When she comes out of her crate...take her immediately outside all the while asking or saying...let's make a pee pee? let's go doo doo..!!Wanna go outside??...GO OUTSIDE with her...watch her do her business and give lots of praise...then bring her back in...

1.Take treats outside when you let the Pup out. Reward with Treat and Praise.
2. Never clean up "mistake" while Puppy is watching. Ignore it. When they are out of sight then clean.
3. Rocks or Pennies in a empty soda can. Shake it loudly when you catch them in the act. Don't let them see the can. That will get their attention.
4. I kept a washable rug with rubber backing at the "out" door in the event I missed a cue. Wash it to get the oders out so there will not be a smell signal.

Then Pray! I think your Puppy is a little young, but never to soon to start.

Gayle

PS. I have bells on the "out" door that they paw to ring for outside duties. I jingle the bells when I want them to come in.

You want to establish your dominance by not cleaning up after them in their presence. They will consider you a Servant.

Gayle

I bought a container of Pupcorn to train ours. I took her outside every hour to an hour and a half. I held 2 snackies in my hand where she didn't see them. I'd keep telling her "go potty" and when she did, I did a happy dance and yelled "woohoo!!! good girl! good girl!" and gave her her snackies. when you praise her, if you don't look like a raving idiot to your neighbors who see you outside, then you're not praising her enough. the more excited you get the happier she sees that you are and it encourages her.
I got our dog Darla, in June of last year (she was 3 months old) and had a hard time getting her trained, until I started doing what I stated above. She's pretty good now. She hardly ever pees in the house, although she does poop once in a while. Just be consistent, and remember to act TOTALLY EXCITED!!!!! when she does wht she's supposed to outside.

Good luck!
Tammy

Please don't spank or strike your pet - it will only confuse, and train her/him to fear you.

You've received excellent advice so far. I personally would never use puppy pads. I have a friend who started using the pads indoors with her 2 Maltese puppies. The puppies are now about 7 years old and still insist on using the pads and peeing inside!

I pretty much trained our Doxie myself. She is now 7 years old and has had ONE accident in the house when she was sick!
Take the pup outside every hour and half to two hours, after every meal, first thing upon waking in the morning and last thing at night. I mean FIRST and LAST things there too before you even go to pee take it out. Carry the treats like Mickey said. I told our lil gal go potty, go potty, go potty til she did and praised her to high heaven and gave her a treat. In fact in the very beginning I took her out every few hours during the night too! Carry the pup to the door and outside in morning and evening so that it can't stop and piddle on the way out. No crates for us either. I know people use them but I don't believe in them myself.
At 3 months old its going to take a few months and will not be accomplished in a few days or even a week. Their little bladders are not made to hold it long at all. I do believe in the use of baby gates, but I didn't use them as my doorways were too wide without spending lots of money to special order one.

I have never struck the dog either. Scold yes, but not over do it. Hitting them is confusing and sorry to say IMO does more damage then good.

I fully agree with nodakgal: First thing upon waking, last thing at night, after every meal, after naps (while they're still a puppy), and especially after any rambunctious play. We however used a crate with all our dogs. Once they are over that potty training stage, we remove the doors to the crates and they have all used it as a comfort den. We've owned 4 dogs in the past 20 years and they have all had the same routine. I can't think of single instance of them breaking their training. Sometimes we've left them home for 12 hours (when something has come up) and they have still managed to hold on.

The only thing I disagree with is the words ....
.... we use "HURRY UP". That way we (make that husband) are never embarrassed when we're traveling and and out in public.

Hello,

I understand how frustrating it can be to potty train a new puppy. But remember that your little one is like a two-year old child. If they even know themselves that they need to go potty, they don't know it for long before they have to go !

Here are my words of advice, FWIW ...

1. Feed and walk the puppy on a schedule. Do not let the pup outside and just expect her to potty herself. Go out with her ON A LEASH, stand still, no playing or entertainment, until she pees/poops. Then throw a big party, lots of praise and treats. And THEN she can go play for a bit. This way you make sure that she empties herself before going back into the house. A baby her age will probably need to pee at least once every three hours, so I would set a timer for every two hours just to make sure. And always (just like potty training a child), take her out after waking up and after eating.

2. Clean up any accidents with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle or Petastic. Urine smells are persistent, and signal the puppy to PEE HERE ! Enzymatic cleaners are specially formulated to break down the smelly components in urine.

3. Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER spank your puppy. (An aside - NEVER call your puppy over to you, then spank her. Excellent way to teach your puppy that "she calls me, then she spanks me". Trust me, you want your puppy to learn that coming when called only means terrific things. One day, you might just need that emergency recall !). That teaches her to be scared of you when there is pee/poop around. This very quickly teaches dogs that they should sneak away and pee/poop somewhere away from you. And yes, I know that they "look guilty" when you discover their accident. But dogs, even very young puppies, are amazingly good at reading our body language and facial expressions. Let me tell you a little story about this ... I raised my Lab from puppyhood, and have never spanked him, and very rarely even raised my voice at him. One day I came home to find that someone had parked their car across my driveway, and I couldn't get into my garage (I live in a big city where street parking is scarce). I was furious. When I got into my house, I couldn't figure out why my dog was slinking around, looking incredibly guilty and worried. I thought "why is he acting like that ? has he done something that he thinks is naughty ?". I checked the house, everything was in order, and then I started to laugh. He totally read my grumpiness at the parking situation, and was acting anxious and appeasing. That's what dogs do. No different when you get mad about pee/poop in the house. (To finish the story, I burst out laughing at myself when I realised why he was looking all "guilty", and he almost heaved a huge sigh of relief ! and bounced around giving me his typical Labby greeting :-))

4. I would strongly recommend (if you haven't done this already) enrolling in a puppy kindergarten class. If nothing else, you get other new puppy owners to share your stories with and will commiserate with you, and hopefully an experienced trainer who can help you with potty training and other training questions.

Good luck with your pup. I thought my Lab pup was quite quick to pick up on potty training, and I would say that he was 90% reliable by 4.5 months and 100% reliable by 6 months. Remember that you have a young critter that you hopefully will have for the next 15+ years ... try not to get angry with her, she is trying to learn your rules.

Usually we had really easy times training our pups, but our last one was difficult until I learned she never fully emptied her bladder, she was a double-piddler, about 10 minutes apart. Once we figured that out, it got better.

Go outside before and after everything, before a meal, after a meal, before playing, after playing, before a nap, after a nap, etc. You'll get to know your yard really well! lol And pay attention and reward or praise good behaviour. Once the pups learns English, it's a lot easier, too. Shanzie nearly killed me, pups when you are older is just plain harder!

I kept Murf on a very strict schedule, 1st thing in morning take him out on a leash and tell him potty. Stay in one area so that there are not new smells, and he will go in the same spot usually. Then he was fed and we went out about 1/2 hour after that and he would poo. He gets fed twice a day so it was the same routine am &pm. We always gave him treats and praised him. He also knows that a thumbs up sign is a good thing and is a silent form of praise. He is about 3 1/2 now and follows the same routine. Like Gayle, we have bells on the front door. When Murf was young, everytime we said "go outside" we would ring the bells. He knew that bells meant go outside. Then we taught him to ring the bells. So he tells us to go outside by ringing the bells. Much better than pawing at the door and scratching it.And I can hear the bells from anywhere in the house.

Just wanted to update....WOW, such knowledge here, why should I be surprised?

We have made such progress since my initial post...we can do the "peepee" and "poopoo" dance very well! she'll dance and dance, especially to praise, an audience of clapping grown men...they look so silly, but it works and she loves it!

We also did the bell thing. We put a bell on a string and hung it from the door knob we rang it everytime we went outside with the puppy. Then everytime they wanted to go outside whether it was for potty or for fun they would ring the bell.