I have no idea what I am doing!!!!!

I know exactly how you feel. A new puppy can be such a handful! It's easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed. But it will get better. It sounds like your doing the right things. Just remember that your pup is still a baby. 8 weeks is still very young for a pup to have good bladder control. Here's what I think are the two most important things in house training.

1 Are you crate training? The crate is an invaluable tool while house training. Dogs don't like to soil their den and will do their darnedest to hold it while in an appropriately sized crate. (It should be big enough for the pup to stand, lie down and turn around in, but not much bigger than that.) Any time you can't supervise him, he should be in the crate both for house training purposes and to keep him safe.

2. Anticipate when the pup will have to go and set him up for success. At 8 weeks, your little buddy has very little control, physically, of his bladder. So you're going to need to take him out every time he wakes up, eats or plays hard. Since you're already doing this, try taking the pup out every half hour he is awake. A lot of people have good results with this method.

Also, don't punish him if he has an accident in the house. When he goes to the bathroom in his designated spot, praise him like crazy. Use a good pet stain and odor remover (I like Nature's Miracle) on any accident spots in the house. If you don't get all the smell out, the pup will smell the pee and use the spot over and over again.

When does a puppy become potty trained? Well, I think Caleb was pretty good around 4 months and he was reliable around 6 months (no accidents at all). Caleb is my first dog, so I was a complete novice with puppies.

You are right. Six weeks is much too young for a pup to be taken from the litter. They should be a bare minimum of 7 weeks and no younger.

As for the potty training, puppies are only able to hold it for a very short time and need to be taken out constantly in order to keep accidents down to a minimum. If you think he has to go, chances are that he probably does. Are you crate training? That is the #1 most useful tool for housebreaking any dog or puppy. Just keep working at it and be consistent with his potty schedule and it will eventually get better and he will gradually become more reliable. I highly suggest utilizing a crate of you're not already. The crate should only be big enough for him to stand up, turn around, and lie down comfortably. If it's too big, he will easily find a spot to relieve himself away from where he sleeps. With crate training, we had Tucker housebroken by the time he was about 3 months old.

First of all.....You have a very cute Puppy ! Your expectations are too high at this point in time. He will get it and it will be soon. The other tips here about the crate training, watching him and anticipating him are great. You need to expect accidents for a while. I would take him out every 45 min. to 1 hour. I would suggest putting a little leash on him, make him sit at the door, take him out (you go first out the door) and take him to the same place every time. Tell him Go Potty or whatever other phrase you want to sound stupid repeating at midnight in the cold of weather, LOL. When he is done take him back into the house again making him sit and you going through the door first and he follows you. Later down the road you might want to hang a jingle bell on some yarn and tie to door knob so it is at the height of his nose and ring the bell every time you go out. He will figure out that when he has to go, he will ring the bell and sit at the door. If you want you add a training treat or kibble after he goes potty. My wife did this and it was amusing how he was looking for the treat during the middle of the action.

A few suggestions while you are waiting for him to become fully house trained. Get a spray bottle and fill hit half/half with water and white vinegar. Blot the urine with a towel and spray the area the the vinegar mixture and blot that up. It will save your carpets and your pup will not go back to the same spot. Using carpet cleaner leaves a detergent that brings back dirt to the carpet and leaves a spot. You might want to consider purchasing a bissel green machine and use the vinegar mixture in that. It is worth the $ 85 in the first 6 months between accidents and throwing up.

One other tip....Take a ton of photos they turn into a dog very quickly and you will want to remember the puppy days.


Best of Luck !

Hank just turned 4 months so those 'accident' days are still fresh in my mind!

Don't worry too much about getting him at 6 weeks, Hank was only 5 1/2 weeks when he came home (he was a surprise gift and his littermates were leaving as well) and he's did/doing just fine. No real biting or nipping problems associated with leaving the littermates and mother early.

I took Hank out every 20 min. during the day, he did sleep through the night most of the time after the first few nights. I didn't keep him crated other than at night, when we were not home or busy else where in the house. He was gated in the kitchen/laundry room area and I'd watch him. He didn't go in the carpeted areas often and only with 100% supervision. It seemed that he magically "got it" by his 3 month birthday. He hasn't had an accident in over a month. I think with training of course, they finally are able to hold their urine and understand that the potty is outdoors.

Charlie is almost there, just hang on and keep the paper towels and cleaner handy for another month.

Just wanted to add that I am TOTALLY sympathetic to your situation... it took us over a month to get Oscar to a pretty reliable place where we weren't leaping up off the couch in fear every time he sniffed the floor!! We got him at 8 weeks, but we were pretty beside ourselves for about the first month because it did not at all seem like he was "getting it", even though one or both of us was home with him ALL THE TIME, and we took him out every half hour to an hour! He seemed to get

BUT -- it DEFINITELY gets better!!! And you will be SOO happy once it all clicks

Here's what worked for us (others have said these as well, but just my 2 cents on what ACTUALLY seemed to work for us)

1) Constant vigilance! haha

2) A crate!!!! (or two, like us!) We put him in there for his naps during the day, and always gave him something nice. Oscar cried and cried for the first few weeks when he knew we were around, but eventually he loved his crate.

3) Setting a timer for 30-45min between potty trips. (We wouldn't wake him up if he was sleeping, but we always took him out once he woke up. Also before/after meals, after playing... pretty much after everything he did!)

4) We live in an apartment, so we CARRIED him outside to his potty spot (to avoid accidents in the hallway). Outside, we say "hurry up!" and then say "good boy!" quietly as he does his business, then lots of praise & petting and a treat(s) when he finishes. He figured out the benefits of pottying outside VERY QUICKLY!

5) However, Oscar did not really seem to catch on that going INSIDE is not good (for a WHILE), so whenever we "caught him in the act", we would say "AH-AH! NO!" loudly, and if he stopped, picked him up right away and go outside. Usually he did not stop (even if we picked him up, I think they just really CAN'T stop peeing because of muscle control!), so we would pick him up when done and go straight outside. The other person would clean up the mess in the meantime (so he didn't see you), or if alone, would put him in his crate once back inside (so he didn't see you clean up). (I heard that they would figure out peeing gets attention if they saw you clean it up?? don't know how true this really is but we did it anyway).

6) When we were getting REALLY frustrated, we decided to stop giving treats during his other training throughout the day (e.g. sit, lie down), and ONLY give treats (multiple!) for going to the potty OUTSIDE. Our reasoning followed the "cashing in his pees & poops for treats" mentality that I read somewhere (maybe on GRF???)... if he "knows" he can get treats for other stuff, he has less motivation to really "hold it" until he gets outside... This might sound really crazy, but it DID really seem to help -- maybe just coincidentally LOL, but I suspect we were probably just giving him too MANY treats for various things throughout the day, which reduced the interest/novelty of his "potty" praise/treats.

7) And last, we found out just recently that Oscar has a bladder infection, which was obviously negatively impacting his bladder control as he had just started to have accidents in his crate (which had not really ever happened before). So if you really suspect that your puppy "should" be able to hold it for a certain period of time and he is still having accidents (although this does NOT apply to an 8 week old puppy, who can only hold it for 30min-1 hour, if he has had water recently), make sure you talk to your vet because there might be some health issue confounding your efforts.

Best of luck!!!!! You & your pup will surely persevere!