The initial weeks were challenging. Tito would pee and poop anywhere he pleased. Our impassioned yells, followed by desperate attempts to pick him up in the middle of his act and rush him to the garden, terrified him. I’d read about use of newspapers to toilet train puppies. We decided to use the idea. We would pick Tito up and put him on a newspaper as soon as he took a position to pee or poop. He soon began to associate the newspaper spread on the floor with the act of relieving himself. We also began taking Tito out to the garden every few hours, spreading the newspaper on the grass and encouraging him to pee and poop. He frequently would not oblige as there was no need to pee or poop. It took about a week for Tito to get the message that he should pee and poop outside – in the bushes in the garden. The newspaper was no longer required. The newspaper trick did indeed work to toilet train Tito! Soon, he started indicating to us that he wanted to go out whenever he needed to relieve himself by standing behind the door and wagging his tail. We would also take Tito out into the garden just before he went to bed and then again in the morning as soon as he woke up. It wasn’t necessary to take him out during the night.
We located a young jovial veterinarian in the city, Dr. Chirag Dave, and took Tito to him two weeks after he arrived. He checked out Tito and declared that he was ready for solid food – dry pellets marketed for pups. We were reluctant to feed the dry pellets to Tito. Instead, we fed him gruel made from bread, rice, milk, and half-boiled eggs. Dr. Dave explained to us that feeding pellets was vital because they contained nutritional supplements that pups required as they grew up. After that, we started supplementing Tito’s diet with pellets.
Tito was eight weeks old when he received his first vaccination against a range of diseases, that included distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, parainfluenza, and rabies. Tito was utterly unprepared for the shots, as the doctor gave him two jabs in quick succession on his butt. We were concerned that he would show signs of discomfort. Except for the initial wobble when he stood up, there was no visible discomfort.
While the first few injections were rather easy to administer, it became increasing challenging to vaccinate Tito as he grew older. Tito would immediately hide under the bed when the doctor visited us. It would be tough to drag Tito out as he made his displeasure known by growling. If Dumpy was available, he would pull Tito out from under the bed, and hold him for the doctor to administer the jabs from behind. It was much more difficult when Dumpy was not present. In Dumpy’s absence, I would first confirm the date and time for vaccination with Dr. Dave, and then tie up Tito and muzzle him, just before the doctor arrived. Even after doing that, it was not easy to get through the vaccination.
We learned from our friends with pets that they never faced any difficulty vaccinating their pets. In retrospect, I often wonder whether Tito’s reaction reflected our anxieties about his vaccination. Tito quickly transformed into a handsome, rambunctious puppy who was entirely at ease with us and the house.