchase, I talked to him. I scolded him when he peed outside the newspapers. I pointed to the newspapers to ask him to pee and poop there.

"He was paper-trained in 2 days. Nowadays, he would not even pee outside or in my friend's place or at the groomer. He would wait till he is home."

"Not even one accident?" I asked.

"He did pee at the groomer once when he was angry," she laughed.

Success in paper-training or in any venture is to do it by showing LEADERSHIP to the puppy. The puppy wants a pack leader. He was at the impressionable stage of development to accept authority. The weekend permits full-time training and by close communications. Authoritarian (strict control), authoritative (partly control and praises), permissive training (no control)? This lady used the authoritative training method.

357. Vulnerable, alert and impressionable daughters

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Sometimes, there seems to be a coincidence and a link in cases at my surgery. On Aug 2, 2006, I had two cases involving Shih Tzu and 10-year-old daughters for consultation one after another.

In Case 1, the father of around 50s and daughter consulted me on the left eye tearing in the grown up Shih Tzu. They were amazed when I showed them the central corneal ulcer of around 3 cm in the left eye of the Shih Tzu.

The ulcer could be seen at a sideway look. "Corneal ulcers are most common complaint of eye problems in the Shih Tzu, as the dog has protruding eyeballs. Your daughter will be much taller than you," I said as the Primary 3 girl was as tall as his shoulder level. "Children nowadays are taller than their parents," he said.

In Case 2, 2 women in their 30s came with a 10-year-old girl. Good friends with young children. I presume they were time-harried homemakers who ferry their children to various educational classes as they came at around 4 p.m. on a weekday.


"What books do your daughter read," I asked as I was doing a survey on reading habits of children in Singapore.

"What is the name of the book about the pig your SCGS teacher asked the whole class to read?" the mother asked her daughter. I thought it was the three little pigs.

The daughter did not really understood the question.

The friend said, "Charlotte's Web."
"It is a Newberry Medal award winning book," I said. "It is a good book. Do you mean every child in Primary 3 in SCGS buys one book each?" I asked.

"Yes," the mother said. "SCGS is Singapore Chinese Girls School."

"I recall reading about SCGS in the Straits Times sometime ago. It teaches girls to be refined, cultured and to be ladies."

"SCGS teaches girls to be tai tais," the mother said. "The girls are taught tap dancing and to develop good character and personality rather than being bookworms." Tais tais are ladies who marry rich husbands and live a good life. SCGS won an international tap dance competition in New Zealand.

It is a school I would send my daughter to if possible. But I have no daughter.

"What a coincidence that you and your friend had Shih Tzu puppies. Also a 10-year-old girl like the preceding case." I commented.

"The other girl was too fat," the mother repeated twice. I dared not say anything contrary. That girl was taller and had some puppy fat. But she was not obese. She was all right to me.

However, I am sure this daughter, being vulnerable, alert and impressionable, must have got the idea that she should slim down. Will she be sickly thin like many of the young girls in Singapore exposed to daily Straits Times advertisements of slimming?

Most likely, she will be thin because of the mother's influence. Mothers, like puppy owners, have great powers over the young ones. The young ones are vulnerable, alert and impressionable.

DRAFT - Why the puppy does not poop on newspapers

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

DRAFT COPY. No time to edit.
>
> ...@singnet.com.sg> wrote:
>
> Dear Dr Sing,
> We went to your clinic last Friday (7 Jul) with our
> 7-mth old Golden
> Retriever, Rocky for his 3rd vaccination and seeked
> your advice on how
> to toilet-train him.
> After some thoughts on your suggestions, we decided
> to start off with
> neutralising his urine and poo smells in the house
> with white vinegar
> and water.
> On that same evening, we neutralised the entire
> living room and part of
> the kitchen area, leaving the unneutralised part of
> the kitchen as his
> intended toilet area (the spot that he frequents
> most). Then covered
> that area with fresh newspapers and some soiled
> ones.
> That weekend, we tried confining him to that
> specific kitchen area after
> his meals and monitored him, also tried bringing him
> out for walks and
> kept asking him to pee/poo, but were not successful.
> He did not pee/poo
> as we wanted him to. We gave up, but continued
> neutralising the floors
> every night as he still eliminates randomly at those
> 2 areas.
> On Tuesday (11 Jul) evening, just when we thought
> that the methods
> weren't working, we saw him pee-ing right in the
> centre of the
> newspapers. We quickly praised him and offered him a
> treat. This time,
> he took the treat happily and ran off chewing it.
> Initially we thought
> he had learnt to eliminate there, but later at
> night, we found his poo
> on the kitchen floor. The following days, as we
> continued with
> neutralising, we saw some improvement. We observed
> he has stopped
> eliminating in the living room, and does it only in
> the kitchen area,
> however, he only pees on newspapers, still poo
> everywhere in the
> kitchen.
> Last night we've decided not to neutralise the
> floors. This morning, to
> our surprise, we saw both his pee and poo on the
> papers. We're very
> happy to see that, and we'll continue to monitor him
> closely until he's
> really stable and makes no mistakes.
> Will update you again on his progress.
> Really appreciate your help and professional advice.
>
> Thanks,
> ...


> Sunday July 16, 2006. E-mail reply from Dr Sing
NLB Toa Payoh Library 10.30am.
>
>
>
> My computer is infested with viruses. It shut down
> and re-started
> several times earlier. After that it shut down
> completely. So, I am
> using the NLB library to reply to you. It is hard to
> find real computer
> experts in Singapore who can resolve this problem
> without having to
> re-format the whole hard disk.
>
> I am very grateful for your contribution to my
> research and a book on
> Singapore puppy toilet training.
>
> In reply:
>
> 1. My research and reading of other reports. It
> appears that white
> vinegar is effective only to neutralise the ammonia
> smell of puppy
> urine. Acid plus alkaline = water, to put it simply.
> So, the puppy
> can't find the elimination area.
>
> I presume you used the same mop or had not rinsed
> off the urine smell
> thoroughly, so the puppy could detect the "accident"
> areas for the first
> few days. Corners or edges of doors may still have
> traces of urine. The
> sense of smell is very acute in the canine. However,
> after a few days of
> your hard work, you probably wiped out all urine
> smell. So, the puppy
> goes to the newspapers. I presume you did not use
> the soiled newspapers
> (2nd layer) but the floor is OK too.
>
> 2. White vinegar is said to have no effect on the
> poop as it does not
> smell of ammonia.
>
> 3. So your success later may be due to your
> monitoring and praises. Your
> puppy probably now expecting treat. Some will sit
> and wait for it after
> peeing. A few owners tell me that some even pee less
> but more often to
> get treats. I hope your puppy does not think this
> way.
>
> 4. Poop after feeding times. If you can have a
> regular schedule of
> feeding and exercise, without distraction of playing
> immediately after
> eating, you may be successful. Signs of elimination
> like sniffing,
> squatting and circling - bring puppy to newspapers.
> Praise and reward.
>
> 5. Will be most grateful if you let me know your
> progress in the pooping
> training aspect. It is from such case studies that I
> am able to advise
> as each situation and each puppy behaves
> differently.
>
>
July 30, 2006 e-mail to Dr Sing>
...@singnet.com.sg> wrote:

> Dr Sing,
>
> We're still working on Rocky's poop training.
> Did not really have enough time to monitor him for
> the past 2 weeks due
> to our work schedules.
> We will continue with your suggestion in Point 4
> below.
>
> Thankfully Rocky does not seem to expect treats
> after peeing. He just
> walks away.
> He has no problem with peeing on newspapers, i don't
> understand why he
> could not poo on the papers as well.
> So far only once or twice he pooped on papers, the
> rest of the times are
> done on the kitchen floor.
>
> We still do use vinegar to mop the kitchen floor on
> alternate nights.
> You mentioned in Point 2 that white vinegar has no
> effect on poop. Do
> you mean that white vinegar can only nuetralise
> urine smell, but not
> poop smell?
> Is there anything we can do to remove the poop
> smell?
>
> Hope your computer is fine now.
>
> Thanks,
...



Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 e-mail reply.
04:32:18 +0800 (CST)
From: "Dr Sing KY" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: RE: Rocky's Toilet Training - Pooping on floor.
To: ...@singnet.com.sg

Thanks for feedback.

1. Most likely reason Rocky does not want to poop on
the newspapers more often may be due to at least 2
reasons:

1.1 The papers had not been changed. Most dogs do not
like to step on soiled newspapers as they are clean
creatures. So, he chose the floor.

1.2 The papered area is too small. I remember he is a
Golden Retriever. Correct me if I am mistaken. You may
need to have double or triple the areas covered by the
newspapers or buy a big pee pan (to put newspapers
on).

2. In many cases, vinegar:water mixture does not
eliminate the smell of poop because the poop is not
ammonical.

3. In your case, you said you had not much time. I
presume you had no time to change the newspapers more
often and no time to bring him downstairs. There is no
fixed schedule for exercise after eating. If that is
true, then he has no opportunity to poop 15-30 minutes
after eating (as most dogs do) on newspapers under
your training and supervision. You probably had gone
to work or are too tired to bring him downstairs. I do
not know the real situation.

4. If you want your puppy to poop on newspapers, you
need to SPEND TIME to train him to do so. WATCH for
signs of wanting to poop and bringing him to the CLEAN
newspapers for the first 2 weeks. Praise, pat and
reward with treats on success.

Otherwise, it is very difficult for him to know what
you want.

5. Let me know once your pooping training is
successful.