Potty training a puppy can be a nightmare. You might find shredded newspapers everywhere. Your puppy might track urine and other unpleasant messes throughout the house. By the time it is said and done, you might be wondering why you got a puppy in the first place.

Like babies, puppies need to be taught what is right and what is wrong. Your number one "ingredient" for properly training your puppy is to have a lot of patience. It might be a matter of days or a matter of months before you have your puppy house trained so that it goes to the bathroom outside.

A useful trick is to create a special sleeping space for your puppy to use at night and for its naps. This is usually an enclosed space, like a crate. It is unlikely that your puppy will go to the bathroom in its special enclosure. You need to be sure to put the puppy in this enclosed bed area every night and for naps so that it will recognize and "own" this special sleeping enclosure.

You will want to be consistent about taking your puppy outside for bathroom breaks, in a designated area of your yard. Take the puppy out on a fairly long leash so it can walk around, sniff things over and check things out. When the puppy finally goes to the bathroom, give it a treat. You will also want to congratulate the puppy in what I call "happy dog voice" ... you know, that stupid voice that you use only for your cute little dog. A young and active puppy will need bathroom breaks every hour or two. As it grows older, it will not need to do its duty quite as often, so you will be able to wean the outside trips from your schedule.

Be wary of sneaky indoor bathroom breaks. Keep an eye on your puppy when it is not napping or sleeping. If your puppy starts running around sniffing the floor or running in circles, this might be a sign that it has to go to the bathroom. Take it outside to its designated potty spot.

On the outside bathroom breaks, be sure to use words like "go potty" or something similar that your puppy will begin to recognize. Over time, when you say something like "It's time to go potty," the puppy/dog will understand that it's time to go outside for bathroom break.

Bathroom time is a serious time. Do not talk with your puppy, feed it, or play with it until it eliminates. Then, reward it with encouraging talk and a treat. Be careful about giving the puppy too many treats! To make the treats more effective, do not leave food around the house for your puppy to gobble up. You should, however, have plenty of fresh water around at all times.

When figuring out your schedule for potty training, plan on the puppy having to go to the bathroom about 20 minutes after it eats. And, of course, as mentioned earlier, your puppy will need to have a bathroom break about every one to two hours until it grows older.

No matter how well you train your puppy, and even when it grows into a dog, you still might have some ugly messes, especially if you do not let the dog out on time because you are running late from work or have overslept on an overcast, rainy day. Your dog can only handle a full bladder for so long! There is an innovative way to prevent indoor accidents. Visit the Blurbosphere's indoor dog bathroom accessory page for a review ... and discover other entertaining and useful pet blurbs at http://www.blurbosphere.com/critters