HDB APARTMENT PUPPIES - CHALLENGES OF TOILET TRAINING IN SINGAPORE PUPPIES IN 2008 AND BEYOND

Singapore's puppies are usually housed in apartments as almost 90% of the population live in apartments. The challenges of toilet-training the new puppy in Singapore apartments are:

1. Lack of technical knowledge of the use of tools and methods in toilet training. 

2. Lack of awareness that the puppy wants his soiled newspapers and area to be cleaned promptly and immediately or he will not eliminate there. Usually busy working couples have not much time to change regularly. Sometimes the puppy will wait if possible. Give the puppy a much bigger floor toilet area if you are working long hours.

2. Loud barking by the puppy when confined to the crate or playpen is a common complaint. Anti-social complaints by neighbours to the authorities.

In order not to upset neighbours, the puppy is free to roam the whole apartment and pees and poops everywhere. The puppy takes advantage.

3. Belief that it is cruel to confine the puppy inside a cage for some 2-4 weeks to achieve a toilet-training success, as advised by the puppy books and me.
 
4. Crate is too high for the short-legged puppy to hop back to pee and poo.

5. Puppy is too smart and avoid getting into the crate since he knows she will miss the fun of being outside.

6. Failure to neutralise the urine smells with appropriate chemicals. White vinegar:water at 1:3 will be inexpensive and effective but will not be useful to eliminate the smell of poo.  

7. Failure to use urine smell to train some puppies, expecting the puppy to pee onto the newspapers with no urine scent.  

8. Distractions from family members, aged parents and young children and neighbours admiring and playing with the new puppy, affecting his routine.

9. No full-time focused training.

10. Not aware of the need to use positive reinforcement training with commands. Some puppies pee a bit to get the food treat and then pee a bit. These puppies are too manipulative!

11. Using of rolled up newspapers to beat the floor, spanking the puppy, making the puppy smell his stools or urine after the puppy has had "accidents". Yet failure of the owner to neutralise the inappropriate toilet areas properly.  

12. Owner thinks that the puppy has regressed when the older puppy is urine-marking, especially male dogs. So another spanking but puppy runs away and do the same again when the owner is absent or do it behind the sofas, doors etc. Another spanking. No use.  Belief that neutering is cruelty. Whole family, esp. the housewife mother suffers having to clean up the urine stains in many places.

13. Urinary tract or infections unknown to the owner. Diarrhoea. Kennel cough affecting the health of the puppy. Toilet training is a mess. Does not seek veterinary advice promptly. 

14. Male puppies look for dominant leadership from the owner and starts to dominate the owner by biting or barking loudly. Out of control. Neutering is believed to be cruel. So, a grown up dog becomes a biting dog. 

15. Can't get up at 2-4 a.m to bring the new 3-month-old puppy to the toilet when he barks or wants his new papers changed. Owner thinks the puppy is making a noise for no reason.  

16. Paper shredding is a common habit of puppies. So paper-training ruled out by many owners.  Use of "diapers" with urine scent may be a solution.

17. Use of crate training is another method. Take puppy out every 2-3 hours to the toilet. Confined when not supervised.

18. Unaware of the signs of elimination. Puppy too quick on the draw. Already pees before the owner knows it. 

19. Not aware or not following up on the paper-training done by the home-breeder.

20. A floor grate & pee pan method of toilet training is sometimes successful for puppies purchased from the pet shops and professional breeders as they are housed on such floor grates.  

21. A hectic life-style leaving no time to toilet-train the puppy and letting the housewife mother or maid to do it without any technical knowledge of how to.

BASIC PRINCIPLES TO SUCCEED IN TOILET TRAINING AN APARTMENT PUPPY ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. ROUTINE FOR PUPPY. FEEDING TIME 3X PER DAY AND TAKE AWAY FEED BOWL, DRINKING TIME 7 AM TO 7 PM PROBABLY , SLEEPING TIME AT 11 PM? EXERCISE OR PLAYTIME WHEN YOU COME HOME. ALL TIMES FIXED.

2. CONFINE TO SMALL AREA E.G. CAGE OR BATHROOM FOR 2-4 WEEKS. CAN COME OUT TO PLAY HALF AN HOUR PER DAY BUT NOTE FOR SIGNS OF WANTING TO PEE OR POOP - SNIFFING, TURNING ETC.
 

3. IF YOU USE CAGE, THEN USE CAGE. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT PUPPY WILL PEE AND POOP IN ONE CORNER OF THE CAGE. CLEAN UP THE PEE AREA AND REMOVE POO PROMPTLY.

4. NO VARIATION IN ROUTINE AND NO RUNNING AROUND THE WHOLE APARTMENT. NO SABOTAGE OF ROUTINE BY FAMILY MEMBERS. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU JUST CONFINE HIM TO YOUR BEDROOM/BATHROOM FOR 2-4 WEEKS. AN INTELLIGENT PUPPY MAY BE TOILET-TRAINED IN 2 WEEKS IF THERE IS ONLY ONE COMMANDER (TRAINER).

DO NOT CONFUSE HIM WITH TOO MANY LOCATIONS AND ROUTINES. HE IS AT AN IMPRESSIONABLE AGE AND EASY TO TRAIN. HOPE ABOVE HELPS.

As each puppy is different from another, no one method works but basic principles must be adopted to succeed.