With a few good house training tools, you can get an excellent start on house training a toy breed puppy.  The tools we use are the ex pen, washable potty pads, and a cozy pet bed. 

We have the best luck in housetraining when using an ex pen inside of  the home. We prefer to use an expen over a crate, as it gives the puppy more freedom and room to play if you are away from home for extended periods.  If you are home often, you may want to consider a crate. 

I set the ex pen up small at first with  the entire bottom lined  with puppy potty pads.  Put a bed at one end of the expen, and  food and water in a corner of its own. This way the puppies  HAVE to either use the pet potty pads or their personal bed if they choose to potty. Generally puppies do not like to be dirty  and will desire to keep their bed and food area clean.  99% of the time they choose the washable and reusable potty pads!  You have set them up at this point to be successful each and every time. 

As your baby puppy gets older and wiser you can open the expen more if you choose, and  use the potty pads on less space of the floor.  Eventually you will only put down one doggie potty pad. You will be surprised that you will still have success! 

If you want to train to outdoors, keep the same set up with the expen, potty pads and bed, and just take them out of the ex pen when you VERY  first arrive home.  You will also want to make it a strong habit to take them outside after every nap and feeding  (which you want to make sure takes place in the expen).  Watch them closely during playtime so that you don't have accidents.  It is a good habit to take them out every hour at first until you learn their habits and routines.  You can start increasing that time as they age and you learn the puppies potty habits and frequencies.  

Even when you choose outdoor training, by keeping your dog in the ex pen while you are away, accidents will happen on the potty pad.  I love this method as my dogs actually learned both methods of training.  I always keep a dog potty pad on the floor of my home even though the dogs are trained to the outdoors also. Its not that I really want my dogs to use it, (I would rather they go outside,) but it is better than using the carpet while we are away from the house as so many toy breeds do!  Many outside trained dogs will use the potty pad if it is their only choice and they were started in a potty pad lined expen. 

This is the method of house training that works best for us with our toy breeds.  They will usually catch on quickly to either outdoor training or indoor potty pad use. We go with what their actions tell us is the favorite house training method for them. We let them have a choice in their training methods as toy dogs can be difficult to housetrain and you need to give them every advantage to be successful!

Caution: If you are not willing to give your dogs the choice of outside vs potty pads indoors.  This is not  the method for you!  We love this method however.  We find that in the spring and summer, our dogs prefer to void outside.  In the cold winter months, they much prefer to keep their short little legs warm and use the indoor potty pads!

Have a method that works great for you?  We would love to hear from you, and will post your success stories here.

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