41. "Puppy knows he has misbehaved, went to hide"

Seldom do I meet a 1.8 m tall gentleman - A Chinese, towering over me.
His wife was taller than me.
A red toy poodle male purchased 3 weeks ago and put inside a playpen (4 panels of fencing) with a bed occupying 50% (top half) and newspapers (bottom half). Water bottle attached to left fence. Living area.

Couple and mother worked. So, the puppy is home alone during office hours. But after 3 weeks he was paper-trained.

"He knows he has been a bad boy and goes to hide," the young man anthropomorphized. "I will discover that he has peed under the dining table."

This is a very common comment from puppy owners all over the world, from my research reading on books and on the internet.

The puppy actually does not know what he has had done wrong. But on seeing the owner's angry face, he has to hide or be spanked.

"Do you spank him?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. I scold him, give a light spank on his backside and put him into the playpen when I discovered he had accidents.

"Inside his playpen, he knows how to eliminate on the newspapers. Once outside, as I take out the 4th fencing, he just pees and poos everywhere in the apartment. He runs away when he sees me because he knows he has misbehaved!"

"Really?" I asked. "Does he pee inside your bedroom too?"

"No," the young man laughed. "He dares not enter my bedroom. He sees me and just get scolded. But mum's room gets peed on. He does not know how to go back to the newspapers in the open playpen to do his business."

"He pees outside the main door of your bedroom?" I asked.

"Yes," the man said and the wife smiled.

Does he also pee inside the kitchen?" I asked.

"Yes, I guess he cannot control his bladder".

"You are correct," I said. "At 3 months of age, the poodle usually pee every 2 hours, according to some N-1 formula in some puppy books. N=no. of months of the puppy. So, at 3 months, he pees every (3-1) hour.

"He does not go back to the newspapers in the playpen because your mum distracted him to play and did not watch out for signs of elimination. Also he was given too much space to roam before he is fully paper-trained.


SOLUTIONS
1. Barricade kitchen entrance with one panel of fence from the playpen.
2. Close all bedroom doors.
3. Puppy to be confined to living-cum-dining area only.
4. Give him a 2nd toilet location in the dining area. 2nd piece of soiled newspapers on a pee pan.
5. Neutralise urine smell with white vinegar:water 1:3. The owner had done it but said, "The puppy just pee and poop any place."
Well, since the urine smell had been neutralised, the puppy just eliminates randomly as most of them go back to the same spots. In this situation, the whole apartment has urine smell and neutralising may not be effective. So, it appears that the puppy eliminates randomly. Why? The whole apartment, except the master bedroom is full of urine smells to attract him.