169. *Common toilet-peeing-everywhere situation in Singapore's apartment

HOW A VET WILL DISCUSS ABOUT TOILET TRAINING

Date: August 18, 2010. Came for annual vaccination and heartworm vaccination. Ate at 10 am but vomited canned food during vaccination at 3.30 pm. Surprising. Dog is nervous of vets, owner said. I kept the dog in the Surgery for one hour to observe. No problem.

Dog: Pom, red, 17 months, female, not spayed

Problem: Pees everywhere inside all the rooms of the HDB apartment when let loose. Pees on newspapers when confined to the balcony when the family is not at home. Family lives with this situation of having to clean up after her peeing.

Look at the routine and my explanation:

Sleeping area - balcony by herself. So she has an incentive not to soil her "den".

Feeding - 8 am & 7 pm. Canned food. However dry dog food is left available all the time. This is a mistake. Dog should be given food for 15 minutes as a puppy and food removed.

Drinking - Water anytime. I advised no water after 8 pm so she can control her bladder. Eating dry dog food anytime may make the dog thirsty too.

Pooping - 1-2x per day.
Poops after breakfast - Yes, usually around 30 minutes after eating.
2nd pooping time variable. Sometimes overnight in the balcony.

Peeing - 4-5X/day including overnight. Is this urine spraying? "Female dogs do urine-mark to stake out their territory inside the apartment," I said to the young lady. "To let the other family members know."

As the location of peeing was all over the apartment, this seemed to be a case of urine-marking. "Spaying at a young age may stop urine-marking," I said.

I will e-mail to the owner the proposed plan and hope she will provide feedback to me in 2 months' time.

PLAN
1. Confine to balcony and adjoining living room.
2. Neutralise all urine smell inside the apartment. Put white vinegar 1 part and 3 parts water in a spray bottle and spray clean the whole apartment.
3. Close all bedroom and kitchen doors for the next 2-4 weeks.
4. Newspapers to be placed in the living area too. Preferably with urine smell (2nd piece of newspapers from the balcony.)
5. No dry food for the whole day. Give with canned food. Dog is not skinny anyway. No water after 8 pm so she can control her bladder.
6. Feed 2x/day.
7. Remove all soiled newspapers (in the balcony and living room) immediately as dogs don't like to eliminate in soiled papers.
8. Praise when the dog pees on newspapers in the living area. Dog treats if the dog is motivated by treats.
9. Same routine for 2-4 weeks and let me know by e-mail 99pups@gmail.com







I advised for the next 2 weeks, confine dog to living area and balcony. Put newspapers on tray