Pao at the pet clinic today
Today I took Pao over to the pet clinic for something which turned out to be nothing. He also got his nails trimmed since he was there. He’s 3 months and 1 week old now, and weight 9.75 kg today.
It was our furthest walk together so far.
It’s uncanny how Pao can pretend to be such a good boy in front of other people. He sat in the office, he gently licked people who were sitting there waiting, he didn’t jump all over the place, he didn’t bite. Everybody he met said what a good boy he is, and so quiet! Riiight. Why can’t he act like that at home?
The doctor gave a lot of vague advice about better control of where he takes a pee. Right now he sometimes does it in the puppy toilet, sometimes in front of the toilet, sometimes in some other place, and he’s not peed outside even once yet. He waits til we get home and dashes to the puppy toilet and does it there.
The vet’s advice was that it all comes down to if he’s doing it in the right place and you see him doing it within 10 seconds praise him, if he’s doing in the wrong place and you see it within 10 seconds scold him, and if it’s more than 10 seconds don’t bother saying anything at all because he won’t know what you’re talking about.
I think after all the recommendations I’ve heard, videos I’ve seen, and books and web sites I’ve read, that sounds about right.
Move the puppy Pee paper, slowly, towards the door. Then have one just inside the door and another just outside the door. Switch the dirty one, for the one outside, so the smell of urine is on it.
Slowly, meaning a few feet each day.
Unfortunately, what you describe is not really possible to do the way my house here in Japan is set up.
First, the puppy sheet is in a puppy toilet. That’s a plastic box into which the sheet goes. Then it’s covered with a mesh so the puppy can’t tear it up, which Pao would certainly do. So it’s not just a sheet on the floor. It’s his own toilet area.
Also, the way the house is built is like a typical Japanese house. So there is a “genkan” which is the entrance inside the house, where everybody leaves their shoes before stepping up and going into the house. There is no place for a sheet or puppy toilet there. And that area is generally shut off to Pao unless we are going for a walk. All he would do is chew on the shoes anyway if left to his own devices.
Similarly, outside the door, which is on the 2nd floor at the top of a 17 step staircase, there isn’t really space for that either. It’s just a small landing. We would have to step on the sheet ourselves going in and out.
So I’m afraid your suggestion, which sounds interesting, won’t work the way my house is designed.