ST - aw sorry about the fishies. Hopefully you'll get some next time.
On the potty training - crate training is excellent for this. It worked really well for my dog. She's actually sort of 'insecure' if she's loose in the house while we're gone so I still confine her to one bedroom, and she's really good in there. Try not to think of it as a cage - more like a "den" where they have their own personal safe spot to go.
The dog trainer actually recommended against the newspapers or pads unless you have no other choice (i.e. the dog's going to be in the house way longer than it can reasonably 'hold it'). She said it's better to teach them from the beginning that going in the house is not ok AT ALL. Inside vs. outside is much easier to teach than "you can pee on this thing on the floor, but not that thing." I had been doing the newspaper thing and having a horrible time training her. I always had her confined in a small room with a bed/crate, but I was putting down newspapers too. As soon as I took the newspapers away (trainer's suggestion), she was house broken almost immediately.
Oh you'll also need to totally get rid of the pee smell. Any time the pup smells that on the carpet he (she?) is going to think "Hey this is a good spot!" I use a product called Simple Solution. It's a bit pricey but hopefully you won't need it for very long, and it works much better than most other products I've tried.
Hope that helps some. Pup should be MUCH quicker than the kids!
Me 35, H 38; Together 13.5 yrs, M 7 Bomb 1 10/07/06 Sep'd 1/14/07 - 4/15 Piecing: 4/07 - 9/07 Bomb 3 10/11/07: Never loved you, let's separate 2/08 slowly improving 7/08 Piecing (7/25/08 rings back on!!) Current thread
