How to potty train a puppy.

Let's tackle the big one: Potty training a puppy.

I feel like this is one of the most difficult things with training a puppy. It's difficult to take a puppy somewhere if your worried if he will go in someone's house. So what can you do?  Accidents are gross, messy, and avoidable. Some things to keep in mind.

The plastic thing in the background is a baby gate.

• Have a good cleaner. I like to use Nature's Miracle, puppies really cue off of smell and having an enzymatic cleaner helps stops that.  Having a good cleaner really helps stop repeat accidents it also helps your house not suffer to badly or leave lingering reminders of puppy mistakes.
• Take your puppy out often, if you are struggling I would suggest taking him our every hour. Now I was lucky and Simon slept through the night from day one, but some puppies have a hard time holding it for eight hours, so they might need a middle of the night break. 
• Confinement. We keep Simon either in his crate, in an enclosed area like an x-pen, or in one room with the careful use of baby gates.
• Go outside with him and reward heavily when he does go outside. Find what works with your dog. Simon figured out that going the bathroom outside got him a treat and is always super excited to go outside and go potty. He clearly does not yet get the don't go the bathroom in the house, but he loves to go the bathroom outside.

Simon say's "Mom I went potty where is my treat."

Another tip I would suggest is if you can't keep him contained having him on long leash. Simon is doing pretty well, but we don't trust him on his own so we are still keep a really close eye on him. He has really been progressing and I am so proud of him, but I also know he is just three months old and we have to keep it up because it could be a number of months before he is 100%.

Long leash on in the house.

Things to avoid:

• Rubbing their nose in it. This doesn't help, and all it does it freak your puppy out.
• Yelling at them after the fact. Dogs don't put together things they did in the past. So all you do is make them nervous around you.
• Screaming at them if they go the bathroom in front of you. You can accidentally teach a puppy to be scared to go the bathroom in front of you and can make the puppy more difficult to potty train.