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A veterinary surgeon at www.toapayohvets.com and founder of a licensed housing agency for expatriate rentals and sales at www.asiahomes.com

Friday, December 08, 2006

28. 3-hour "crate training" for 3-month old Golden Retriever?

A young man with a left ear stud had a small-sized Golden Retriever. The puppy weighs 4.6 kg. This puppy may be from the smallest of the litter.

"How do you toilet train him?" I asked. The undergraduate said he had read my toilet training blog and had applied the "3-hour bring the puppy to the toilet area" method. This was the "crate training" method.

In his case, the puppy was confined to the playpen or the carrier crate. The puppy would not soil its own sleeping area. He was let out to the backyard many times at around 3-hourly intervals. In between, he peed in the living area if let out of the playpen, also in the living area.

"For 3-month-olds, the bladder control is estimated to be around 2-hourly," I said. "The n-1 formula is a guide. N=No. of months. So, for a 3-month-old, his bladder can hold the urine for 3-1 = 2 hours."

The formula is a guide-line. It seems that the puppy peed in the living area because he was let out for more than 3 hours after breakfast. He had to pee inside his carrier crate after midnight because the owner could not wake up to take him out. The young man had to study.

"Why not let him get access to the backyard (BY) after midnight?" I asked as the owner was living in a ground-floor apartment with a backyard.

"It is not safe to leave the puppy alone," he said.

So, what's the solution?

1. Neutralise the living area with vinegar:water 1:2 to remove urine smells.
2. Fence up a corner so that the crate is inside the corner. Take the panels of fencing of the playpen to make a bigger corner (2 walls are sides of the corner) and let the puppy pee on urine-soiled newspapers covering this corner area.

In this way, the puppy can pee outside the carrier crate after midnight. Or he can pee on newspapers and not the living area in the morning.
3. No milk or water intake after 6 p.m. This is important to help the puppy to control his bladder overnight.



Each puppy and his home environment is unique. Application of toilet-training solutions vary considerably. The n-1 formula is a good guideline. 3-hour may be the limit this 3-month-old puppy can hold his urine.

My toilet-training blog and all puppy books can never provide answers to every case. It needs real cases like this to learn and advise. I hope this young man graduate with honours in his civil engineering course and his puppy is well trained.

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