40. Pet shop advices on toilet training

Aug 30, 2007


Microchipping of puppies, kennel cough vaccination and usual vaccination.
Young couple, excellent downtown location.
The only problem is the lack of parking. There is a free back lane parking which is usually full. Every time I park along the road outside this pet shop while vaccinating and microchipping, I risk being fined $50 and some 6 demerit points by the traffic police or its contractors I would describe as "para-police". It is good money to outsource as income from fines will always exceed the payment to the "para-police" as so many Singaporean motorists park illegally.



"What are your recommendations for toilet training?" I ask the pet shop man who was busy recording the vaccinations and answering the phone calls.

"Playpen and newspapers" is the best method. With panels of fences, the owner can extend the toilet area if he needs to. Also, there is more space for the puppy compared to the Crate + Pee Pan set.

"The Crate and Pee Pan set is too small for puppies to move around. Sometimes the paws get caught onto the holes or gaps of the wire flooring."

I said, "The main complaint is that the puppy shreds newspapers inside the playpen. The urine and stools soil the floor. What do you advise?"

The pet shop man said, "It can't be helped. A few days later, the owner can buy a pee pan to place newspapers on top to protect the floor."

This was an excellent feedback for my Singapore puppy toilet puppy research. In Singapore, most pet shops recommend the playpen as it is most economical. Some bigger pet shops have a variety of crates.

In this pet shop, last week, I met a young couple who had purchased a S$1,500 red poodle while in the morning, another young lady who came to my Surgery asked whether S$2,500 she paid for her red poodle purchased from Vivo City was too expensive.

I remembered the lady owner of the $1,500 poodle because she was forgetful as she did not take the microchip certificate which is now needed by the government to license her dog.

More than that, she looked at me with eyes that matched the colour of the red poodle as she told me how she toilet-trained her puppy. A brilliant brown with some yellow type of iris making her eyes sparkle.

The puppy had been vaccinated by me and was now 1.5 years old. Maybe she wore coloured contact lenses as Chinese girls do not have such eye colours. Unless she was an Eurasian.

"Just buy a puppy house for the puppy," she said. "This poodle just pee and poo onto the puppy diapers and loves the puppy house which is made of fabric." She asked me a few more questions about puppy care. As the pet shop man answered her questions, I did not interfere with his business. Eye contact body language would indicate that she wanted to converse with me.

The advantage of puppy diapers is that the feet of the puppy remains clean as the urine is absorbed. It costs some money and the diapers are changed every 2-3 days. Some Singaporeans are "cleanliness freaks" and so the diapers are excellent material. The diapers have a urine smell to attract the puppy to eliminate.

Of course, there are also puppies who shred diapers. But there are stick-onto-the floor diapers too!