posted 01-07-2004 12:05 PM         

Anyway, after he goes, praise him and give him treats. A lot of times, a dog will go a couple of times before they are done. If he doesn't go at all in a reasonable amount of time (like 5 minutes), bring him back inside and watch him closely or put him in a crate (not too big - just enough room to turn around and lie down). In 10-20 minutes take him back outside (repeating all the steps). Keep doing this until he goes - then you are probably safe for an hour or so.

Take him at LEAST every hour to begin with, plus after eating, drinking, sleeping, or playing. You can slowly start to spread the time out as he becomes more reliable and you are better at seeing his signals. Hopefully he will begin to go to the door or ask you in some other way to go outside when he needs to, but this is a while coming.

Dogs like to "go" on a certain surface. If he gets used to always going on grass, that will be his preferred surface. The same thing goes for carpet. Therefore, you want to minimize accidents. Make sure he is always in sight (tether him to you with a leash or gate him into the room with you) or crate him when you can't watch him so he doesn't have many opportunities to make a mistake.

Only scold if you catch him IN THE ACT. Then make a startling noise (yell or clap your hands) which hopefully will startle him into stopping midstream. Pick him up and take him IMMEDIATELY outside, going through the whole rigamarole. If he has an accident when you weren't looking, just clean it up.

If he does have an accident, make sure you use a special cleaner designed to neutralize urine odors - Nature's Miracle is one such product and can be found in pet stores.

A good rule of thumb is that a puppy can "hold it" for approximately their age in months plus one - so a 3-month-old puppy should be able to hold it for about 4 hours.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!