196. Toilet training an adult dog that lies on her own pee

E-MAIL TO DR SING DATE SEP 14, 2010


On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 3:04 PM, Eian T wrote:

Hi Dr Sing,

I was desperately surfing the website for help when I chanced upon your articles. Then I called your clinic and left a message.

My dog is currently not your patient and so I would like to ask if you provide any sort of advice/toilet training?

I just got a miniature poodle from the farm (I was told she was vaccinated by a vet in Toa Payoh, I need to check it out). The poor poodle must have been in the farm for the past 8 months as she is very comfortable eating, sleeping and doing her business in the same place. And she has no problem lying in her pee.

What I did was cordon her off in the kitchen with a pee tray (used by my older dog) and everytime I see her pee/poo, I carried her to the pee tray. It didnt help. She has this problem of whining til she pees when I go away. So I put the tray where she likes to stand so that if she whines and pees, it will end up in the tray. This is to keep the place clean since I have to work in the day.

Other problems - she hardly does it when I watch her but the moment I go away she will relieve herself. I take her down for long walks and she has not done it at all. When I other dog goes to the tray, the new dog doesnt learn as well.

I'm quite lost and wonder if you do provide some house visit on toilet training a dog like that?

Hope to hear from you.

Thank you.






E-MAIL FROM DR SING DATE SEP 17, 2010


1. Just read your e-mail today as I was busy attending the wake of my god-daughter who had an accident in Perth and had returned back to Singapore.

2. I do house-calls by appointment, but the best and less expensive method is to have a one-to-one discussion in the Q&A format at Toa Payoh Vets. There are many management factors affecting toilet training that cannot be written in your e-mail. This will take up around 30 minutes of discussion at Toa Payoh Vets. However, this may not be practical advice for you. In the meantime, I have written some guidelines for you and for other readers in your situation:

3. The following is my guideline for you as your dog is now an adult dog much conditioned to its environment in which she has lost her natural instinct to be clean. So she keeps lying on her pee. She does not want to eliminate on your other dog's tray or environment.

3.1 Buy a new big crate with a grated flooring and a pee pan below.
3.2 Confine this dog inside this crate when you work.
3.3 On half the floor area of this, put non-slip rubber mats for her as a sleeping and eating area.
3.4 On the other half is the grated floor. Below the grated floor, in the pee pan, there are newspapers lined on the pee pan. On the half that is below the grated floor, put this dog's urine onto the newspapers. The other half below the non-slip mats, you should not soil it with the dog's urine.
3.5 Try this method to restore the dog's natural instinct to be clean. Let me know. It will take 2-4 weeks. Pl make an appointment if you wish to discuss further with me as it takes a book just to discuss about toilet-training an adult dog! Each dog and owner have their own personality and that is why it is important to meet at Toa Payoh Vets (for economic reasons). The best way to contact me is to phone me directly and my receptionist will give you my phone number.

Let my receptionist know if you wish to make appointment to discuss further as there are 3 vets and many of my ordinary cases are handled by Dr Vanessa Lin.