Take your puppy outside on a regular basis – every half an hour to every hour, when he has had something to eat or drink or woken up from a sleep. Take him to the where you want him to dirty and as he wees etc tell him ‘busy boy or be clean’, remembering to praise as well. As soon as he has finished give him a tasty treat for where he is and what he has done.

When he has had an accident in the wrong place clean it up with either:
1 part distilled vinegar and 4 parts water or
1 pt Biological washing powder and 10 pt water.

Do not use bleach or bleach based cleaning liquid, as there is ammonia in urine, faeces and bleach and you will be replacing one ammonia smell with another.

When he is next due to be fed put his food bowl on the spot where he had dirtied.

Most animals will not dirty where they eat or sleep so, eventually he would try not to soil in those places thus encouraged to hold or let you know when he needs to go to the toilet.

Do not punish him for having an accident in the house as this may cause him to hide the fact he has dirtied (wetting etc behind couch) or may cause him to dirty through fear. He might also eat what he has done to hide the fact or learn that dirtying gets him attention and even a telling off can be attention to some dogs.

I do not leave paper down in the kitchen as I feel this only encourages dogs to dirty in the house and also never use newspaper in the crate (mixed messages). Crate training a puppy can accelerate house training, as he will learn to hold on overnight. For further information about crate training please contact me.

Move his bed around his sleeping area if he is housed in a large room and do the same with his water and food bowls – this creates an idea in his mind that the room is not for toileting in

It can take some dogs/bitches up to 6 months before they are reliably house trained so do not despair if it seems to be taking a long time.

If you are out at work during the day I would suggest you leave him out in the garden (provided it is secure) with a kennel and plenty of toys to keep him occupied.