Some links on this page earn us a commission if you buy after clicking. It changes neither the ranking nor what is written here — and we say below what we were unable to check.
House-training a puppy is not a question of obedience. It is a question of physical control and of timing, and the two are worked on differently.
1. A puppy does not hold on because it has understood
House-training is not first of all a mental exercise. A young puppy has a small bladder and control that builds as it grows.
That changes how accidents read. A puppy that gets it wrong has not disobeyed, it could not manage. The work is getting it outside beforehand, not correcting it afterwards.
It also means the pace depends on age and on the individual. Comparing with the neighbour's puppy teaches you nothing useful.
2. Trips outside are based on moments, not on the clock
A puppy needs to go out after sleeping, after eating, after a burst of play, and the moment it starts sniffing the floor in circles.
A fixed timetable misses those moments. The list does not, because it follows what creates the need.
When it goes outside, the reward comes immediately, on the spot, not once you are back in. Going straight back in also turns success into the end of the outing, which does not help: stay out a little longer.
3. Telling it off afterwards only teaches it to fear you
Rubbing its nose in it, scolding over the puddle, pointing at the stain: these methods still circulate. They do not connect the punishment to the act, which is already over.
What the puppy learns is that your return can be unpleasant, or that relieving itself in front of you is risky. Some then start hiding to do it, which makes the problem harder.
The sheepish look people read as guilt is a response to your manner, not a confession. It shows up just as readily when the puppy has done nothing.
4. Training pads add a step that has to be undone
The absorbent pad solves a floor problem and creates a learning one: it teaches that there is a correct indoor spot.
That spot then has to be taken away, which is a second stage the puppy would not otherwise have had to clear. Many puppies go on aiming for the area once the pad has gone.
It earns its place in specific cases: a high floor with no quick way out, incomplete vaccination, an owner with limited mobility. Outside those, it costs more than it returns.
5. The cleaning decides whether it happens again
A puppy goes back to the place that smells like the place. Your nose stops picking anything up long before its does.
Ordinary household cleaners mask without removing, and ammonia-based ones are worth avoiding: the smell recalls urine. What is needed is an enzymatic product, used generously and left to work.
As long as a spot still carries the smell for the puppy, no training method will hold on that spot.
6. A sudden regression in a reliable puppy is a different question
A puppy that has been reliable for weeks and suddenly starts soiling again is not restarting its training. Something has changed.
Two leads come before any other: a medical cause, a urinary infection or a digestive upset in particular, and an event in the household, a move, an absence, a new animal, building work.
The first is settled at a vet's, and that is where to start. Going back to frequent trips outside in the meantime harms nobody.