July 7, 2006. Golden Retriever, Male, 7 months. Pees and poos everywhere inside the apartment. What to do? Dr Sing advised confinement and paper-training using positive reinforcement training.
Feb 5, 2008. Dr Sing followed up. Owner replied indicated that the dog is 100% successfully paper-trained. I hope this write up will benefit busy urban dwellers and owners trying to toilet train large breeds living in apartments.
----- Original Message ----
From: <...@singnet.com.sg>
To: Dr Sing KY
Sent: Monday, 4 February 2008 11:30:25
Subject: RE: Rocky's Toilet Training
Hi Dr Sing,
Happy New Year.
Please see my reply below.
(Name of owner)
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Sing KY [mailto:ezyvets@yahoo.com.sg]
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 6:59 AM
To: ...@singnet.com.sg
Subject: Rocky's Toilet Training
Hi
1. Happy New Year.
2. I am Dr Sing from Toa Payoh Vets. You brought Rocky to Toa Payoh Vets around July 7, 2006. I am still doing research on toilet training of puppies in Singapore and need some updates on your success with Rocky to help other dog owners.
3. I hope you have some time to update me on whether Rocky is now paper-trained?
3.1 Does he goes to eliminate on newspapers 100% in the kitchen area ? Or is his toilet area another place?
> Yes he now eliminates 100% on newspapers in the kitchen area only.
3.2 How many times is he fed?
> Twice daily.
3.3 Does he get canned food as well as dry food?
> Mainly dry food. Occassionally (probably once fortnightly) a mixture of dry + canned food.
3.4 What time is he fed?
> Around 7am and 7pm.
3.5 Is the feed given the whole day or for a short time of 20 minutes?
> He finishes up his food within a short time, so we have no problem with this.
3.6 Does he pee and poo within 30 minutes of being fed?
> Yes he does most of the time.
3.7 Does he eliminate outdoors?
> Yes sometimes he does when we bring him out for walks. But we did not intentionally bring him out to train him to eliminate outdoors.
3.8 How many times does he pee and poop for one day (24 hours)?
> Pee 5-6 times. Poop 2-3 times.
3.9 Any accidents - eliminate on non-approved toilet areas?
> No. Only eliminate on newspapers in kitchen. He will not do it without newspapers either. He will wait till the newspapers are laid.
3.10 Does Rocky urine-mark -- pee a bit here and there on vertical surfaces?
> At home, never. I used to see him marking at the beach or park, but I noticed he hardly do it after neutering.
3.11 Is Rocky neutered?
Yes. In Oct 2007.
Your feedback will be most appreciated. Best wishes for the new year!
Conclusion:
A busy working young couple. They take time to train the Golden Retriever.
I advised confinement to a small space (in the kitchen) and praise and give food treats on success. It takes some time (probably 4 weeks) to paper train him but once it is done, he is a great pet to be with.
Fortunately he was not easily bribed by food treats for successfully eliminating on newspapers, according to the owners.
In this case, it will be preferred that the big dog go to the guest bathroom to eliminate. Or a pee tray is used to hold the newspapers in the kitchen. To transfer toilet area to bathroom, slowly shift the papers to the bathroom from the kitchen.
I did not ask the owner why the kitchen was used. Sometimes owners are not aware of the preferred toilet location to be the guest bathroom. Or the bathroom is not available for the dog as there may be guests.
Replace soiled newspapers frequently --- an important factor in successful toilet training as most dogs and puppies dislike dirtying their paws and will avoid soiled papers. Some dogs bark to tell the owners to change. Others bark and get scolded for being a noise nuisance. So they give up communicating with the owner and eliminates outside the papers in the nearby areas.
PREVIOUS POST IN 2006
Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore
The following report from the owner of Rocky confirmed that the "older" puppy (e.g. 7 months old) can be paper-trained if the owner knows how to do it. The puppy is into adolescence and is known to be "rebellious" and has a mind of his own at 7 months of age.
However, with time spent on training him, knowledge that he wants a fresh and clean toilet area, praise and treats, the following case was successfully paper-trained in around 2 weeks.
Basically, the puppy just wants a CLEAN toilet area to pee and poop.
Otherwise, he will avoid the soiled newspapers and poop elsewhere. In the first year of my research, owners complain that the puppy will usually "miss" its target (newspapers) and pee "outside" the newspapers.
The reason is that the papers have been soiled and the puppy is loathe to step onto them unless they are quickly replaced. Some puppies will "bark" to let the owner know that the papers must be changed after elimination, according to owners who tell me.
Some puppies do not provide feedback or the owners are not at home the whole day. Possibly, the owner is inside the crate and has stepped on soiled newspapers (in the petshop -- not sold early or the owner's crate). So, the puppy is used to soiled newspapers after some time.
I have no time to edit, but will do it in the new book.
The e-mail is as follows:
Monday, July 31, 2006
DRAFT - Why the puppy does not poop on newspapers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DOG OWNER --- JULY 10, 2006.
> Dog owner wrote:
>
> Dear Dr Sing,
> We went to your clinic last Friday (7 Jul) with our
> 7-mth old Golden Retriever, Rocky for his 3rd vaccination and sought
> your advice on how to toilet-train him.
> After some thoughts on your suggestions, we decided
> to start off with neutralising his urine and poo smells in the house
> with white vinegar and water.
> On that same evening, we neutralised the entire living room and part of
> the kitchen area, leaving the unneutralised part of the kitchen as his
> intended toilet area (the spot that he frequents most). Then covered
> that area with fresh newspapers and some soiled ones. That weekend, we tried confining him to that specific kitchen area after his meals and monitored him, also tried bringing him
Out for walks and kept asking him to pee/poo, but were not successful.
> He did not pee/poo (on the toilet area)
> as we wanted him to. We gave up, but continued neutralising the floors
> every night as he still eliminates randomly at those 2 areas.
> On Tuesday (11 Jul) evening, > that the methods weren't working, we saw him pee-ing right in the
> centre of the newspapers. We quickly praised him and offered him a
> treat. This time, he took the treat happily and ran off chewing it.
> Initially we thought he had learnt to eliminate there, but later at
> night, we found his poo on the kitchen floor. The following days, as we
> continued with neutralising, we saw some improvement. We observed
> he has stopped eliminating in the living room, and does it only in
> the kitchen area, however, he only pees on newspapers, still poo
> everywhere in the kitchen.
> Last night we've decided not to neutralise the floors. This morning, to
> our surprise, we saw both his pee and poo on the papers. We're very
> happy to see that, and we'll continue to monitor him closely until he's
> really stable and makes no mistakes. Will update you again on his progress.
> Really appreciate your help and professional advice.
>
> Thanks,
Dog Owner.
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING --- JULY 16, 2006.
> Sunday July 16, 2006. E-mail reply from Dr Sing
NLB Toa Payoh Library 10.30am.
>
> My computer is infested with viruses. It shut down and re-started
> several times earlier. After that it shut down completely. So, I am
> using the NLB library to reply to you. It is hard to
> find real computer experts in Singapore who can resolve this problem
> without having to re-format the whole hard disk.
>
> I am very grateful for your contribution to my research and a book on
> Singapore puppy toilet training.
>
> In reply:
>
> 1. My research and reading of other reports. It appears that white
> vinegar is effective only to neutralise the ammonia smell of puppy
> urine. Acid plus alkaline = water (NO MORE URINE SMELL), to put it simply.
> So, the puppy can't find the elimination area with his nose (to detect urine smell).
>
> I presume you used the same mop or had not rinsed off the urine smell
> thoroughly, so the puppy could detect the "accident" areas for the first
> few days. Corners or edges of doors may still have traces of urine. The
> sense of smell is very acute in the canine. However, after a few days of
> your hard work, you probably wiped out all urine
> smell. So, the puppy goes to the newspapers. I presume you did not use
> the soiled newspapers (2nd layer) but the floor is OK too.
>
> 2. White vinegar is said to have no effect on the poop as it does not smell of ammonia.
>
> 3. So your success later may be due to your monitoring and praises. Your
> puppy probably now expecting treat. Some will sit and wait for it after
> peeing. A few owners tell me that some even pee less but more often to
> get treats. I hope your puppy does not think this way.
>
> 4. Poop after feeding times. If you can have a regular schedule of feeding and exercise, without distraction of playing
> immediately after eating, you may be successful. Signs of elimination
> like sniffing, squatting and circling - bring puppy to newspapers.
> Praise and reward.
>
> 5. Will be most grateful if you let me know your progress in the pooping
> training aspect. It is from such case studies that I am able to advise
> as each situation and each puppy behaves differently.
>
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DOG OWNERR --- JULY 2006.
>
July 30, 2006 e-mail to Dr Sing>
> Dr Sing,
>
> We're still working on Rocky's poop training. Did not really have enough time to monitor him for the past 2 weeks due to our work schedules.
> We will continue with your suggestion in Point 4 below.
>
> Thankfully Rocky does not seem to expect treats after peeing. He just
> walks away. He has no problem with peeing on newspapers, i don't
> understand why he could not poo on the papers as well. So far only once or twice he pooped on papers, the
> rest of the times are done on the kitchen floor.
>
> We still do use vinegar to mop the kitchen floor on
> alternate nights. You mentioned in Point 2 that white vinegar has no
> effect on poop. Do you mean that white vinegar can only nuetralise
> urine smell, but not poop smell?
> Is there anything we can do to remove the poop smell?
>
> Hope your computer is fine now.
>
> Thanks,
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING --- JULY 2006.
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 e-mail reply.
04:32:18 +0800 (CST)
From: "Dr Sing KY"
Subject: RE: Rocky's Toilet Training - Pooping on floor.
Thanks for feedback.
1. Most likely reason Rocky does not want to poop on the newspapers more often may be due to at least 2 reasons:
1.1 The papers had not been changed. Most dogs do not like to step on soiled newspapers as they are clean creatures. So, he chose the floor.
1.2 The papered area is too small. I remember he is a Golden Retriever. Correct me if I am mistaken. You may need to have double or triple the areas covered by the
newspapers or buy a big pee pan (to put newspapers on).
2. In many cases, vinegar:water mixture does not eliminate the smell of poop because the poop is not ammonical.
3. In your case, you said you had not much time. I
presume you had no time to change the newspapers more
often and no time to bring him downstairs. There is no
fixed schedule for exercise after eating. If that is
true, then he has no opportunity to poop 15-30 minutes
after eating (as most dogs do) on newspapers under
your training and supervision. You probably had gone
to work or are too tired to bring him downstairs. I do
not know the real situation.
4. If you want your puppy to poop on newspapers, you
need to SPEND TIME to train him to do so. WATCH for
signs of wanting to poop and bringing him to the CLEAN
newspapers for the first 2 weeks. Praise, pat and
reward with treats on success.
Otherwise, it is very difficult for him to know what
you want.
5. Let me know once your pooping training is
successful.
UPDATE AND FOLLOW UP IN JUNE 6, 2007
E-MAIL FROM DR SING ON MAY 16, 2007
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Sing KY [mailto:ezyvets@yahoo.com.sg]
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 7:03 AM
To: drsing@toapayohvets.com
Subject: 2007 Update:: Rocky's Toilet Training - Pooping on floor.
Hi
I hope all are well at home. It is nearly a year since
we corresponded. I have finalising my research on
puppy toilet training in Singapore.
Is it possible for you to update me on how you have
toilet trained Rocky?
1. How long it takes to paper-train him successfully
(i.e. use newspapers all the time to pee and poop).
2. How you stop him from pooping on the floor? This
seems to be a common complaint amongst singapore's dog
owners.
3. How many times he pees and poops/day now?
4. How often you feed him and has he got water
available 24 hrs a day?
3. A picture of Rocky?
DOG OWNER'S REPLY IN JUN 2007
E-MAIL ON JUN 6, 2007 | Subject: |  RE: 2007 Update:: Rocky's Toilet Training - Pooping on floor. |
| Date: | Wed, 6 Jun 2007 00:48:17 +0800 |
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