Success story: Paper trained pups by 10 weeks of age

DRAFT

MARK
1. How to put tables in blogger.com? Write htm code? Is there a better way for adding rows other than code? Like copy and paste? See example of a table below. It is not practical for me to write htm all the time. Is there a better way?




Sunday July 15, 2007

As I had time, I record the experience of success in paper-training all 4 Shih Tzu pups. "They follow their mother to use the newspapers as toilet," the wife said.

A young couple in their 30s. One newborn baby. First-time home-breeder.
2 Shih Tzu, Male & Female around 2-3 years old.
10-week old Shih Tzus, 2M,2F, came for 2nd vaccination.
3 sold at $500/pup to screened customers as they are the wife's "babies".

Adults	Pups, 2M, 2F
2-3 years old	10 weeks old
7 p.m when owner home	Papers, unknown

"The Male Dog is a superclean dog!" the wife said. "At 2-3 am, he will bark to wake us up to cover up the soiled newspapers if he has had peed. The puppies are quite fussy about cleanliness as they grow up".


HOUSING - Kitchen only. Puppies are never allowed out of the kitchen or get into the bathroom near the kitchen. Wet bathroom floors dirty the puppy's feet too. So, kitchen is the only location.

1. During first 4 weeks. Puppies annd mum confined to the dam's playpen which consists of 2 panels of fences x 1 panel of fence. The sire's playpen is adjacent and has 1 x 1 panel of fence and towel.

2. Newspapers are to the left of the playpen in both cases. In the dam, the papers are spread out in 3 layers. The width of the papers will be 1.5 the paper width. That is, 1 paper's left half overlaps the other paper's right half. When soiled, simply cover up by folding the paper over the soiled area. Change when necessary.

2.1 2 toilet locations for puppies. Newspapers placed to the left of the dam's playpen and near the kitchen door which is barricaded by panel of playpen fences.



3. Wife has been full-time at home for last 10 weeks and able to train the puppies.
Initially puppies dirty the playpen but at 4 weeks, goto newspapers like mum. In first 2 weeks, mum cleaned them.

4. Feeding - mum 4-5X. Puppies 2X. Puppies weaned at 4th week onto milk powder, oats and dry puppy feed. Feeding bowl is taken away. It is kept near the right hand side (bed area).

5. Water bottle from front of playpen. No problem with water bowl too.

6. Elimination. Adult dogs wait till evening when husband come home. To eliminate on papers. If papers soiled, puppies rush to the 2nd toilet (newspapers near kitchen door). Eliminate overnight sometimes. Papers changed in the morning. Male will bark at 2-3 am to wake up owner to cover soiled papers.

6.1 Urine spraying by male dog. The owners "angled" the newspapers. One half is clipped to cover the side of the playpen fence (which separates the dam from the male pen. Cloth pegs tie up this partition so that the male dog can lift his leg and spray urine without dirtying the female bed (which is to the immediate left of the male playpen). This was a neat idea.

Adult dogs will eliminate only in the newspapers in the kitchen.


Yesterday, a buyer came. Puppy ran to newspaper under living area table to pee. This proves that it is successfully paper trained as puppies seek newspapers all the time.

Buyers will have NO problem. However, in my experience, when they bring the puppy home, buyers have their own housing floor plan, let puppy roam whole apartment as they deem it cruel to crate the puppy. Paper training and feed routine may not be explained to the buyer. So toilet training problems start for new owners in many cases.

Owner will e-mail me pictures. Need to follow up.

"The sire is a superclean dog," the wife who had just given birth to a baby said. "He would not dirty his paws by going into the playpen of the dam and puppies."
The puppies also are clean (by nature and instinct). In the morning, they rush to toilet location (B) as the papers have had been soiled in the playpen. Mum and Dad usually eliminate in the afternoon when they know that the papers would be changed immediately. Just cover one end over the soiled papers --- that would do.



Knowledge by reading on toilet training is also very important. This young couple had done lots of reading. Books such as "Puppy Parenting" were borrowed from the National Library and its branches. Is there such a book?

e-mail me!