House training your puppy should be a priority from the first day you bring him home. If consistent house training practices are exercised from the very beginning, your puppy will be house trained quickly. The idea here being that the fewer mistakes the puppy makes now reduces the amount of mistakes he will make in the future.
Advance Planning
Before you bring your puppy home, plan your house training strategy. It is best that you have established where you wish for him to relieve himself before he arrives. Decide if you are going to use potty pads, a litter box or take him outside. Create a safe place for him to stay while you are unable to supervise him. Some people use a crate, others gate off a small room or utilize an exercise pen to keep their puppy safe and prevent him from having potty accidents.
It is best to confine your puppy to a safe place when you are not home, while you are busy with household activities, or when you are asleep. No matter how vigilant you are, and no matter how willing your puppy is to learn, there will be an accident or two during the house training process. Be sure that you have plenty of cleaning materials on hand for this event. Old towels and an enzymatic cleanser should be readily available, and you may want to get a small carpet and upholstery cleaner. This will minimize any damage to your home, and make your puppy's house training accidents a small event.
Begin House Training Your Puppy
The moment your puppy arrives at her new home, take her to the area where she will be expected to relieve herself. Allow her to sniff and play around, but do not offer to play or give her attention until she successfully goes in the area. When she does, give her lavish praise, offer her a food treat and play with her for a few minutes. This will motivate your puppy to hurry up and take care of business when she is taken out to go potty. Take your puppy to this place every 2 to 3 hours at first. She should also be taken out after meals, naps and after consuming water. Always reward her for successfully going in the right place.
Practices to Avoid
It is never a good idea to bring a puppy into a strange environment and wait for him to have an accident before you begin the training process. Correcting him for making a mistake is not an efficient way to house train him. Do not rub your puppy's face in urine and feces if he has a house training accident. Also avoid shouting at him and hitting him when he makes mistakes. This will only confuse him, make him afraid of you and possibly motivate him to hide when he needs to relieve himself. If you catch your puppy in the middle of making a mistake, say "No" firmly but without anger and cheerfully and quickly take him to the spot he is supposed to go to. Negative training practices are seldom useful when house training your puppy, consistent routine and rewarding appropriate behavior are the best way to achieve success.