What to excpect when you ARE home

Unless you can see your puppy 24/7, don't expect the house training to be completed until your puppy is at least 6 months old. It's normal for a small puppy to be a little 'pee/poop' machine. Since puppies are growing and making progress fast at this stage, they eat more food, burn up more energy, and seem to need to pee and poop constantly! They also have not yet developed bowel and bladder control, so they can't 'hold it' as long as adult dogs.

House-Training When you ARE NOT home

Put your your puppy to a small, 'puppy-proofed' room and paper the entire floor. Put his bed, toys and food/water bowls there. At first there will be no reason to where your pup eliminates. He will go every where and any where. He will also probably play with the papers, chew on them, and drag them around his little den. Most puppies do this and you just have to live with it. Don't get upset; just accept it as life with a young puppy. The important thing is that when you get home, clean up the mess and lay down fresh papers.

When you are home but can't go to your puppy, follow the same steps said above. However, the more time you spend with your puppy, the quicker he/she will be house trained. Your goal is to take your puppy to his toilet area every time he needs to pee and poop. This should be about once every 45 minutes; just after a play session; just after eating or drinking; and just upon waking. When he does eliminate in his toilet area, praise and reward him enthusiastically! Don't use any type of punishment for mistakes or accidents. Your puppy is too young to understand and it can set the house training process back really bad. Don't allow your puppy freedom outside of his room unless you know for sure that his bladder and bowels are completely empty. When you do let him out, don't let him out of your sight. It is a good idea to have him on leash when he is exploring your home. He can't get into trouble if you are attached to the other end of the leash. Every 30 minutes return your pup to his toilet area. As your puppy becomes more reliable about using his toilet area and his bowel and bladder control develops, he can begin to spend more time outside his room with you in the rest of your home. Begin by giving him access to one room at a time. Let him eat, sleep and play in this room but only when he can be supervised. When you cannot supervise him, put him back in his room