The young lady owner in her late 20s shares
her tips on how she successfully paper
trained 2 Silkies living in the
apartment during the annual vaccination of the female Silkie.
Working couple. Therefore,
2 toilet locations as the dogs prefer
clean newspapers to eliminate. The 2 dogs will use the toilet
location in the bedroom first and will then go to the second one in
the kitchen.
In this case, the 2nd female dog simply learnt from the older male
dog where to eliminate. However, the male dog must spray his urine
over the eliminated areas of the females daily (see picture above).
"Why don't you neuter the male dog to prevent urine marking?" I
asked. The couple was not keen on surgeries. Many younger
Singaporeans believe it is "cruel" to sterilise their dogs.
"Does the male dog attempt to mate the smaller female?" I asked.
"No," the lady laughed. "She is too small. He mates with my leg."
It takes a lot of thinking to create the above set up. In this set
up, urine rarely dirties the floor as the 2 dogs usually pees onto
the "cover" first. Therefore, there is no "missing the target" in
urination in this set up as there is a back up bigger tray.
The first dog takes a longer time to paper-train. Put the dog onto
the "cover" to command him to pee onto the "cover. Newspapers are
wrapped around the "cover" which is a cover for a plastic container
(bought from IKEA). This cover must be as low as 2 cm, otherwise the
dogs will not step onto it.
Persevere. As for the 2nd dog, she just imitate the male as to where
to pee and poop and there was not much training to be done.
As for the dogs, the lady owner finds that the male dog used to have
severe diarrhoea and lost a lot of weight. She feeds him using a
syringe and special dog food. Now he has put on weight. "The female
dog decides she wants to be syringe fed too," the lady commented.
It is easier to paper-train the 2 dogs as there are no distractions
from children and other people. In this big family (aged mother,
10-year-old daughter, husband, maid and caregiver wife), I have a
case of a 3-month-old Chihuahua being purchased to be a companion of
a 5-year-old Chihuahua. The new puppy was let out of the crate in
the first 2 weeks without close supervision and it was hoped that he
would be clever enough to go back to his pee pan to eliminate.
Instead he pees and poops everywhere when let out. Wants to play
all the time is observed in most puppies 3-4 months old. Many
family members are around to tackel. Steps on stools inside the
crate. This puppy just wants to have fun and play as this is his
personality.
The older dog was not interested in active play. He had his own
toilet location. The younger one does not use it. So, there was much
stress. The care-giver (lady) had to work and nobody at home,
including the maid, had time to monitor and train this young puppy.
For such cases, the young one must be crated
most of the time for 2-4 weeks and taken out to play under
supervision. There will a lot of accidents and scolding. But the
family members, including the maid must know the signs of impending
elimination (sniffing the floor, turning, squatting) and bring the
puppy to his toilet location. White vinegar:water 1:3 to
neutralise the urine smell of "accident" areas and close monitoring
are important. |