Secrets of Successful Housebreaking, cont.

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Similarly, allowing mistakes to occur "once in a while," whether punished or not, confuses pups about the rules, and makes them afraid of their owners. Even as adults, dogs reared under these circumstances often fail to discriminate between indoors and outdoors.

If you should catch your puppy in the act of creating an "accident," shout or clap to try to get him to stop. Confine him for a few minutes out of sight while you clean up the accident, then take him out when both of you have calmed down.

How to keep puppy from having the accident in the first place? A puppy who is being housebroken should always be in one of three places:

A confined area small enough that the puppy will not want to soil the area...
Directly supervised by a watchful owner, or even tied to the owner so as to not have the chance to wander off and make a mistake, or...
Outdoors being walked by the owner, who is armed with treats to reward pottying outside.

Puppies need to "go" within one minute of:

waking up
a play session, or
eating or drinking.

A note about this last item: restricting food and water to prescribed times will help a lot. Indoor puppies do not need constant access to water.

Preventing all accidents for just two weeks can teach your puppy to use the outdoors quite reliably. Of course, all puppies need a combination of confinement, supervision and frequent walks until adolescence. So practice the method described above, and you'll be well on your way towards raising a happy, well-adjusted pooch!