Well I don' recall the time frame I know that my youngest is 15 months old and he cannot be trusted in the house and it is not due to potty, it's due to the fact that he like to chew on shoes and kids toys.So he is still in a kennel when I leave the house, my female and older male are the onnly ones allowed to roam free in the house if no ones home.

I'm with Angelique on that. There is no telling what bizarre rearrangements would be made to the house/furniture/clothes if I left my monster home alone.

(edited to correct the spelling of Angelique name - sorry, senior moment)

yeah I would never let my dogs roam when i am not there even when they are completely trained.

It takes 2 weeks, if done properly, for an 8 week old to understand what they should do. It takes correct handling for the dog to not do what they shouldn't do. Accidents are always the owners fault, never the dogs.

I bought crate liners from EnZKennelFlooring.com so when the dog pees in the crate at least they don't lie in their pee. I also put those house breaking pads they sell at PetSmart underneath the plastic liner so cleaning the crate was easier.

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

Accidents are always the owners fault, never the dogs......

ALWAYS.

This should be engraved in stone.

My pup is 16 weeks old and he is limited-house trained and has been since 13 weeks.

Limitations:

If he is in his crate, then he will let me know that he has to go. He used to bark, now he just whines. Perhaps he was whining before but I just didn't tune in until he barked. From the beginning @ 7 weeks he would not willingly poop in his crate. Urination is another long and involved story.

If he is at home with me in the kitchen loose or on-leash, he will stand by the door and has just started occassionally nosing at the bells on the door knob. That didn't start until @ 14 Weeks!

The only other place that he has been for any length of time is with me at my mom's house, again on leash or in the crate.

He does not have run of the house and it will be a long time before he does. Probably not at all for the first 2 years and well out of puppyhood. I have too many rooms (20) and too much clutter in each one, to trust him not to sneak into a presumed unused corner or chew up one of my antique pieces of furniture.

I am amazed at the number of people that allow their younger dogs complete run of the house. I guess I am just less trusting, as I know I have a chewer and his chewing options in the kitchen with me are limited and have been treated with bitter apple and also he is under watch.

If he isn't being watched he is crated. I didn't crate one day, as he was on leash to the wall in the kitchen, and he managed to knock the fruitbowl off the table, and swallow a jingle bell that was in the fruitball. And that was in the brief span of about 3 minutes to and from the laundry room in the next room.

YIKES!

That worm thing is just scary!

UGH!

Thanks for sharing, though!

Makes me twice as grateful that my pup took his diahreah outside!

People give their pups complete run of the house because puppies are really darn cute n they don't wanna lock that poor lil ****head in their crate all day.. even though an 8 week old puppy SHOULD sleep MOST of the day. Crate -> Potty -> Short playtime/tug/run around/ball etc -> Crate -> Sleep -> Repeat. That should be a puppies life, all day long, every day, till you are sick of puppies. Then in a year you will miss the puppyness n forget all about a place I like to call "Puppy Hell" n buy another puppy before too long.

the pup in the picture arrived when he was 12 weeks old. he was already completely housebroken. one accident the first night, probably the stress of being in a new place, then a perfect record ever since.

pups i've had to housebreak myself, it usually takes 2-3 days. one pup was five weeks old and it probably took a week until he was completely reliable.

i stay home with them for at least the first month, and they are taken outside to "go" every hour or so until they are reliable. i get up in the middle of the night to take them out. if i have to leave them alone in the house, they are put in a cardboard box with very high sides that is just wide enough to turn around in, and for no more than an hour or two.

for me, the key has to been to simply make sure the puppy never has the experience of going in the house. they quickly become conditioned to think of outside as the only place they ever "go" and it never occurs to them to "go" inside.

it's a lot of work for a few days, but i get a reliable dog much more quickly, so it is worth it.

but even after the dog is completely trustworthy, they never get complete run of the house. they always have an area that is "their" space. and i there are rooms i don't want them in, i never ever let them in there. pretty soon they can't imagine it is possible to go in and don't ask.