Our Malt's name is Benson. He is now 12 weeks old. We got him when he was 8 weeks old. Here is our story of how we house trained him. We both work all day, so he is crated while we were at work. He crate trained immediately with only 1 accident.
We feed him on a schedule:
6:00 a.m. an 6:00 p.m. The key is consistency during the time you are house training.
We would set a timer and put his food down for 20 minutes. After that went off, we would pick it up and set a time for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, we carried him to the door, rang a little bell hanging by the door (not on the door, otherwise it rings constantly and defeats the purpose). We would take him out every few hours. When he had an accident in the house, we wiped it up with a paper towel, put the towel outside under a rock. Every time we took him out, we set him by the paper towel, he smelled it and went potty in that spot. After about three days, every time we took him out, we took his paw, hit the bell and took him out.
After 2 weeks, Benson was ringing the bell. He would grab it with his mouth and throw it against the wall so we always hear it. He also only potties in the spot where we would keep the paper towel.
The only problem we found with it is that he would ring the bell when he wanted to go out and play in the snow (he loves snow). So when he did that, we had to tell him “potty” and not allow him to play… take him in immediately and then wait about 5 minutes. Then we would take him out to play in the snow and we wouldn’t ring the bell that time.
I cant stress enough the importance of rewarding them when they ring and potty outside. You would think Benson did the most amazing thing in the world when we fuss over him pottying.
He does still have accident's now and then but for the most part, he rings the bell and looks up the door. It's nice because he doesnt scratch the door and it will impress your friends and family at how cute it is.
Hope that helps
