Before your puppy comes home, decide where you want your puppy to potty.  

Plan this into your house training work in the first few months.  

Plan for 2 locations:

1. Outdoor Toilet
2. Indoor Toilet

Think about your yard, is this where you want your puppy to void?   If so, what obstacles are present?   For example, what door do you want your puppy to exit?  Is there a long walk to the preferred area, such as walking through a garage, over a big deck, down stairs, from what door?  

Each of these things (WHERE I want my puppy to potty, and HOW the puppy will get to that location) represents a new habit for your puppy, and a new habit for you (because you need to take the puppy to this location).  

Now, you have thought about

1. Where I want my puppy to void.

2. How my puppy will actually get to that location.  

Write down an “exit plan” keeping those things in mind and POST this for all family members.  1 exit plan for each room of your home the puppy will have access too.  

Examples from my house:

Exit from kitchen to back door (Across dining room to door)
Exit from dining room to back door (Directly out door)
Exit from living room to back door (Through Dining to door)
Exit from hallway to back door (Across living room, dining room, out back door)
Exit from office to back door (Through hall, across living and dining room, out back door)
Exit from bedroom to back door (through bedroom, through hall, across living and dining room, out back door)

(Now, for a 9 week old puppy, which routes might result in an accident unless puppy is carried?) 

We know that in order for a new habit to form, it needs to be repeated in the exact same way multiple times.  Having uniform exit routes will dramatically speed learning! 

So, your puppy will learn where to potty (outside) much faster if it goes to the same location every time, via the same route.

Pro Tip: Mark off your outdoor potty zone with marker flags so everyone knows where to take puppy.  

If using an indoor litter box long term set it up near the potty door if possible.  

Further, and this is really important, your puppy will have NO idea how to get to the potty area from various points in your home unless you teach the puppy the route.  AND FURTHER, this route needs to be the same every time until your puppy is old enough to “hold it” at the back door. 

Sure... the route is obvious to you!   But if you have ever tried to find a restroom in a new city, you understand, to a newcomer the location of a toilet is NOT obvious.  

Your puppy literally doesn’t know it needs to potty until seconds before it’s actually going to HAVE to potty.   It does not have time to run frantically around to find the door, and then hope someone notices!  This is why puppies run frantically around before an accident.  They have no idea where they are supposed to go.

Make an exit plan that shows exactly what route you want to teach your puppy use to access the toilet.  

This route might be very simple during the first week (Kitchen to back door, down the steps to grass).

And longer the second week (Living room, to kitchen, to back door, down steps, to grass).

And week 3 (Office, through living room, through kitchen, to back door, down steps to grass).

And week 4 (Exit crate, through bedroom, through living room, through kitchen, to back door, down steps to grass).  

See how we teach the last steps first?   Find back door, down steps, to grass.  THAT learning will be the strongest learning, and the beginning of a desirable habit (when I need to potty, I need to find the back door).  

Then we add more and more complicated routes from further and further away from the back door.    As our puppy matures it’s bladder and bowel control improves, it will have longer between the time it’s brain tells it that voiding is imminent and when voiding actually occurs.  

So our older puppy can be further from the back door a week later, than it could be the first week.  There is a vast difference between the physical maturity of a 6 week old puppy and a 12 week old puppy.  The older your puppy is when they arrive in your home the easier your work will be, for no reason other than more physical maturity.