(1) the place where she does her business and urinate is very
inconsistent.
How big is the cage? If it is too small, the puppy has no space to
do her business.
If the cage is too big, the puppy has too much space. If the
puppy spends little time inside the cage as it is given free
access to roam the whole house, it cannot be properly
paper-trained. Many owners take the puppy out of the cage
to play and this upsets the puppy's routine. Therefore, it
has no time to learn where to pass water or stools.
Most puppies will not dirty its sleeping or feeding area if
confined to a small area. But some
puppies do not have this naturally clean habit.
(2) she eats her her own poo. Is it common? Is there any way to
prevent
her from eating them?
A small number of puppies do eat their own stools very quickly. It
is not a common problem.
Solving this problem using using pet shop powder remedies or giving
slices of pineapples in the feed have been suggested.
Some owners do report that the puppy does not eat its stools
covered with pepper. You should not let the
puppy see you sprinkling pepper on its stools. Some owners use
hot chilli sauce.
The best way is to
pick up the stools immediately but this may not be a practical
suggestion.
There are rare but challenging cases of the puppy just picking
up its stools and putting them in a corner. There are also
rare cases of a puppy drinking its own urine.
It is possible that the puppy is bored at being left alone for
long hours. Chew toys may or may not help to resolve this
problem.
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(3) she always bite and mess up the newspapers. How do we prevent her
from
doing that?
Some puppies chew newspapers. Give her a chew toy or two. For the
first 14 days, close supervision of the puppy to her will
be ideal.
Busy couples may need to put up with this paper shredding. When they
reach home, just change the papers and not give any attention to the
puppy. Use the evenings and week ends to do toilet-training.
Shouting at the
puppy for chewing newspapers may give her the attention
she craves and perpetuate the habit in some puppies.
There are chew balls which reward the puppy with some treats if it is
rolled a certain way.
3.1 Some owners put heavy bricks at the edge of the
paper to prevent the puppy from shifting the paper to chew on.
3.2 There are some clipped on trays from Japan.
These trays have clips which prevent the papers from being loose
and chewed on.
3.3 Such trays also come with toilet-training
pads which look like baby's pampers. The toilet-training
solution is dipped onto the pads and some puppies are
effectively toilet-trained.
3.3 A recent invention by a Singaporean is a heavy
rectangular frame of around 8 cm in width. The length and width
are those of the Straits Times newspaper. This frame
is placed on top of the newspaper. The newspaper is placed on a
tray of the same dimensions. In theory, the puppy should
not be able to chew on the newspaper. This appliance is
available at the Joy Doggy pet shop.
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(4) she has the tendency to keep biting things. Is it ok to let her bite
and
lick our fingers?
The puppy uses her mouth to
communicate with her owner. All puppies love to bite things as their teeth are growing.
They love tug-of-war with ropes but this encourages aggressive behaviour.
They need to chew hard things and some will chew all day while others
get bored with the same chew toys.
It is not recommended that the puppy bite or lick fingers as this may
encourage aggressive behaviour or transfer bacterial infections from
either party.
(5) is it really necessary to remove her water bottle from the cage
before
her bedtime?
It is recommended so that the puppy does drink after 8 p.m. It does not
need to urinate past midnight as she still does not have full bladder control
at this age. This method aids in the toilet-training of puppies.
(6) she keeps barking whenever we put her back into the cage. Do we need
to
buy a muzzle to stop her from barking cuz she's disturbing our
neighbours.
She knows she will get attention from the owner whenever she
barks. I hope this is not a case of separation anxiety. A
muzzle may or may not be effective.
If the puppy needs to vomit,
the muzzle may cause the vomitus to go into the lungs and kill
her.
Some solutions are switching on a small light or radio or
keeping the crated puppy in the bedroom with the owner. If the barking
is ignored in the first 2 days in the new home, it is effective.
Barking
at night is a serious problem as neighbours may not be too
happy. One solution may be to keep the puppy in a crate in
the bedroom or get up regularly to say "no barking" to the
puppy in a commanding voice. Singaporean apartment owners usually
keep the puppy in the kitchen area.
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