Playpen + newspapers in balcony.
Playpen has no door.
Home-maker changes soiled papers regularly and trains the puppy.
PROBLEM:
Paper-trained within 7 days but poops in the study and/or kitchen when let out. Why does the puppy not goto the papers? Why spanking did not correct this misbehaviour?
DRAFT 1
Sep 11, 2007 NLB 7th floor 5.43 p.m
"My puppy will suddenly poop in the study or kitchen if I don't observe her. In the playpen, she will go to the newspapers to pee. But when we let her out, she will pee outside the playpen. I spank her but she still poops in the study just today. This cannot be permitted as the study is smelly!"
A slight trembling small-sized 4-month-old female Cavalier King Charles was brought in for vaccination. Tricolour with 3 black spots on her muzzle made her look sadder.
Lady owner who participates in dog forums to gain knowledge, late twenties, 5-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, home-maker, husband working. No table food. No food treats unless it is for training. She is strict on this routine but she said: "Sometimes the husband will give the puppy a treat on coming home from work!"
Apartment: Executive Apartment with large balcony for playpen. No rain comes in.
Playpen: Top left 1/3 basket bed, Right 1/4 newspapers, Water bowl bottom left.
Duration: 6 weeks with the owner.
Purchase from pet shop at Thomson Road. Slatted flooring.
FIRST 7 DAYS AND NIGHTS
1. Strict confinement in the playpen. "Hardly comes out of the playpen," the lady said. "She comes out 1 hour to play. I watched for signs of elimination and put into playpen. Not allowed to come out of the playpen till she has pooped. By day 7, the puppy is paper-trained."
But after 7 days, the puppy is let out. She follows the lady owner everywhere. Needs human company all the time.
2. Whining for first night. Ignored. Puppy slept without much trouble in the playpen.
3. At night, still sleep in the playpen as she is not paper-trained.
FROM WEEK 1 TO WEEK 6 (PRESENT)
Main problems are pooping in the kitchen and study room (morning) up to now. "Thorough cleaning with Dettol has no effect," the lady said. In the evening, will poop on the newspapers in the balcony.
Feeding 3x/day. Breakfast, lunch sometimes and dinner. Dry food with some puppy milk. Feed bowl inside playpen. 3 tablespoons dry food per meal. Chew bones are dried chicken jerky not the soft meat balls which cause diarrhoea. Milk does not cause diarrhoea in this puppy.
Poop 3-4 X. Overnight,after breakfast at 7 am, lunch time (irregular) and after dinner. He poops 30 - 60 minutes later, not shortly after meals. After lunch, poops on balcony newspapers (new ones) or kitchen and the study. After dinner, poops on the newspapers in the balcony (new ones). Sleeps at 11 p.m.
Pees- many times. Papers are changed "hourly".
WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
1. In my opinion, the puppy just wants a clean place to poop or pee. Why did she poop in the study room despite "spanking"?
The one full page of the Straits Times would be soiled overnight. The daughter would take the puppy out of the playpen after breakfast, assuming she had had pooped. The poo was overnight. The puppy would rush to the clean same spot in the study or kitchen to poop!
What's the solution?
1. Overnight, the playpen newspapers are soiled. There is a need for a 2nd toilet location for the puppy as she is growing up. A newspaper on the pee pan in the kitchen bathroom would be ideal.
"Shut the study room. The puppy would go to the kitchen," the lady said. "The puppy likes to pee outside the playpen in the same area."
2. Increase the newspaper coverage inside the playpen from 25% to 50%.
3. Neutralise urine smell with vinegar:water 1:3. Stool smells are not neutralised similarly.
4. Wakes up, change soiled newspapers. Daughter feeds her and let her out. This is where the puppy seeks the study or balcony to poop if unsupervised for 1 minute!
CONCLUSION
Puppy is 50% paper-trained in the sense that she pees on newspapers in the balcony. However, she does poop on newspapers too but not all the time. Sometimes inside the forbidden areas in the study and the kitchen.
The best solution may be a 2nd toilet location - a pee pan with newspapers in the kitchen bathroom area. Increase the paper area as the puppy is growing bigger and eliminates more. She wants to be clean.
No distractions after feeding but it seems this is not possible with 2 kids around. So the puppy poops much later after the excitement of playing with the kids. Feed 2x/day to regulate the bowel movement so that pooping is reduced to 2x/day after food.
The owner supervises the kids. She is very strict with the kids playing rough with the puppy. The 5-year-old used to pull the puppy's tail or ears and was taught not to do it. The kids are discouraged from encouraging the puppy to bite and jump, or giving table food or hand feeding. She did not take leave to go overseas so that the puppy can be properly trained.
COMMENTS
It seems to me that the puppy would be successfully paper-trained in 14 -28 days if she has had provided a 2nd toilet location esp. after the puppy wakes up and as she changes the newspapers. Open the playpen and let the puppy run to the 2nd toilet location.
This is a fascinating case study.
Owner promised to e-mail to me a picture of the housing.
DRAFT 2
Thanks for the beautiful photos.
I have thought over the reasons why Cookie still poops in the study or kitchen despite being spanked after reviewing the over 500 cases of toilet training reports from other puppy owners in Singapore in the past 3 years.
The most likely reasons Cookie looks for the study room or kitchen to poop are:
1. Many puppies poop within 10 minutes after eating if undistracted after eating.
But Cookie poops 30 - 60 minutes after eating. This is because he is distracted by the 8-year-old daughter's presence after breakfast and will not poop soon after eating. As you said, she takes the puppy out of the playpen assuming he has had pooped in the morning. Actually he has had pooped overnight.
2. After 30 - 60 minutes out of the playpen, Cookie needs to poop. NO way he is going into the playpen to do it although you have had changed to fresh papers. In any case, the playpen has no door for him to get to the fresh newspapers you had put in.
You will be busy preparing breakfast for the husband and children. So, Cookie dashes to his favourite corner in the study room (if the door is left open) or to the kitchen floor to poop.
Solutions:
1. Some owners open up the playpen in the morning by taking out one fencing, so that the puppy has access to the fresh newspapers (the first toilet location).
2. Other owners have playpens with a door opened so that the puppy goes in for pooping and peeing. Your playpen does not have this configuration. So there is no immediate access to the toilet location during the last 6 weeks. The puppy resorts to finding a second toilet location---the study or kitchen for pooping and outside the playpen for peeing.
In your case, it may be possible to remove the playpen fencing by storing away the fences. Close the sliding door of the balcony and make sure that Cookie poops and pee on the fresh newspapers before he is allowed out. When he gets rewarded by food treats for doing it, you can open the sliding door.
3. He pees outside his playpen. The reason is that Cookie cannot control his bladder well at 4 months of age. According to a guideline, using a formula N-1, where N=puppy's age in months, Cookie pees every 3 hourly. So he pees outside the playpen as he is not crated during the day.
I note you have put a second piece of newspapers outside the playpen in the picture.
Conclusion.
With children and a husband and possibly neighbours and in-laws visiting and interacting with the puppy, there are so many distractions affecting the success of paper-training of a new puppy in an apartment.
Cookie's natural instincts is a very clean puppy and this is what he tries to communicate to you. Now he has been 6 weeks into toilet training. In general the success in paper training in most Singapore's dog owners are around 4-8 weeks. Couples without children or distracting friends and in-laws are successful in around 2 weeks.
After writing so much, what is the solution? More spanking? I can only propose the following:
1. Take away the playpen fencing during the day. Increase the newspaper coverage of the balcony floor.
You have been correct to reduce the 100% coverage of the playpen floor during week 1 after purchase so that the puppy eliminates on the newspapers. You then reduce the newspapers to a corner of the playpen. You change soiled newspapers regularly (every hour?). In this way, you have been successful in paper-training.
2. Close the sliding door in the morning so that Cookie poops on the newspapers after breakfast before coming out to play. Give your food treat and praise once he has pooped and let him out.
3. Access to a second toilet area but no access to the whole apartment in week 2 and 3 after purchase. This was not possible or done in your case. For example, barricade the balcony and gradually let the puppy have access to more room, e.g. living and dining area. The second toilet area will have newspapers with Cookie's urine smell. This could be in the living area on week 2 and 3 after purchase.
Now it is week 6 after purchase.Close the study room door at all times. Put newspapers in the favourite spot in the kitchen. Neutralise the urine smell outside the playpen (where I note you have put newspapers) with vinegar:water 1:3. So the urine smells will only be the first toilet location. The second toilet location will be the kitchen bathroom.
4. Crated in the playpen in the balcony at night. Many owners do this because they don't want the puppy to mess up the whole apartment. All puppies find ways and means not to be crated inside the playpen after breakfast.
5. Second toilet area. Give access to the toilet area by opening up the playpen (one fence taken out after breakfast) and a second toilet area in the kitchen bathroom flooring.
The above are my tentative solutions and quick reply to your problems. Spanking will not work in this case. I guess that Cookie sprints to hide under the table or somewhere whenever you raise your hand to spank him after he has had already pooped in the study? He just does not understand why he is being spanked. Your food treats for obedience and toilet training are better motivation.I am glad that you don't permit food treats to be given anyhow but only after successful performance of training.
Each toilet-training case differs as family distractions can be sabotaging your best efforts and change the daily routine of the puppy.
Daily routine includes a time table for meals, sleep and exercise. I wish you all the best.
Best wishes.
DRAFT 3
...@yahoo.com.sg> wrote:
Hello Dr Sing,
Thank you very very much for your advises. It is very much appreciated.
All you said in your mail are true. I didn't think about opening the door to Cookie's playpen every morning which is a great idea, coz I did noticed in the 3rd week when Cookie wanted to poo, he was trying to get to the paper inside the playpen but it didn't occur to me then to take out one of the door of the playpen for him to go in and out to use the paper.
I'll put your advise to use immediately about taking one of the gate away from the pen every day and will tell my daughter what to do in the morning as Cookie's breakfast is her responsibility in the morning. And we've already start closing the door to the study room yesterday and Cookie went to the balcony to do his poo on the clean paper there . Which will remain clean all the time for him to poo on.
But I need to ask you a question: Does Cookie need two pee/poo area instead of one? I don't mind him doing it in the kitchen if it is coz he's fav area in the kitchen is just right outside the toilet door or sometimes even inside the toilet itself. Please advise...
As to spanking Cookie, I do notice it doesn't really work coz he always runs back to me after i spank him. I doubt he really understand what all the spanking is about. Treats gets his attention more!!! So I rarely spank him actually, just talk loudly to him and give him a stern look and then I just clean up the mess and think of other ways to prevent him from doing it at the wrong place again...And Cookies is very clean coz he refuse to sleep in his basket if I don't clean it every week, he rather sleep on the floor in the pen.
Again, thank you for the advises and pointers.
Any further advise is appreciated, as we're all still trying to train Cookie to be better at poo/peeing.
Thanks & Regards.
REPLY TO E-MAIL SEP 12, 2007
I should thank you for your excellent report. It is a real case study.
Usually I don't get such feedback from puppy owners during the past 3 years.
Because of real cases from all of you, I get educated on puppy behaviour and was able to advise you. Still, my e-mail to you are draft reports as each case is different. Sometimes I can see the solution, but there may be more than one solution which I get after a period of time or when I review the case.
As for TWO TOILET LOCATIONS, it would not have been necessary if you had had a door in the playpen earlier and confine Cookie in the balcony for 2 weeks, then extend the restricted zone (like Singapore Government's ERP) to the living and dining area. So, she goes to the papers which you change frequently.
Now, it seems that you can do without two toilet locations if you go back to square one. Restrict to balcony and living area for 1-2 weeks if you can barricade (with the playpen fencing part of the living area). Then increase the area and so on and so on.
Of course, increase the newspaper area in the balcony as she is growing bigger. Otherwise she will poop in the wrong places.
I hope you don't mind me sharing your case study with readers so that all first-time puppy owners living in apartments and scratching their heads over paper training, all over the world can learn from your experiences.
And many grateful thanks. Let me know when you finally are successful in paper training. Best wishes.
ALMOST ALL PUPPIES INSTINCTIVELY WANT TO LIVE IN CLEAN AREAS, if they have a choice.
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