16. Follow up: Golden Retriever paper-trained

Condo
Playpen 6' x 6' with door.
Commercial urine spray.
Paper-trained within 7 days.
Intelligent or paper-trained by Australian breeder?



One year later. No complaint. Still paper-trained.




Saw the vet only once during the year - ear infections and licking elbows.

The maid was good. Saved a lot of expenses. She did an excellent job of cleaning the ears and elbow. Elbow sores start to develop during my examination at his annual vaccination booster. Not serious but needed careful grooming on this area.

The parents may need to give a work schedule for the pre-teen boy and the primary school girl to take care of the dog at least once a week. It is not easy being a parent nowadays. My two grown up boys are beyond redemption - being addicted to online gaming past midnight, not caring for their eye-sight and repetitive strain injury to their fingers in the mid term of over-use.

My son came back with red marks at every examination during his junior college. There was nothing I could do, as a father.

"You should have controlled his online gaming when he was in secondary school, a good friend scolded me. Change the password. If the child protest, tell him he can get out of the house and see whether he can survive outside..."

The friend berated my liberal attitude to upbringing my son.
"It was too late now," I said. "He got to go for National Service even if he fails his "A" levels."

"It is never too late. The Army will grant him a one year deferment to re-take his examinations again," my friend of over 40 years said. She really stopped her daughter from excessive surfing by controlling password access to the computer.

"Your daughter could stay longer in school to do 'project work' but actually to surf the computer," I said. "You would not be any wiser."

"No," she said. "I phoned up her teachers and checked her movement. No hanky panky."

I wished I had these ideas and not being too liberal. An online-gaming addict could turn out to be a monster - selfish and not even bothered to spend one Sunday evening to have dinner with his parents.

I may be too late but I always encourage my clients with young children not to make the same parenting mistakes as me!