Using ample amount of supervision and positive reinforcement is.
The first course in action in housetraining is to promote the desired behavior. You need to:
Designate a potty area outdoors..................Guide your dog there to do his business.....................Heartily praise him when he goes.
By occasionally giving him a treat right after your dog finishes, you can encourage him to potty in the desired area. The odor left from previous visits to that area quicky mark it for the place to do his business.
A six to eight week old puppy should be taken out every 1 to 3 hours. Older puppies can generally wait longer between outings. Most puppies should be taken out:
After walking in the morning....after naps....after meals....after playing or training....after being left alone.....immediately before being put to bed.
To avoid spending a lot of time waiting for your puppy to go, you may want to teach him to potty on command. Each time he is in the act of eliminating, simply repeat a unique command such as, "hurry" or "go potty" or my favorite "hurry go pee pees" in an upbeat tone of voice. After a few weeks of training, you'll notice that when you say the command your puppy will begin pre-potty sniffing, circling and then potty shortly after you give the command. Be sure to praise him for his accomplishments.
Most puppies will have to potty within an hour after eating. Once you set your puppies feeding schedule, you will have some control over when he needs to go.
Schedule your puppies dinner times so that you will be able to let him out after he eats. Avoid large meals prior to confinement or he may have to go when your not around. Schedule feedings two to three times daily on a consistant schedule. Have food available for 30-40 minutes, then remove it. The last feeding of the day should be several hours before he is confined for the night. By controlling the feeding schedule, exercise sessions, confinement periods and trips outdoors to the potty area, your puppy will quickly develope a reliable schedule for pottying.
Left on his own, the untrained puppy is very likely to make a mistake. Close supervision is a very important part of training. Do not consider your puppy housetrained unless he has gone 4 consecutive weeks without pottying inthe house. Until then: never let your puppy out of your sight.....baby gates can be helpful to control movement though the house and to aide in supervision.....keep them in a crate when unsupervised. When you're away from home, sleeping or just to busy to closely monitor your pet's activities, confine him to a small, safe area of your home.
Urine and fecal odors should be thoroughly removed to keep your dog from returning to areas of the home where he has made a mess. Be sure to use a good comercial product made specifically to clean up doggy odors.....if carpeted area has been soaked with urine, be sure to saturate it with the cleaning product and not merely spray the surface.....rooms in the house where your dog has had frequent mistakes should be close off for a few months. He should only be allowed to enter when accompanied by a family member.
It is rare that a puppy can be housetrained without making the occasional mess, so you need to be ready to handle the inevatable problems. Do not rely on harsh punsihments to correct mistakes. This approach usually does not work, and may actually delay training. An appropriate correction consist of simply providing a moderate, startling distraction. You should only do this when you see your dog in the act of pottying in the wrong place. A sharp noise, such as a loud "NO" or a quick stomp on the floor, is all tha is usually needed to stop the behavior. Don't be too loud or your pet may learn to avoid goin in front of you, even outdoors.
Don't continue to correct or scold your dog after he has stopped soiling. When he stops, quickly take him outdoors so he will finish in the appropriate area and be praised.
Never rub your dogs nose in a mess. There is absolutely no way this will help training, and may actually make him afraid of you.
The basic principles of housetraining are pretty simple, but a fair amount of patience is required. The most challenging part is always keeping an eye on your active dog or puppy. If you maintain control, take your dog outdoors frequently and consistently praise the desired behavior, soon you should have a house-trained canine companion.