Limit your puppy’s space within your home while your puppy is housetraining. For the first few months you will need to keep a careful eye on your puppy so that you can take her outside as soon as she has to go to the bathroom. If you give her too much freedom around the house at first, she’ll learn to go to the bathroom wherever she wants, and you won’t always be able to catch it in time.[4]
- Use baby gates to limit your puppy’s area within your home. For example, you could put a gate up at the bottom of the stairs to prevent your puppy from roaming around the upper level of your home or put gates up to limit your puppy’s movement between a couple of rooms in your home. Allow your puppy more freedom as she becomes better at controlling her bladder and bowels.[5]
- Try putting your puppy on a leash when she is exploring a new room. It will be much more difficult for your puppy to get into trouble when you are attached to the other end of the leash.