486. 5-month-old poodle soils herself. Why?

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--- On Sun, 6/20/10, ...gmail.com> wrote:



Subject: Toilet training of Toy Poodle
To: judy@toapayohvets.com
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010, 10:03 AM

Dear Dr Sing,

Have been reading your web-site and found your advice we helpful and would be very grateful if we could have some advice from you.

My sister and myself are the owners of a 5 months old female toy poodle, the puppy has been with us for 2 months now. We had experience of 2 other dogs before, both male chihuahua and we find this toy poodle to be the most naughty and difficult to train. We went through a very difficult first month but thereafter, everything seems to became better when seems to be doing ok with the pee pan, therefore, we put her in the kitchen, a small area barricate with gate. Unfortunately we finds that once she is out of the play pan, she would pee and poo everywhere, we would reached home every night to find her soak in a pool of urine and with poos everywhere obviously being stepped on. We are really very frustrated and already at the verge of giving up. Appreciate if you could give us some guidanceon to these problem that we are facing:

1) We have tried putting her back in the play pan (for maybe about 15 minutes) everytime she pee and poo on the floor, but she don't seems to understand that it meant to be a punishment for her. There are times when spent about 2 - 3 minutes washing her pee pan and when i walk out of the bathroom only to find the kitchen floor flooded with her urine (she did that inside her play pan). Some other times when we reach home found her sitting in her pee pan, the cover (netted plastic cover) separated from the bottom pan and she was sitting on her own poos and the kitchen wet with her urines

Questions :
- she don't seems to have a sense of cleanliness, why is that so ? i thought puppies especially female like to be clean

THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR A 5-MONTH-OLD POODLE TO BEHAVE BADLY, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:
1. SEPARATION ANXIETY - Eliminates anywhere and destroy/damage home furniture when the dog is home alone.
2. ATTENTION-SEEKING - Keeps wanting the owner's attention at all times.
3. URINE AND POO-MARKING - To mark territory.

MOST LIKELY, YOUR POODLE IS THE TYPE THAT KNOWS SHE WILL GET YOUR ATTENTION (SCOLDING) IF SHE IS NOT CLEANS. AT 5-MONTHS OF AGE, SHE IS HARDER TO TRAIN COMPARED TO A 3-MONTH-OLD AS SHE IS AN "ADOLESCENT".


- how do i let her know that peeing and pooing on the floor is wrong ? after 2 months with us, we just couldn't put the message across to her and that is very frustrating

CONFINE HER AGAIN AND DON'T PAY HER ANY ATTENTION WHEN YOU CLEAN THE PLAYPEN OR THE DOG. GET HER SPAYED. SPAYING MAY OR MAY NOT HELP AND IS NOT A GUARANTEE.

- does puppies know when the owner is angry ? she don't seems to know
SHE KNOWS SHE CAN GET ATTENTION WHEN YOU ARE ANGRY. THAT IS PROBABLY WHAT SHE WANTS.


- how many times can we bath the puppy in a week ? we have been bathing her every weekend but only find her wet with her own urine on Monday, because of that, we
cannot carry / hug her until she is bath again on weekend.

BATHE ONCE A WEEK USUALLY BUT MORE IN YOUR CASE.

- We have been using pee pan for 2 months now, is it still alright to use newspaper to replace the pee pan ? we have tried putting newspaper before, but she would shred it and dirty the whole place with shredded newspaper and her pees and poos,

CONTINUE WITH THE PEE PAN + GRATE METHOD. PL SEND 2 PICTURES. OF TOP AND SIDE VIEW. I CAN'T ADVISE AS I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS YOUR ACTUAL HOUSING FLOOR PLAN.

2) Have read from your web-site that water should not be given after 8 pm. or after dinner, therefore, we have started to do just that, however, i find that every morning when we wake up she would start to cry, bark and howl , not something new but she seems to be more reckless after we took away water at night. When we feed her and give her water at the same time, instead of going for the food, she would start drinking for 2 -3 minutes before eating.

IT MAY BE POSSIBLE THAT YOUR FEMALE DOG HAS A UTI (URINARY TRACT INFECTION). CHECK WITH YOUR VET.


Questions
- I find that she have been drinking alot, is that somehing unusual ?
- we are feeding her with the ANF dog food for puppy, could it be the food that is causing her to be extremely thirsty?


DRINKING A LOT - GET A VET EXAMINATION AND URINE TEST. HOW MANY ML IS THE POODLE DRINKING? YOU NEED TO KNOW AS YOU MAY BE INCORRECT. ALSO DRY FOOD DO CAUSE PUPPIES TO DRINK MORE.

3) She would struggle when we blow her after bathing, is there any tricks that we could calm her down ? i pratically have to fight her and press her down before i could blow her, really very tiring. Is it alright if the dog is only half dried ?

YOUR DOG MAY BE AFRAID OF THE SOUND OR HEAT OF THE BLOWER. USE TOWEL DRYING AND A LOW HEAT AND SPEED SETTING AFTER TOWELLING.

Sorry for the long story, would appreciate your advice when you are available.

Thanks and best regards
Name of Owner (lady)


IN CONCLUSION,

1. BRING YOUR POODLE OUTDOORS IN THE MORNING AND EVENING AT THE SAME TIME. LET HER "URINE MARK OR POOP" OUTDOORS AND CLEAR UP THE POO.

2. CONFINE AGAIN. BUT NO SCOLDING OR SPANKING WHEN SHE MISBEHAVES. START OBEDIENCE TRAINING. READ BOOKS ON THIS SUBJECT. ATTENTION-SEEKING IS COMMON IN SOME SMALL BREEDS LIKE POODLES AND BICHON FRISE.

3. PRAISE AND REWARD WITH FOOD TREATS IF SHE OBEYS YOUR COMMANDS.

4. VET EXAMINATION FOR URINE AND URINARY SYSTEM.

5. SPAY HER SOON.

6. NEUTRALISE FLOOR WITH WHITE VINEGAR:WATER AT 1:3 AND CLEAN PEE PAN PROMPTLY. I PRESUME YOU DON'T CLEAN HER ELIMINATION AREA FOR MANY HOURS.

7. E-MAIL ME TWO PICTURES OF TOP VIEW AND SIDE VIEW OF POODLE IN PLAYPEN, INCLUDING PEE PAN AND GRATE.