The bladder on a small breed puppy is tiny, so if you have a tiny pup you may want to train him to relieve himself on wee-wee pads or newspaper. Teaching a pup to go outdoors involves taking the pup outside every single time he has to eliminate, but that may be difficult with a young small breed puppy. Some people do paper train larger breed puppies, but it’s not recommended because it will teach the dog that it’s okay to do his “business” in the house, and that can be difficult to un-train when the dog gets too big for that behavior. Many people living in apartments or who work long hours find paper training useful. If you choose to paper train, here’s a protocol to use with the clicker:

1. Keep the puppy contained in an uncarpeted area using a baby gate – the kitchen, laundry room, or bathroom are ideal (but puppy-proof the room first).
2. Put paper down in the whole room. If you’re using wee-wee pads, put one in the spot where you’d like the pup to go.
3. Feed and water the pup, and then set him down on the paper and tell him to potty.
4. Watch and wait.
5. The second he gets done doing his business, click and treat.
6. As the pup gets used to going on the paper, remove some of the paper and treat the pup for going on the remaining paper.
7. Keep removing paper until you’re down to just a few sheets or just the wee-wee pad. The idea is that you’ll make the “business” spot smaller and smaller until it’s just a corner of the room. If he misses the paper, then go back a step and add more paper until he’s hitting the spot again.

If your puppy insists playing with the wee-wee pad or papers, chewing them up and dragging them around, just pick up the shredded papers and lay down new papers. Nothing to get upset about. As the puppy gets older, he will hopefully grow out of this behavior.