444. Backyard as toilet location for the puppy
Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore
This report is written for a family and the FDW (foreign domestic worker) to work together as a team to train the puppy consistently and patiently.
PRESENT SITUATION
The 10-week-old Miniature Schnauzer had been with the owners (working couple, 3 schooling pre-teen children and 1 FDW) for the past 2 weeks. His playpen (without door) is in the backyard, near the washing machine and away from the rain and sun.
He sleeps alone. He is fed twice a day and poops near the drain grating in the backyard. However, he pees everywhere in the backyard including inside his playpen. How can he be trained to pee near the drain grating where he poops?
SUGGESTIONS
Each puppy has his own personality, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
1. Confined area. It is not practical to locate the puppy near the grating in an area of around 10 sq ft, as he will be exposed to rain and sun. So, the next best method is to barricade an area to include the grating as shown in the drawing below.
2. Access to the toilet location at any time. In this open playpen layout, the puppy can go to the toilet location anytime, including night-time. He goes to his basket to sleep. In the present situation, the puppy is locked inside the playpen and cannot go to the toilet location when he needed to go as there is no door in the playpen. A 10-week-old puppy pees around 2 hours as a guideline, using the N-1 formula where N= the age of the puppy in months. By 6 months of age, the puppy should be able to control his bladder and pees around twice a day.
3. Commercial urine spray is applied to one corner near the grating. Before that, the FDW should neutralise the whole floor area of the backyard and other rooms with white vinegar:water at 1:3 dilution so that the urine smell of the puppy is no more. The mop must be thoroughly rinsed so that it does not spread the urine.
Spraying perfume or other masking smell is one method but it may not be effective. The use of Dettol disinfectant instead of vinegar by some owners is claimed to be effective but I am not sure. However, all owners report that the vinegar:water combination is extremely effective, especially for those areas behind doors and corners. The puppy just stop going to pee in these areas after the use of vinegar:water.
4. No water intake after 8 p.m. This helps the puppy to control his bladder.
5. A fixed time-table and no children distraction, for eating, exercise and sleeping. If the puppy is fed irregularly, gets distracted by the children at various times, it is difficult for him to be toilet trained at the grating. He just forgets. Play only after the puppy has peed after meals. Breakfast and dinner must be fixed at certain times so that the puppy knows its routine. Children, friends and neighbours love to play with the new puppy such that he has no time to go to the toilet location to pee when he needs to. Try and not get him distracted.
6. Watch for signs of elimination. When exercising or playing with the puppy in the living area, the children must watch for signs of elimination. Sniffing the floor, looking for a place to pee, squatting, circling. Quickly pick up the puppy and bring him to the grating. Say "Pee pee". Some puppies just pees fast, so "accidents" do happen. Usually it is because the owner is too far away or not alert enough!
7. Praise and food treats. If successful, praise the puppy lavishly "Good boy". Food treats may be motivating in many puppies. The smarter ones may just pee a bit and wait for food treat. Then pee again and wait. I hope your boy is not one of them.
8. Accidents. No shouting or scolding. Just mop up the urine quietly.
9. Grating-trained.
This puppy was purchased from the pet shop. He is used to the feel of the "grating" under his paws when he pees. This is because the flooring of the crate inside the pet shop is also the "grating" floor plan.
If your FDW sprayed the commercial urine spray onto the grating, he will pee there as well as poop there. The only condition is that there should be no urine smells anywhere in the backyard. Otherwise, he would consider the whole area as the toilet location.
FROM ABOVE E-MAIL REPLY FROM THE OWNER"
"He is however, still trying to make sense of where to pee..."
The vinegar has had neutralised all puppy urine smell. So, it is best to spray the puppy's urine near the grating where the owner wants the puppy to pee. The puppy is trying to locate its toilet location through the urine smell, but could not find it.
Since it is not practical to use puppy urine, maybe the commercial puppy toilet training aid or a piece of newspaper with the puppy urine will do.
As for pooping, the puppy uses tactile sense (sense of touch --- feel of the grating is like the grated floor of the crate he was housed in when he was at the pet shop). So he poops near or on the grating. As the grating does NOT have urine smell, unlike the grated floor of the crate, the puppy was at a loss where to pee.
As he could not communicate, he peed everywhere in the backyard. The maid neutralised the urine smell and he could again pees anywhere in the backyard.
Each puppy toilet situation is different but the basic idea is to use URINE SMELL near the grating near to where he poops.
This is a case where smell and touch play a big part in the toilet training of this puppy.
This report is written for a family and the FDW (foreign domestic worker) to work together as a team to train the puppy consistently and patiently.
PRESENT SITUATION
The 10-week-old Miniature Schnauzer had been with the owners (working couple, 3 schooling pre-teen children and 1 FDW) for the past 2 weeks. His playpen (without door) is in the backyard, near the washing machine and away from the rain and sun.
He sleeps alone. He is fed twice a day and poops near the drain grating in the backyard. However, he pees everywhere in the backyard including inside his playpen. How can he be trained to pee near the drain grating where he poops?
SUGGESTIONSEach puppy has his own personality, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
1. Confined area. It is not practical to locate the puppy near the grating in an area of around 10 sq ft, as he will be exposed to rain and sun. So, the next best method is to barricade an area to include the grating as shown in the drawing below.
2. Access to the toilet location at any time. In this open playpen layout, the puppy can go to the toilet location anytime, including night-time. He goes to his basket to sleep. In the present situation, the puppy is locked inside the playpen and cannot go to the toilet location when he needed to go as there is no door in the playpen. A 10-week-old puppy pees around 2 hours as a guideline, using the N-1 formula where N= the age of the puppy in months. By 6 months of age, the puppy should be able to control his bladder and pees around twice a day.3. Commercial urine spray is applied to one corner near the grating. Before that, the FDW should neutralise the whole floor area of the backyard and other rooms with white vinegar:water at 1:3 dilution so that the urine smell of the puppy is no more. The mop must be thoroughly rinsed so that it does not spread the urine.
Spraying perfume or other masking smell is one method but it may not be effective. The use of Dettol disinfectant instead of vinegar by some owners is claimed to be effective but I am not sure. However, all owners report that the vinegar:water combination is extremely effective, especially for those areas behind doors and corners. The puppy just stop going to pee in these areas after the use of vinegar:water.
4. No water intake after 8 p.m. This helps the puppy to control his bladder.
5. A fixed time-table and no children distraction, for eating, exercise and sleeping. If the puppy is fed irregularly, gets distracted by the children at various times, it is difficult for him to be toilet trained at the grating. He just forgets. Play only after the puppy has peed after meals. Breakfast and dinner must be fixed at certain times so that the puppy knows its routine. Children, friends and neighbours love to play with the new puppy such that he has no time to go to the toilet location to pee when he needs to. Try and not get him distracted.
6. Watch for signs of elimination. When exercising or playing with the puppy in the living area, the children must watch for signs of elimination. Sniffing the floor, looking for a place to pee, squatting, circling. Quickly pick up the puppy and bring him to the grating. Say "Pee pee". Some puppies just pees fast, so "accidents" do happen. Usually it is because the owner is too far away or not alert enough!
7. Praise and food treats. If successful, praise the puppy lavishly "Good boy". Food treats may be motivating in many puppies. The smarter ones may just pee a bit and wait for food treat. Then pee again and wait. I hope your boy is not one of them.
8. Accidents. No shouting or scolding. Just mop up the urine quietly.
9. Grating-trained.
This puppy was purchased from the pet shop. He is used to the feel of the "grating" under his paws when he pees. This is because the flooring of the crate inside the pet shop is also the "grating" floor plan.
If your FDW sprayed the commercial urine spray onto the grating, he will pee there as well as poop there. The only condition is that there should be no urine smells anywhere in the backyard. Otherwise, he would consider the whole area as the toilet location.
|
FROM ABOVE E-MAIL REPLY FROM THE OWNER"
"He is however, still trying to make sense of where to pee..."
The vinegar has had neutralised all puppy urine smell. So, it is best to spray the puppy's urine near the grating where the owner wants the puppy to pee. The puppy is trying to locate its toilet location through the urine smell, but could not find it.
Since it is not practical to use puppy urine, maybe the commercial puppy toilet training aid or a piece of newspaper with the puppy urine will do.
As for pooping, the puppy uses tactile sense (sense of touch --- feel of the grating is like the grated floor of the crate he was housed in when he was at the pet shop). So he poops near or on the grating. As the grating does NOT have urine smell, unlike the grated floor of the crate, the puppy was at a loss where to pee.
As he could not communicate, he peed everywhere in the backyard. The maid neutralised the urine smell and he could again pees anywhere in the backyard.
Each puppy toilet situation is different but the basic idea is to use URINE SMELL near the grating near to where he poops.
This is a case where smell and touch play a big part in the toilet training of this puppy.
posted by Photography by Sing Kong Yuen | 7:33 AM
1 Comments:
Great post! for tips on learning how to train a puppy check out http://how-to-train-a-puppy.weebly.com/
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