Housetraining Your Puppy

Housetraining a puppy is often made out to be a lot harder than it needs to be. Puppies are clean by nature.    As a rule of thumb, a puppy can go as many hours without a potty break as months he is old, plus one. Aka, a ten week old puppy is 2 1/2 months old, so it can go 3 1/2 hours without a potty break. Once they reach 6 mo old, they can go 8 + hours. Also take a puppy out to potty :
15 min after a meal
15 min after a drink
right after waking up 
after vigorous play
  every ____________________ (hovever long puppy can wait as determined by age)
     Crate the pup with a toy for however long it has been determined that he can last without a potty break.  If he falls asleep and is still asleep when his time is up, then wake him up and take him out to potty. You would rather wake him up than him wake up by himself and have to shame himself and soil his crate. Do this "crating excersise" about twice a day. Until your puppy is dependable around the house, you may want to to keep him in a small area of the house or under your supervision at all times. This can be accomplished many ways. The first is a crate. The second is a baby gate blocking the puppy into one puppy-proofed area of the house.  The third is a "tie-down". This is attaching a very long peice of rope to a table or couch leg, doorknob, or some other stationary object, and the other end to his collar. See how far around the room the puppy could reach with this on, and puppy proof that area. Make sure that toys, a crate, and water are within reach. 
The last option is to tether the puppy to you. Attach one end of a long leash to your belt or leg, and the other end to puppy. If you get tired of puppy being underfoot, you can always switch to crate, tie-down, or baby-gated room.  When the puppy has gone an entire month without a single accident, he is considered potty trained and can then be given run of the house. 

If you are not comfortable with the concept of housetraining using a crate, then there is another way to do it. It is a little more time consuming, though. Do everything exactly as above, except omit the steps using the crate. You will need to take the puppy out a little more often, and you will still need to use some form of restraint to prevent him from having an accident in another room. ]
Whichever method you prefer, if you work, a puppy cannot be expected to stay at home for 8+ hours alone without potty breaks and not have an accident. Although the ideal situation is to be able to have someone home at all times until the pup is at least six months old, in many families this is not possible. In that situation, you may want to consider letting your pup spend the time you are at work at the home of a friend who is home during the day or at a doggy daycare. There are upsides and downsides of the daycare option. They are great for socialization, some daycares will train the puppy for you, and some have vets on hand should something happen to your pup, plus most dogs have a blast, getting to run around with other dogs all day. The downsides are the cost, the risk of your pup getting hurt roughhousing with other dogs, the risk of getting sick from another dog, and some have a policy that puppies under a certian age or that dogs over a certian age that are not neutered are not allowed. If you think that the benefits outweigh the risk, then go for it! If not, you can probably find a work-at-home or retired friend who would be more than happy to get to borrow your pup for a few hours. Alternatively, you can paper train.
   Paper training involves covering an entire room with several layers of newspaper. When the pup needs to "go", put her in the room. When she goes on the paper, praise her to the skies. If she has to be left alone for a long period of time with nobody to take her to her room to potty, put her in the room. after about 2 weeks, very slowly, reduce the amount of the room that is covered with newspaper until it is the size of one sheet of newspaper.  She should be used to going on paper now, so she should seek out the paper rather than going on the floor. If, while reducing the amount of paper, she goes on the floor instead of the paper, add back a little bit of the paper, and later try taking it away again. Eventually, you should have one spot of one room covered in paper, several pages thick. If you decide you would rather have her go outdoors once she is paper trained, simply put a piece of paper on the grass. She will wait for an opportunity to go outside to her paper. You can eventually just remove the paper.
Another important part of potty training is developing a regular scedule. A puppy who does not eat at a certian time all the time and is fed a little all day long can not be expected to potty on a scedule. 
It works best to use one area as a potty all the time. Stand out there until he goes, do not give up. It is easy for a young puppy to get distracted. Keep him on a short leash and let him know he is not allowed to play until he goes. As he is pottying, say "go potty" or some other phrase. Use the same phrase every time and pretty soon he will potty on command! The very second he is done, have a treat in hand and lavish praise upon him.
If the puppy does have an accident in the house, remember he is just a little baby. If you catch him in the act, make a noise, squeak a toy, or do something that catches his attention and distracts him from his previous activity. Grab him and take him outside immediately to finish. Wipe up the accident with a paper towel or an old rag, and place it outside in the desired potty spot. This helps him know that spot is to potty in, not to play in. EVERY TIME he goes outside, give him a treat. This is a step a lot of people forget, but it is vital to potty training puppies.
NEVER  punish a puppy for an accident in the house, particularly if you did not catch him in the act. If you punish a puppy when you get home from work for an accident that happened an hour before, he slinks away looking guilty and you figure he has learned his lesson. All he learns is that for some reason you are particularly angry when you get home, and he continues with his accidents. Dogs, puppies in particular have a memory that goes back about 1 millisecond for anything not related to food. Think about it: is it easier to correct all the mistakes or to reward all the good things? Reward the good things, and you will probably feel a lot better after administering praise rather than a smack. Quietly clean up the mess with an enzyme cleaner such as Nature's Miracle. He will learn he gets praise for going outside and nothing for going inside. You may get very tired of cleaning up messes and standing outside, but remember all the cute things that they do as puppies, and remember that they will grow up all too fast and you will wish you could have these days back and do them over again.