START AT THE IDEAL AGE
The best time to begin housebreaking a puppy is when it is 7½ to 8½ weeks old, when location and surface preferences are forming in young puppies. At this age, an owner can teach a puppy where to eliminate and what surface to use before the puppy establishes its own preferences. With supervision, restricted access, and frequent appropriate opportunities to eliminate, most puppies can be successfully housebroken.

TAKE THE PUPPY OUTSIDE TO ELIMINATE
The first step in housebreaking a puppy is to take it outside frequently to eliminate, preferably on a leash. You should take the puppy outside immediately after it awakes, after play sessions and 15 to 30 minutes after meals for a total of six to eight times a day. Once outside, the puppy should be allowed to sniff and investigate potential elimination locations. You should choose the location carefully. To minimize the possibility of the puppy contracting parasitic or infectious diseases, you should avoid areas where many other dogs eliminate. A consistent location for elimination should be used so those previous odors can help stimulate the puppy to urinate or defecate. Many puppies may need 15 to 20 minutes of sniffing and movement before elimination occurs. Movement is important to stimulate elimination, but playing should be discouraged until the puppy has eliminated.

While the puppy is defecating, you should repeat a key phrase (e.g., "go potty" or "take care of business"). The puppy will learn to associate this phrase with an appropriate time and location for elimination. To avoid confusing the puppy, choose a simple phrase not commonly used in conversation. Teaching the pet to eliminate on cue can prove to be beneficial in inclement weather, when fecal or urine samples are needed, or when traveling.

As puppies show signs of progress they can be taught to signal to go outside. For example, a dog can be taught to nudge a bell hung on a doorknob ("doggy doorbell") with its nose or paw when it needs to go outside. To do this, you should encourage the dog to touch the doorbell and should reward the pet for this accomplishment by opening the door. Repeated encouragement and reward should teach the pet to use the doorbell when it wishes to go outside. Another way to teach a puppy to signal its need to go outside is to question the pet with a key phrase (e.g., "Need to go out"); the pet's reaction will indicate whether it needs to eliminate. And some pets can be taught to bark to signal the need to go outdoors to eliminate.

REWARD THE PUPPY
You should reward a puppy while it is eliminating or immediately afterwards (within 15 seconds and before it moves away and engages in another behavior), not once the puppy has returned to the house. Rewards for proper and timely elimination can be food treats, praise, or playtime. By offering these, you teach the puppy to associate a reward with eliminating outside on the appropriate surface and in the desired location. For this reason, you must accompany the puppy outside to monitor elimination behavior. Housebreaking problems can result when an owner is unsure whether a pet actually eliminated outside.

SUPERVISE THE PUPPY INDOORS
When a puppy is inside, it should be supervised as much as possible. Using a leash or placing a bell on the puppy's collar can help owners keep track of the puppy's whereabouts. When the puppy cannot be supervised, it should be left in a small puppy-proof area such as a crate or large box. A crate large enough to accommodate the puppy as an adult may need to be partitioned to avoid having the puppy soil in one end and sleep in the other. You should realize that bladder and bowel capacities are limited in young dogs, so requiring puppies to be confined for long periods without access to appropriate elimination will result in soiling.  If you need to be away from home all day, you may have a more difficult time housebreaking a puppy. It is unrealistic to expect a puppy to last 8 to 10 hours without needing to eliminate, even if it can do so overnight. An 8-10 week old puppy can usually go about two to four hours without needing to eliminate. When left alone for longer periods, a puppy may be forced to eliminate in its confinement area or elsewhere in the house. The puppy will learn indoor location and surface preferences. When leaving a puppy for prolonged periods, you must provide an acceptable surface and elimination location. This can be paper or a commercially available housebreaking pad left inside a crate or confinement area. But the puppy must have enough space to sleep away from its waste. When at home, and you're using the paper-training technique, you should frequently take the puppy outdoors to eliminate and should discourage indoor elimination by removing the paper or pad and closely supervising the puppy. As the puppy gains increased bladder and bowel control, the surface can gradually be eliminated. Most 7-9 month-old puppies can go 8 to 10 hours without soiling. But if you can arrange for someone to let the puppy out after about four hours or partitioning a large crate to encourage the puppy to wait may be preferable.

PROPERLY FEED AND WATER THE PUPPY
Feeding and watering routines affect housebreaking. Regular feeding times help control fecal elimination by taking advantage of the gastrocolic reflex. A full stomach encourages colonic contractions within 10 to 30 minutes and increases the likelihood that a puppy will need to eliminate when taken outside. Discourage free-choice feeding because it does not allow you to take advantage of this reflex. But water should be given free choice. Water restriction to decrease urination is not a good idea, especially in warm climates. Normal water in dogs is 60 to 100 ml/kg of body weight per day. This amount can vary with exercise and weather conditions.

DISCIPLINE PUPPIES FOR HOUSE SOILING
For punishment to be effective it must be given consistently and immediately when the misbehavior occurs. But many owners don't see their puppies eliminate in an inappropriate location; instead they discover the waste later. They then drag the puppy over to the waste, shove its nose in it, and scold it. This does not teach the puppy to eliminate appropriately. And worse, it may create a fear of the owner, a fear of the owner's finding elimination, and avoidance of eliminating in front of the owner, or a fear of that location. Such inappropriate punishment can even lead to defensive aggression.So what should owners do when their puppies housesoil? Using an aversive noise such as a foot stomp, a shaker can (an aluminum can with pennies inside), or even a loud vocal command can startle the puppy and abort the behavior. The puppy should then be hustled outside to eliminate in the appropriate location and on the correct surface. The reprimand needs to be given at the onset of behaviors leading up to elimination such as sniffing and circling, and that is why supervision is crucial. Puppies may only briefly exhibit these behaviors, and some puppies just stop moving before elimination - they do not sniff and circle at all. Supervision allows you to set up the puppy to succeed by eliminating in the proper location and on the proper surface.

CLEAN SOILED AREAS
Proper cleaning of soiled areas is important when housebreaking puppies. Many products with enzymatic or bacterial action remove stains and prevent odors that may stimulate the puppy to return to the area and soil again.

TEACH DOGS ADVANCED HOUSEBREAKING TECHNIQUES
Once the elimination behaviors have been solidified (i.e., when puppies reliably eliminate in the proper location and do not housesoil, which occurs around 4 to 6 months of age), you should introduce your puppy to new elimination locations and surfaces. For example, dogs that usually eliminate in the yard should be taught to eliminate on a leash, and dogs that are usually leash-walked should have the opportunity to eliminate unleashed in enclosed areas. If the pet's housing conditions change, this versatility helps minimize house-soiling problems. Using a key phrase will help the dog know what behavior is being requested.

EXPECTED PROGRESS AND POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
Owners are often frustrated when housebreaking takes longer than expected. With constant supervision and frequent access (every several hours at first and then regular walks at 3 to 5 hour intervals) to the appropriate location, most puppies can be housebroken by 14 to 20 weeks of age. But a pet may take longer to housebreak for several reasons-

Owners who must be gone for long periods may find that housebreaking take longer. When housebreaking seems delayed, the supervision and outdoor access steps, as part of the housebreaking process may need extra attention. For example, not all puppies learn to signal to go outside. Some may go to the door and, if no one let them out, they eliminate in that location. In addition, the owner should address any potential medical problem that could cause house soiling. If house soiling occurs only when the owner is away, separation anxiety may be part of the problem. Dogs with separation anxiety usually show other signs of distress as the owner prepares to depart, including panting, drooling, or excessive excitement, and may vocalize or be destructive when the owner is gone. To determine whether separation anxiety is the reason a dog eliminates in the home, contact your veterinarian for a full health assessment.

CONCLUSION
By understanding the factors that influence elimination behavior in puppies, you can help avoid soiling problems later in your pet's life. House soiling problems account for 15% to 24% of behavior problems in adult dogs. Taking the time to learn and use proper housebreaking techniques will make the process easier for new puppy owners.