Oct 15, 2007
--- ...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Judy,
>
> I chanced upon
> http://puppytoilettraining.blogspot.com and found
> your email
> to contact. I've been reading the entries with
> interest, but I might need
> something more specific to my problem.
>
> My Pomeranian, Junior, is abt 1 yr 4mths old now.
> When he was younger, we
> successfully garden-trained him and at age 8 mths,
> we hired a personal dog
> trainer to teach basic obedient skills to control
> his other behavioural
> problems,. As lessons were conducted outdoors,
> Junior learned to pee outside
> of the house at parks and trees, and I noticed that
> he had the habit of
> marking territory indoors as well. It was as if the
> garden-training was
> totally forgotten. Now to make sure that he doesn't
> pee as much in the
> house, I have to make sure to bring him to pee
> outdoors as much as possible.
>
> I've tried negative reinforcement, like questioning
> him when I see pee in
> the house (both marking, spraying and large puddles)
> and also use rolled-up
> newspaper to whack him. Jr will only slink away and
> hide cos he knows I'm
> angry, but still repeats the acts. If I do not bring
> him outdoors, he pees
> even more at home.
>
> I've also tried countering with vinegar, but it will
> still only work for
> awhile until the vinegar effect wades off, in the
> meantime he finds new
> places to pee. When I place newspaper over
> acceptable areas he happens to
> pee at, Junior actually avoids those areas, as if
> newspaper means he can't
> or won't pee there!
>
> Junior has not been sterilised yet too - I've heard
> that sterilised can
> somewhat curb the territorial instinct to mark.
>
> I live in a terrace house and the only time I can
> spend with the dog is in
> the morning and night for weekdays, and weekends are
> for earlier parts of
> the day. When I'm ard, Junior is careful not to pee,
> and only does so when
> I'm not really looking or upstairs while he is alone
> in the living room.
>
> Thank you for your time and I look forward to
> knowing how I can better train
> Junior to be paper-trained or garden-trained again.
>
> Regards,
>
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING.
Thank you for your email to Judy. I am Dr Sing from Toa Payoh Vets and will attempt to reply to your queries.
PROBLEM:
Your Pomeranian urine-marks in the house as well as outside.
WHY SOME BUT NOT ALL MALE DOGS URINE-MARK?
Urine-marking is often mistaken by many owners as a relapse in toilet training and therefore a toilet-training problem. Urine marking in many male dogs is a normal behaviour. This behaviour is very common amongst alpha males---dominant males. Some alpha females do urine-mark too.
They want to make sure that other dogs or subordinate 'dogs' in the pack (including, forgive me for my frankness, your family members and possibly your good self, as less than his equal in status).
SOLUTIONS:
1. NEUTERING of male dogs at 6 months of age usually stops urine marking. This is the usual solution besides agressive training.
If the surgery is done much later, e.g. at 3 years of age, some dogs continue to urine-mark.
2. NEUTRALISING URINE SMELL WITH VINEGAR. As the motivation for urine-marking is territorial acquisition and not a natural need to pee, your dog will seek new areas to urine-mark. Or go back to the same areas again later.
In toilet-training, the smell of urine is used as a training aid. In urine-marking, it plays a great part too and you will find the male dog urine-marking on same areas but in a few drops. The male dog goes for places with vertical planes like walls, legs of tables and beds. Am I correct that your dog is seeking such objects?
3. CONFINEMENT TO CRATE OR SMALL ROOM LIKE THE BALCONY. This anti-social behaviour is hard to suppress. In my survey, most Singapore owners of apartment dogs simply crate the dog at night or when they are not around. The let him urine-mark in a place like the balcony or utility room as they feel that neutering is cruel.
This may be the best solution for your case.
4. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT TRAINING. Some dogs respond well to commands (e.g "No pee here"/hand signals/clicker and food treats for not misbehaving like barking. Train 4-8 times a day at short intervals of 5 minutes, making training fun.
I doubt you have time for such in-house training. Instead of food treats, take him out for exercise when he performs. Obviously, you need a lot of time and it is not practical advise for you.
5. NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT TRAINING. In your case, it works when you are around. However, family members (I presume you have family members) are not so "fierce" and so he urine-marks as he considers the house as his territory and family members excluding the "fierce" as his subordinate canine members of the pack.
So many words. In conclusion, unless the family members can make Junior accept that he is really "junior" in the ranking of the pack, the urine-marking problem in an intact male will persist till the end of time. When you are not at home, Junior is the senior or top dog.
Neutering may or may not help at this age but it is better to do it now than wait till another year if you want to resolve Junior's behavioural problem. In many Singaporean families, there is great resistance to neutering by one member (the alpha homo sapien?).
So, the rest of the family just tolerate the urine smells and mops or wipes diligently, to keep peace within the family. It is an extremely interesting finding of human-dog relationship I discovered during my toilet-training research of over 500 dogs in Singapore in the past 3 years.
It seems that the human family nucleus in Singapore also has a pack leader. He or she decides whether the male dog can be neutered or not. If the answer is no, all members listen to the head of the household and do whatever they can to keep the house or apartment free from urine smell. Sometimes it can be studious effort as the male dog urine marks several times a day.
I vividly remember an aged mother who personally thanked me for proposing to the daughter who talked to the brother to neuter the male dog. The poor woman in her sixties had devoted so much time to cleaning up after the naughty canine and I told the daughter frankly that the mother ought to have her own free time after having spent so many years raising the children.
I hope this email answers most of your questions.
Best wishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment