sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (02/21/85)
I've had dogs in the past, but while they were puppies I always either
had a yard to leave them in during the day, or a room mate who was
interested in helping house train the animal. I no longer have either
of these options, and I want to get a puppy.
Is there any way that I can raise a "normal" dog given that I probably
will have to leave the puppy alone for 6 hours a day? I would be willing
to paper train the puppy if that is possible. If paper trained can a dog
be un-paper trained later? or will doing this result in a neurotic dog?
Obviously, if it would be cruel to the puppy, then I won't even try.
Once I had come home from work, I could spend lots of time with the
puppy.
--
Marty Sasaki
Havard University Science Center
sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
617-495-1270brett@ucla-cs.UUCP (02/25/85)
> I've had dogs in the past, but while they were puppies I always either > had a yard to leave them in during the day, or a room mate who was > interested in helping house train the animal. I no longer have either > of these options, and I want to get a puppy. > > Is there any way that I can raise a "normal" dog given that I probably > will have to leave the puppy alone for 6 hours a day? I would be willing > to paper train the puppy if that is possible. If paper trained can a dog > be un-paper trained later? or will doing this result in a neurotic dog? > > Obviously, if it would be cruel to the puppy, then I won't even try. > Once I had come home from work, I could spend lots of time with the > puppy. > > -- > Marty Sasaki > Havard University Science Center > sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp} > 617-495-1270 My experiences paper training a puppy have been negative. Although the dog is paper trained, it's a nuisance to clean up the papers 10 times a day, a nuisance to get rid of the soiled paper, a nuisance to get the actual newspaper. If you get a male dog and he doesnt lift his leg, your dog is more than likely going to make a mess on himself urinating. (Same w/ female when she gets older) Both will have puddles big enough that it hits their paws. Newpaper is absorbant - but it aint that absorbant. If a male, hope he doesnt learn to lift his leg, he would probably want to go on a hydrant or something - not a paper. Nontheless, puppies do manage and even male dogs learn how to handle it. Plan to devote no less than 1 hour regularly a day to cleaning your bathroom up. Plan on extra money for cleaning products: your rug, bathroom floor, etc. Also, puppies initially will trod thru their own fecal matter. Plan to have to have the dog bathed quite often. Initially you will probably lock him/her in the bathroom during the day. He/she will probably tear up the newspaper into shreds. Have a dustpan/available for picking up those shreds, a sponge mop and bucket available. One way to handle the soiled newspaper in an apartment is to place the newspaper in plastic garbage bags and leave the bags on your balcony (or in my case fire escape). If you dont have a fire escape you could probably build soemthing to hold those smelly bags until you can run them down to the dumpster. If you have a garbage chute you are better off. Hope these off the cuff comments help. -- Brett Fleisch University of California Los Angeles 3804 Boelter Hall Los Angeles, CA 90024 Phone: (213) 825-2756, (213) 474-5317 brett@ucla-cs.ARPA or ...!{cepu, ihnp4, trwspp, ucbvax}!ucla-cs!brett -------------------------------------------------------------------------
nosmo@pyuxqq.UUCP (P Valdata) (02/26/85)
We had no problem in getting our puppy housebroken AND paper trained concurrently. We restricted her to the kitchen, which was covered with newspaper, and gradually reduced the amount of paper available. Since a puppy picks a couple of favorite spots, it's easy to tell where to leave the paper. At the same time, we took her out often when we were home. Soon there was only one small area of paper in the kitchen. She used this when we were at work. (When she was a very small puppy I came home at lunchtime; later she was left alone all day.) When we were home, we taught her to bark to go out. Now she is full grown but we are still out all day. The paper is left in the garage and she uses this if we are late getting home from work. Otherwise, she waits till we get home. While we are home, she barks to go out. She has the full house to play in, which was safe to do once the puppy equivalent of the terrible twos was over with. Once we are home we let her go outside as much as possible. She has grown up into a perfectly normal dog and the method we used was easy and painless for all. Pat Valdata pyuxh!nosmo