The report below was
written in Dec 11, 2003 and reproduced.
Puppy's first night in your apartment
The puppy
keeps crying. This is the main complaint.
Most puppies will make
some noises as they are not used to the new apartment and smells.
The following may nor may not be practical suggestions:
1. Can you ignore the puppy's whine? Neighbours do get upset by the
barking or crying noises and most new owners will respond to the cries
by scolding the puppy or threatening to beat it with a roll of
newspaper. Others bring them to the bedroom.
Do not respond to the puppy's cries or you will train your puppy to
whine for attention.
2. Familiar smells. When you take over the puppy from the pet shop or breeder,
use your towel to wipe its cage or litter mate so that it will feel
comforted by familiar smells at night and will settle down more
easily.
3. Taking over timing.
3.1 Take over the puppy late in the evening.
3.2. If you take over the puppy during the day time, do not let the
puppy nap till it is bed time.
However, small breeds like the
Chihuahua may be stressed out if you play and run with it for
several hours to tire it out for bed time.
The Chihuahua may faint or be wobbly. It may not want to eat anymore. This means a
very late night veterinary emergency and this can be costly.
4. Dog toys.
Place food treats or chewable toys inside the puppy crate or cage.
5. The Seller's Routine. Adopt the Seller's routine for the puppy. If you buy
the puppy from the pet shop, observe its feeding and sleeping routine
there.
It should be used to sleeping inside a cage and will adjust easier.
Most new owners buy a cage from the pet shop.
If the puppy's bedtime at the pet shop is 10 p.m and you do not sleep
till midnight, then there will be some training needed for the puppy
to get used to late nights.
As puppies cannot control their bladder and bowel at less than 12
weeks of age, they will need to be toilet trained.
6. Toilet Training & size of crate.
Singaporeans generally put newspapers on the cage floor.
Some owners spray the urine-smelly puppy toilet training liquid
(bought from the pet shop) on an area of the newspaper away from the
food dishes.
Puppies naturally do not like to dirty the sleeping and feeding area.
Therefore, it is important that you buy a bigger cage or crate so that
the puppy has sufficient space to pass motion and urine.
This crate may not be sufficient for bigger breeds like the Siberian
Husky. You may need to keep it inside the spare bathroom.
TOILET TRAINING A PUPPY LESS THAN 4 MONTHS OLD.
1. After you have purchased the
puppy, keep it in a confined area (den). For example, crate,
play pen or an easy to clean area like the kitchen or bathroom.
2. Do not let the puppy out of the crate unless you are able to
supervise it, so that it does not urinate and pass stools all over the
apartment especially soft materials like carpets.
3. Cover the den with newspapers. Most puppies will have
fun at chewing and tearing the newspapers and make a mess. Some will
make a lot of noises wanting to get out of the den to play. Some
owners feel sorry and let the puppy out. Do not do that unless
you are able to supervise it as it may chew on electrical wires and
swallow other objects in the apartment.
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4. Some puppies will soil the whole den but many will keep clean
an area for sleeping and eating. Note which area is clean.
Some pet shops recommend toilet-training smelly drops to be
placed on the newspapers and this may or may not be effective.
5. Gradually take away the newspapers where the puppy does not urinate
and pass stools. You can then put in a cotton towel for the puppy to
sleep. If you put a towel earlier, it will be chewed up.
6. Maintain a toilet-training schedule. This is not possible
for couples who are not at home the whole day. Some owners take a
week's leave to toilet-train the puppy. This is usually effective.
The puppy will pass stools 10 - 30 minutes after eating.
Therefore, give it feed at a fixed time, e.g. 6 a.m and 6 p.m.
Take away the feed if it does not finish within 15 minutes, as part of
toilet training. If you leave the feed the whole day, the puppy will
pass stools any time.
However, note that puppies at around 2 months of age should be given 3
meals a day (if practical).
7. The puppy passes urine around every 3 hours as its bladder is
small and it has not yet controlled its bladder. Stop the water supply
after 8 p.m daily so that the puppy has less urine to produce. Its
bladder cannot hold much urine at this age. In this way, the
puppy urinates first thing in the morning after the breakfast.
8. Working couples may need to spend at least two hours in the evening
with the puppy to toilet train it and some time at breakfast.
The more time you spend, the faster you toilet-train your puppy.
9. Use rewards - treats or praise when the puppy passes stools on the
newspapers or area you wish it to do so.
10. Most Singaporeans let the puppy have free access to the whole
apartment. They use punishment. They scold, shout or beat the
puppy with a rolled up newspaper or cane after it has passed stools in
the apartment and they need to clean up. It gets tiring. The puppy
runs away quickly and does not understand why it is beaten as it is
still immature.
11. There are reported cases where the puppy eats up its stools so
that it will not be punished. Now, the owner complains that the
puppy eats its stools. Stool eating is one complaint amongst new puppy
owners. There may not be solutions to this problem. Prompt
removal of the stools may be one way.
12.
It is not practical, but there is a suggestion that you set an alarm
during the night so that you can take the puppy out of the crate to
relieve itself in the bathroom for the first few weeks, as part of the
toilet-training schedule.
13. Some owners have a crate in the living room, kitchen, balcony and
another one in the bedroom if the puppy sleeps in the bedroom.
14. For apartment living, buying a crate (cage) with an aluminium
tray seems like an excellent idea for toilet training to me. The
owner puts newspapers onto the tray. In this way, the urine or stools
will not stain the marble or ceramic tiled file and there is less work
in cleaning up the floor.
15. For the first-time puppy owner, the pet shop's recommendation
plays a significant part. The collapsible and movable play pen
(exercise pen) is commonly sold, being less expensive than a crate. If
you buy a play pen, try and get one with an opening door.
16. Give the puppy a bigger space but not the whole apartment after it
has passed toilet training. Accidents will still happen. If
there is an opening door, the puppy can still run into the play pen
when it needs to.
17. The newspapers with some smell of the puppy's urine will then be
placed in an appropriate place, e.g. near the bathroom when the puppy
is toilet trained.
18. When accidents occur, thoroughly clean up the floor or carpet of
the urine and stool smells so that the puppy will not go to the same
area again to urinate or pass stools. Note that puppies love soft
absorbent areas and carpets and rugs are common areas for accidents.
19. Most puppies are toilet trained before 4 weeks have passed if the
owner has time to do the training. If you have more than one puppy,
you need to separate them for toilet training, but most owners find it
hard to do so.
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