Housebreaking a new puppy

Question
Hi, Can you provide tips or guidelines for houstraining / crate training a new puppy.  We just recently (2 days ago) got a new puppy (our first ever), she is a 10 week old Labradore Retriever, and I havent the slightest idea on where to start for getting her trained.  Thank you.

Answer
Amie, your breeder should be able to give you some pointers, but in a nutshell, the puppy needs to be crated whenever you are not home to watch her, but at just 10 weeks, she probably cannot hold it all day long. That means that you either need to come home during the day to let her out, have someone else do it for you, bring her to work with you until she's a little older, or perhaps kennel her outside during the day for a few months. Once she's 5 or 6 months old, she *should* be able to go all day in the crate. The general rule with puppies is that they can hold it for about as many hours as they are old in months. A 10 week old puppy is 2 1/2 months old, so she will need to be taken out to pee at least every 2-3 hours. Puppies generally will have a bowel movement within 20 minutes of eating, so take her out after she eats, and whenever she potties outside, praise her like she's saved the world! When you take her out to potty, she should be on a leash. Take her to the same spot in the yard every time, and when she starts to go potty, tell her "hurry up," or "go potty," and then praise her when she's done. THEN you can let her off the leash if you have a fenced yard, so she learns that play and fun time comes AFTER she potties.

When she's loose in the house, keep her leashed to you, or let her drag a leash and use baby gates to keep her confined to the room you're in so you can keep an eye on her at all times. The second she starts showing signs of needing to go potty, encourage her to go with you to the door and take her out. If you catch her in the act, make a sudden noise to startle her and make her stop, and then get her outside as quickly as possible. Do not punish her if you just happen to find where she's pottied inside. Simply clean it up with an enzymatic cleaner to remove all trace of the odor, and smack yourself for not paying better attention to her! ;^)