371. Return to Seller? A Westie with dry coughs and runny noses.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


It is up to the owner to decide.

"Usually no problem, 90% of puppies with kennel cough will survive." I said. "But as a vet, I cannot guarantee that the viral and bacterial disease will not overwhelm the puppy. You must decide.

The young couple did not know what to do. The pet shop had given them 24 hours to get the puppy examined and to return if the examination failed. This beautiful compact Westie did not pass the examination.

"Much depends on how you care for the puppy," I said. "If well cared for, he should not develop pneumonia or die. But no veterinarian can guarantee you."

"What do you mean by 'well cared for'?"




It seems a common sense thing but actually many first-time puppy owners may not know how to care for a puppy.

"Ensure he is crated and have plenty of rest. No going out to visit, playing or show the puppy to friends for the next 7-14 days. Make sure he takes his medicine. Check to see that he eats and drinks. He has no vomiting or diarrhoea. If he does not eat or looks tired or sleepy, consult your vet."

370. Urine marking every tree and lamp post

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

One suggestion from a dog owner was NOT to permit the male dog a chance to lift his leg and urine-mark outside the house. In that way, he will not urine-mark inside the apartment. He swears he is successful in this way.



Obviously, with domestic helpers exercising the dog, this male behaviour is hard to prevent as in the picture taken the 2nd day after Singapore's National Day. I had sent my car for servicing nearby. It was a very nice morning. By the time I whip out my camera, the domestic helpers were gone. But I took 3 one snap shots fast. One later revealed urine marking by the Border Collie. He needed to do it fast as the walking was brisk. No time to linger and smell the roses (in this case, the tree trunk)?

369. Harder to motivate the comfortable young Singaporeans

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Singapore has reached adulthood. Will the state decline as its population gets more comfortable?

It is harder to motivate the younger generation born after the 1970s to excel when they are born with comforts. However, the education system must start at pre-school. Just like house-breaking a puppy. It is much harder when the puppy is older at 6 months than at 3 months.



So, is the country in a state of decline? Only time will tell.

368. Draft - Westie house-breaking

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Small confined area with 100% newspapers. However, the first week will be stressful for the owner as the puppy gets paper-trained. Eating poos and drinking urine are behaviours not acceptable.

See e-mail below.




"E-mail from a dog owner">:

Dear Dr Sing,

We hope you remember us. We came to you with our westie yesterday for new puppy examination. We were seeking your advice on housebreaking and you were sharing some of the methods with us.

We are now using a smaller confine area with newspaper covering the entire confined place, the problem is that our pup will lick/drink it’s own urine and eat it’s own poo (even when we are clearing away the papers with the poo). It will even lie over it’s own urine and poo. Please do advise us on how to get our pup to stop these behaviors, thanks.

We are glad to add that it is not urinating and passing motion on it’s chosen sleeping area though.

Regards



E-MAIL REPLY
Aug 10, 2006
6.20 pm, National Library Victoria St 7th floor

1. Thank you for your feedback.

2. During the first week, there is a lot of stress to most owners and puppies over the toilet training behaviour.

3. Eating poo is not common in puppies but it happens in many puppies. In my survey, around 1 out of 50 pups will eat its own stools.

3.1 Drinking urine is less common than eating poo but it happens.

3.2 One solution is to change newspapers frequently and to give firm strong commands "No". Distract him with a toy or play. However, you can't change newspapers frequently because nobody is at home.

3.3 There are solutions proposed by others, like shaking cans with pebbles (to distract him) when he starts eating stools or spray him with water from a spray bottle. Putting pepper on stools.

4. Lying down on soiled papers. This will take some time for him for you to train him. He has had been in Australia (toilet training method unknown) and had been crated on wire flooring at the pet shop. His urine and poo probably fell through the gaps of the wire flooring to the pee pan below, keeping him relatively dry. He got confused for the first 7 days with you as you are using newspapers.

5. Now he has a new toilet area - the newspapers. It takes at least 7 - 30 days of your patience and perseverance to train him to accept the papers. Praise and reward with treats when he does eliminate on the papers. It takes time and monitoring for signs of wanting to eliminate - sniffing, circling, turning. Pick him up and put him on the papers. If you spend full time training him, it will be around 7 - 14 days to be paper-trained. If not, usually it takes 30 days.

6. Let me know after 7 days how is his progress.

P.S. The newspapers may not cover a sufficient area for the puppy. It is hard to tell from e-mails. In such cases, the increase in confinement area may resolve the problem as the puppy may not have space to keep clean. Or he could be used to sleeping on urine in the pet shop and so consider it normal.

367. Westie has runny nose

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"Is it due to the recent 2nd vaccination?" the young couple asked. Their Westie puppy was having runny nose and some dry cough. He was purchased yesterday and a 24-hour vet examination was advised by the seller at the pet shop.

"No," I said. "Dry coughing is quite common amongst puppies housed in pet shops. A change of housing to a new place may also cause hacking coughs."

"Is it serious?" the owners asked.

"Around 90% of the coughing puppies would survive if well cared for," I said.
"Making sure it eats and drinks and giving it complete rest at home."

"So, there's a 10% chance of not making it?"

"You have to take your risk or return the puppy. The owners took the risk.

TOILET TRAINING.

The owners knew the theory. Put newspapers on the floor and reduce the area over a period of time. They intended to partition the kitchen area from the toilet. HOwever the space is more than 100 sq ft.

Block off an area of around 9 sq ft, I said. Otherwise it will be ineffective.

366. Outline 2005. Dr Sing's Toilet Training book

HOW TO TOILET-TRAINING YOUR FIRST PUPPY IN SINGAPORE
Be Kind To Pets community education

Dr Kong Yuen Sing, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
www.toapayohvets.com

First published in Singapore in .... by sinpets.com, an associate of Asia USA Realty Singapore) asiahomes.com Pte Ltd, Blk 1002, Toa Payoh Lor 8, 01-1477, Singapore 319074. judy@asiahomes.com, www.asiahomes.com, +65 9668-6468

Copyright sinpets.com ....

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilised in an form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN X XXX XXXXX X

Printed and bound in Singapore

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
Time-pressed adult and children in Singapore. 80% in apartments. Large and small dogs. Laws. Senior Citizens. Maids. Children. Neighbours. Internet knowledge. Insufficient knowledge. Applied knowledge of use of equipment. Puppy cruelty. Puppy feeling guilty. Cleanliness freak. No instruction manuals. Different personalities of puppies. No time. Problems and solutions.

2. PUPPY DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Blank mental slate - 2 - 4 months old. Fear imprint stage.
2.2 Rebellious state --- 6-8 months old.
2.3 Mature --- 12 - 18 months old.
2.4 Who is the boss? The alpha male.
2.5 WITFM? --- What's in it for me? Whacking.

3. TOILET-TRAINING EQUIPMENT
3.1 Housebreaking aids
Newspaper with puppy urine.
3.2 Puppy diapers or training pads with attractant smell.
3.3 Litter box.
3.4 Pee tray with newspaper.
3.5 Playpen
3.6 Playpen with enclosed aluminium pee tray.
3.7 Playpen + inside pee tray.
3.8 Crate(cage) + pee tray.
Crate + inside pee tray.
Crate with no pee tray.
3.9 Grate + pee tray. Rusty and aluminium.
3.10. Urine neutralisers.
3.11 Carpet neutralisers.
3.12 Cluttered area
3.13 Electronic collar.
3.14 Electric mat (restricted zone).
3.15 Dog house.
3.16 Clicker

4. TOILET TRAINING AREAS
4.1 Confinement --- crate training/room with baby gate.
4.2 Restricted Zone --- bedroom, balcony,kitchen with ceramic tiles, bathroom. Baby gate. Living cum dining area. marble flooring problems.
4.3 Tether method --- pee tray + newspapers.
4.4 Litter box. Shih Tzu's eyes.
4.5 Portable puppy loo.

5. TOILET LOCATION
INDOOR Apartment too small - Balcony, kitchen (see people), living area, whole apartment. Bedroom messed up.
Playpen with no gates. Playpen elevated, wire flooring, pee tray below.
Playpen for large breeds. Behind sofas and main door.

OUTDOOR. Ground floor apartment
INDOOR + OUTDOOR.

6. ACCIDENTS
Inconsistent routine. Do not see signs of elimination.
Too excited, distracted by children and neighbours, too young, inconsistency, not so smart.
Too large an area to roam - whining and continuous barking.
New smells, new dogs, stress, baby.
New homes.
Pee "off target" on newspapers.
Poop everywhere.
2 puppies, same age. 1 puppy and older dog.
Family members interference or conflicts.

7. PROBLEMSShredding newspapers, training pads
Chewing bed or cloth - intestinal obstruction
Relapses - boarding, new arrivals, tiled floor, carpet.
Toilet too far away at night
Whining to go to the toilet at night and to change soiled papers.
No time to train - Take 7 days' leave. Sleep with the puppy.
With-hold water after 8 p.m
Tiled area preferred - vinegar, anti-ammonnia cleaner, repellent, commercial
products.
Infected bladder or private parts
Kennel cough, vomiting, diarrhoea
Medication, milk
Blood in stools
Loose stools and farting
Vomiting blood and blood in stools
Submissive urinaton
Eating stools, drinking urine.
Consistency of family members
Feed 2 times per day.
Irregular feeding times esp. weekends
Regression --- male dog urine marking.

8. A SCHEDULE
All puppies craved a routine.
Plan, Consistent words, Confine, Paper + urine aids/newspaper, Recommended food
from Seller. No milk. 2 times per day. Fixed feeding time. Water bottle or water bowl? Splashing water on body. Home alone puppy bored. Goes to work and train in the evenings. Takes 7 days' leave. Buy puppy over the week-end.

Signs of elimination
2 puppies
1 puppy and 1 adult using 1 pee pan.
Deaf puppy.

9. SINGAPORE CASE STUDIES. >10 cases are selected from over 500 new puppy owners interviewed by Dr Sing from 2004 - 2007. Examples are:
9.1 The aged stay-at-home mum was stressed by the Schnauzer's mess.
9.2 "How to talk to the puppy" not to step on his poop every night?
9.3 Will the labrador retriever puppy be able to hold his urine from the 19th floor to the grass every morning?
9.4 Wood shavings stuck to the eye of the Shih Tzu puppy.
9.5 "Either the puppy goes or I go," the wife gave an ultimatum.
9.6 "The crate is a prison for the puppy," the soldier said to his father.
9.7 No puppy should drink from a water bottle?
9.8 "The puppy in the HDB flat must go," the canine enforcement officer said.
9.9 The platform was best for the townhouse Golden Retriever.
9.10 Stories about the Aluminium pee tray.
9.11 The 7-month-old Golden Retriever too old to toilet-train?

10. TRAINING METHODS
10.1 Stick --- Negative Reinforcement Training. Beating the puppy. Force the puppy to smell the stools and urine. Creating fear and distrust. Pain and trauma.
10.2 Carrot --- Positive Reinforcement Training. Praise, food treats, click and treat.
10.3 Animal-human miscommunication. Recognising the signs - sniffing, circling, whining. Cannot ignore barking at night. Freedom to roam.
10.4 Paper-trained successful - what is the criteria?

11. PICTURES OF PUPPY BEHAVIOUR AND TOILET TRAINING EQUIPMENT IN SINGAPORE.

12. INDEX

13. REFERENCES

13. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

365. Excitation urination - Jack Russell female puppy.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

"Drinks a lot," the owner said. I was wondering how this puppy pees more than 5 times at my surgery. On the floor, when the workman came into my surgery to measure the table for my new autoclave, on my consultation table, on the chair when I took her picture.

Jack Russell, female, around 10 weeks old. An older 3-year-old male Silkie Terrier was paper trained at a corner. The young puppy would sometimes pee in the same location but would pee anywhere, especially behind the main door.

"Vingear:water at 1:1 was ineffective, especially behind the main door," the man said.

"Are you from the army?" I asked the gentleman with silvery hair. "Your voice might have frightened her." He was in the army. "Not only does she pee when she greeted me, but also anybody."




"That would be excitation urination, not submissive urination," I said. "Is she socialised to meet people outside the house? Like going outdoors daily?"

"No," the man said. "She barks at other dogs and pees too".

How to resolve this probem of excitation urination? Is there a solution?



P.S.

I recommended the next stage - remove the playpen and let the puppy access the pee pan easily to eliminate. Maybe to cut a piece of the vertical wall out at 5-inch length so that the puppy needed not hop into the pan.

The owner was an engineer and knew how to cut a 5-inch gap in the Aluminium pee pan so that the puppy needed not be carried into the pee pay but just walked in. The pieces needed to be rolled inwards. He would send me a picture when the pee pan was cut. That would be good.

364. Puppy toilet communication - A very clean pug

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

A homemaker, husband and a young adult daughter.
Pug of around 3 months old, leashed at kitchen + newspaper during daytime.
Playpen + Al pee pan during night time. Sleeps alone. No whining.


Using "praise", after peeing and popping. When signs of sniffing are seen,
carry the pug onto the pan.


"A very clean pug," the mother said. "He will nip at my ankle to change the soiled newspapers." This is mouth communication. Puppies have a clean instinct and by changing newspapers frequently and full-time training by the homemaker, the puppy is paper-trained very fast.

363. Dog bites

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


How to prevent dog bites?

1. Proper training of dogs
2. Careful breeding
3. Proper training of children.

Growl, snarl or snap are warning signs to prevent a bite.
Dogs that are dangerous are ones that bite without warning.

Be the pack leader - firm NO.
Scruff of neck
Cans with pebbles
Spray bottle
Grasp mouth?

362. Working couple takes around 4 weeks to paper-train

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

From my survey of over 300 puppies in the last 2 years, working couples usually take around 4 weeks to paper-train a puppy. The commercial urine spray on newspapers was found effective in this case but not in all cases. The smell can be very pungent and some puppies dislike it.