veterinary medicine, surgery, singapore, toa payoh vets, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters

TOILET TRAINING PUPPY IN THE CITY - How to train your new puppy to pee and poop in the correct way

Dr Sing Kong Yuen
toapayohvets.com

Case 1/10
First written; March 20, 2009
Updated: April 1, 2015

The young lady owner in her late 20s shares her tips on how she successfully paper trained 2 Silkies living in the apartment during the annual vaccination of the female Silkie.

Working couple. Therefore, 2 toilet locations as the dogs prefer clean newspapers to eliminate. The 2 dogs will use the toilet location in the bedroom first and will then go to the second one in the kitchen.

In this case, the 2nd female dog simply learnt from the older male dog where to eliminate. However, the male dog must spray his urine over the eliminated areas of the females daily (see picture above).

"Why don't you neuter the male dog to prevent urine marking?" I asked. The couple was not keen on surgeries. Many younger Singaporeans believe it is "cruel" to sterilise their dogs.

"Does the male dog attempt to mate the smaller female?" I asked.
"No," the lady laughed. "She is too small. He mates with my leg."

It takes a lot of thinking to create the above set up. In this set up, urine rarely dirties the floor as the 2 dogs usually pees onto the "cover" first. Therefore, there is no "missing the target" in urination in this set up as there is a back up bigger tray.

The first dog takes a longer time to paper-train. Put the dog onto the "cover" to command him to pee onto the "cover. Newspapers are wrapped around the "cover" which is a cover for a plastic container (bought from IKEA). This cover must be as low as 2 cm, otherwise the dogs will not step onto it.

Persevere. As for the 2nd dog, she just imitate the male as to where to pee and poop and there was not much training to be done.

As for the dogs, the lady owner finds that the male dog used to have severe diarrhoea and lost a lot of weight. She feeds him using a syringe and special dog food. Now he has put on weight. "The female dog decides she wants to be syringe fed too," the lady commented.

It is easier to paper-train the 2 dogs as there are no distractions from children and other people. In this big family (aged mother, 10-year-old daughter, husband, maid and caregiver wife), I have a case of a 3-month-old Chihuahua being purchased to be a companion of a 5-year-old Chihuahua. The new puppy was let out of the crate in the first 2 weeks without close supervision and it was hoped that he would be clever enough to go back to his pee pan to eliminate.

Instead he pees and poops everywhere when let out. Wants to play all the time is observed in most puppies 3-4 months old. Many family members are around to tackle. Steps on stools inside the crate. This puppy just wants to have fun and play as this is his personality.

The older dog was not interested in active play. He had his own toilet location. The younger one does not use it. So, there was much stress. The care-giver (lady) had to work and nobody at home, including the maid, had time to monitor and train this young puppy.

For such cases, the young one must be crated most of the time for 2-4 weeks and taken out to play under supervision. There will a lot of accidents and scolding. But the family members, including the maid must know the signs of impending elimination (sniffing the floor, turning, squatting) and bring the puppy to his toilet location. White vinegar: water 1:3 to neutralise the urine smell of "accident" areas and close monitoring are important.

Original webpage dated March 20, 2009m