Baby Teeth, Spaying, Paper Training

Question
Dear Jana,

We have a 6 month old female yorkie who has developed a couple of issues since her last trip to the vet:

1. Her permanent canines (incisors) have come in in front of her "baby" canines.  However, the baby teeth are not loose at all yet and do not move when pushed with your fingers.  How long should we wait for the baby teeth to come out on their own before taking her to the vet for removal?

2. We have read in some places that dogs should go into heat the first time before spaying.  Other books say spaying can be done before the first heat.  Your thoughts?  Also, if the baby teeth have to be surgically removed, can that be be done under the same anesthesia at the same time as spaying?

3.  We are trying to train her to papers.  She is successful with urinating on them about 60% of the time, but her defecating is random.  We have a two floor house, so it is not very practical
to try to confine her to a small area on one floor for long periods.  Any training ideas?  We are about to run out of carpet cleaner!

Many, many thanks in advance for your help!

Bob

Answer
Baby teeth should all be gone by six months. She needs to have them removed when spayed, and that should be done BEFORE her first heat, which means you need to get her in next week for surgery!

Canines are not incisors. Her incisors are her little teeth in the front. Canines are actually cuspids. A dog's incisors are usually in way before the 4 month back molars and the 6 month canines. Maybe you are seeing her baby canines still in there with her adult ones.

This is very common in small dogs and Yorkies have such bad teeth most of the time that we see it in them a lot!  Wiggling them won't help at this point and will only damage the roots of the canine next to them.

There is no reason that the teeth cannot be pulled at the time of her spaying. The less anesthetics the better.

There is no reason for a dog to have a heat before spaying. It is actually detrimental to their health as it sets them up for breast cancer (mammary tumors) later in life. The more heats they go through the higher the risk rises with each heat.

As far as training goes, why is she not being trained to go outside? She will not ever be house broken if you do not start training her to use the outside instead of papers- unless you want a dog that isn't housebroken.

I only know of one way to train a dog that works- and that is to consistently pick the dog up with a leash on it and take it outside as soon as the dog eats- then reward the dog as soon as it goes potty.

If the dog doesn't go you can still praise the dog for being outside. If that is done as soon as the dog eats (and I mean when it takes its last chew)then the dog associates the feeling it feels (eating stimulates the reflex to defecate) with going outside to potty.

Crate training is another way to train them to not go all over the house. You can crate her when you are gone and she won't (some do, most won't) soil her crate. Then when you get home you immediately take her outside to go potty and reward her for going. If she defecates in the house, pick her up, take her outside and tell her out.
Just let her sniff around and then take her in the house. Don't scold her or she will start eating her stool.

If you can put some of it outside for her to smell that helps her to associate it with going outside.

That is our take on potty training. I have no clue how (or why) any one would paper train a dog to go inside of the house. You might want to look over Uncle Matty's page on dog training and see what his take is on it.

http://www.unclematty.com/training/allabout.php

Make sure to get her in soon for her spay and teeth removal. Have her nails cut also while in there. It is a good time to do it. We did it free as a service but not everyone is like that.

Hope this helps!