..that I am doing this right. I have read all your posts BUT I still would like to know if my arrangment for my pup is ok.
He is a teenie tiny 11 week old poodle.(6inches and 1 1/2 lb) He is so small that I cannot find a treat/reward he likes and his digestion is still quite immature. (Although I have not changed his diet - he can sometimes poop 5 -6 times after his dinner - poor control as well.)

So - as often as I can I take him out by day and he seems to know what is required within 2-3 minutes.
I watch him like a hawk if he is not in his "room". His room has a baby gate and papers on the floor (he would go on any part of the floor regardless of where the papers are)
I can't take him out at night and often cannot be there during the day as I am having cancer treament (planning to complete by Christmas)
I do not have anyone who will come over during the day nor can I make a dog door for him as it is not my own house (home is overseas!)
So ......so long as I take him out and try to reinforce some training when I am home - is it OK to let him use the papers in his room? Will it ruin him for being clean as he gets older? He certainly cant go all night - I think he can wait until about 7am but if I am unwell I cannot get up that early - though will try if I can.
All in all - things will improve by Christmas - but when can I expect some measure of consistency wherby my pup will wait until I take him out and how do I train him to ask me rather than go on his papers?
Any other suggestions to help - I praise (hard to praise something so tiny as you have to be so gentle with your pats and I have not found a food treat he likes!) or shall I just chill out a little for another few weeks?? Or....one suggestion has been to find him a foster home for about 6 weeks (paid of course!) until I can give my puppy some more of my time??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Well, in my experience and from all I've read, using papers can actually DELAY housebreaking.

It confuses the pup as they think it's okay to go inside, even with the papers gone later on.

An 11 week old puppy needs to be taken out, regardless of when they've eaten or had water, every couple hours.

When you can't be around to supervise, the dog should be crated, to eliminate accidents in the house; the dog won't eliminate where it sleeps unless it can't hold it any longer.

At 11 weeks old, your puppy won't physically be able to 'hold it' for more than 2-3 hours at a time, so if you can't be there to let her out, you need to have a neighbor or friend or something come over to do so.
Otherwise, she will mess in her crate; accidents happen, but if she repeatedly has to lie in her own waste not only is that cruel, but she will actually get used to it and it will defeat the purpose of crate training.

When our dog was that age, we coverted him over to a raw foods diet; he's almost 6 months old now.
Since he's been on that diet, he rarely has to poop more than twice per day.

If you're free feeding, stop.
Until you know your pup's bathroom schedule, feed on a schedule.
That way you can estimate when the dog will need to go out to go potty.
Watch the dog after it drinks water too; for starters, just take her out 15 minutes after she has anything to drink, regardles of whether you think she has to go or not.

Another option, since you have a toy breed, is to litter train him like you would a cat.
That would be preferrable, at least to me, over paper training, then having to RE-housebreak once you are able to be home more often.

Thanks for the prompt reply - I decided against the crate training as there simply will be plenty of times when puppy has to be left on his own for up to 8 hours in the day. Litter training sounds like a good option as soon as I get back from hospital next week. Assuming a back yard without suitable resources is there a recommended litter to use in the tray?
I am also interested in raw food diet you mention - would the change not upset his tummy? How do I get a suitable "recipe" for a growing pup? Would it need a complicated recipe with calcium etc? (bearing in mind he only eats about a teaspoon at every meal? I am worried that by digressing from the pre-prepared puppy food he came with - I might unintentionally malnourish him.

Oh, I figured I could add:

I do have three recipes online that we use as PART of our dog's diet.
However, by no means are they meant to be the base diet, they are just a part of it.

If you'd like I could either post them here or email them to you.

THANKS!! You have been great - yes I'd love all or any recipes - I also just found some info on the site - so will try to convert the quantities to teenie sizes.
Will start on the new regime as soon as I return from hospital next week so that by the time I go back in another three weeks he should be wellon his way to being "sorted" (Hubby will be in charge the next few days so I wont chnage anything just now)

Will also try the crate "time out" as we will likely have better quality time together when appropriate! (He will not get "in my hair" - it just all fell out from the chemo - haha!"

I feel better now - just hope it wont be too long before I do not have to think about it all every second waking moment - its been "doing my head in!!" hehe!! And I knwo these critters are well worth it in the end! Byeee!!

If nothing else, you may want to use the crate for sleeping, eating (our dog always eats in his crate..mainly because the cats try to steal his food otherwise!), and for short periods alone (like if you need to run to the store, or know you'll only be gone for 1-2 hours).

ANYWAY, the three recipes; I'll only post them as two, as the meat mash can be made with chicken, beef, turkey, or lamb..or really any meat aside from fish.

The second is a gravy of sorts that you might find helpful when converting; you can put it on his normal food just like..well..gravy.

We have a small dog 7.5 pounds), so adjust for the size of your doggie. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

1lb ground turkey/beef/meat of choice
2 raw eggs
3 tbsp salmon oil
1-2 tbsp flaxseed oil (omit if your dog is allergic)
1-3 tbsp garlic (or 2 cloves crushed)
10-15 baby carrots, or one large carrot
Handful of spinach
10-15 broccoli florets
If you have it, 4 tbsp of BARF Plus Supplement (optional)

Mix all but the veggies together in a bowl

Toss veggies into a food processor, blender, or very very finely chop.

Empty chopped/minced veggies into the bowl that has the meat/egg/oil mixture.

Stir/mash like crazy until it's all blended. I prefer using a large spoon...Tim just uses his (clean) hands.

We store the finished product in ice cube trays & seal them in freezer bags. 1-2 cubes is a serving for our dog. For a larger dog, you might want to store in small tupperware or reuse yogurt containers.

This is really meant to be served raw and near room temperature, not cooked, but if you're not comfortable feeding raw, it can be cooked (without using the oils) before serving.

We use this as one of Woofles' main meals every other day.
His other meals are a variety of veggies, offals(organ meats), meat on bone, bone minces, raw vegetables with the gravy below, etc..

I'll be honest with this one, it smells REALLY good! It's gotta be the garlic, but I'm always so tempted to just cook some up into a patty for myself. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

NOTE: If you decide to warm or cook this for whatever reason, DO NOT add the oils. Cooking or warming the oils takes away most, if not all, of their health benefits. Pour oils on after cooking when the food has cooled.
I'd recommend you NOT cook this though...unless you plan to eat it. For the dog, it's meant to be fed raw. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

GRAVY:

What you need:

Liver - can be either beef, chicken, or turkey.
Beef Kidneys - Can be hard to find. Don't worry too much if you can't get any.
Chicken hearts - I pick out the gizzards if mixed, gizzards don't blend, even into chunky gravy, very well...but you can try!
Fresh tripe
A little garlic - optional, but think about 1 clove. Most dogs LOVE the smell and taste, so it just entices them further.
1-2 tbsp of salmon oil
1-2 tbsp of either flaxseed or cod liver oil..you could use both I suppose, but I never have. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cut up the liver (if it's in large pieces, as beef liver tends to be. Chicken liver can be left whole) & kidneys and put them into the blender.
Dice the chicken hearts, gizzards. Put those into the blender.
Cut the tripe into bite sized pieces, this will vary depending on your dog. Toss that in the blender too.
Put in the garlic and oils.

Whatever you do, DON'T forget to cover the blender tightly like I did...

Turn the blender on the highest setting (usually Puree) for at least 45 seconds.

What comes out looks vaguely like tomato soup made with a lot of milk.

I store it in tupperware containers in the fridge; if I make too much, I store about 3 days worth in the fridge, and freeze the rest in "3 days worth" size containers.

This is the gravy we used mainly with our cats when converting the little furballs over to their raw diet...though our oldest one still won't eat much raw, some is better than none. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Our dog likes it as a gravy over or mixed in with his veggie mashes, so this may prove helpful to people who have dogs that just refuse to eat their veggies.

Strangely enough, none of the animals like it on its own. Too liquidy I guess, but they all love it over food.

I actually made this by accident, I wasn't aware that livers turned into liquid when blended. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Like my other recipe, this is meant to be fed raw.

If you leave out the oils, it can be fed cooked..it puffs up into a weird 'meatball' looking concoction when microwaved or heated...hey, I was curious. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Again though, it's recommended that you not cook ANY of these foods; cooking destroys enzymes, good fats, and a lot of the nutritional value of the foods.

Heh, looks like this turned away from a housebreaking discussion...maybe it should be moved to the raw feeding forum! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />