Can You Help Me With My New Puppy?

It has been a while since I needed to house train a puppy. We would hold his nose close to where he went and scold with a stern voice. When he does go outside the way he should reward him. The reward could be as little as petting or a treat to eat. Mainly let him know you are happy with what he did. If you should ever have to punish him further, pop him with a folded up newpaper. Not hard enough to hurt, the noise will get to him.

Congrats on getting the little guy home safely! As for your last question, your vet will recommend when to get him neutered. As for the potty training I suggest this: take him out on his leash, with a harness on him, and do this after he eats or drinks during the day. Of course mornings are a great time to do this, too. Walk him around the yard and encourage him verbally to pee pee or poo poo. I know, it sounds like you're talking to a two year old. Actually, a dog has the intelligence of about a three year old, so it's not out of the ordinary to do talk to them. When he finally goes, praise him out of this world, with good boy! alright, good dog! you pee peed! Or vice versa if he poos for you. If you have a small treat in your pocket, you may want to give this to him before you go back inside of the house by your back door. I trained my dog who was six months old and not potty trained since he was a rescue puppy in about five days doing just what I described. It is do-able. Don't give up!

Connie,
I strongly reccommend that you crate train your new puppy. All you need to do is buy a dog crate from your local petsmart and then do the following:
Whenever you take the puppy out of the crate immediately take him outside and wait until he goes to the bathroom. Then bring him back inside and play with him for a bit. Put him back in the crate. He will likely fall asleep in there for a bit and puppies typically will not go to the bathroom in the crate if they sleep there. When the puppy wakes up, immediate take him outside, repeat about a million times a day. At night you take the puppy out one last time and then put him to sleep in the crate for the night.
In the beginning you will not have the puppy out of the crate for very long at all but I promise you it is worth it. Our dog loves her crate, sleeps in it every night (with the door open now) and it is great when we go away because she has her own little house and is not afraid in strange places. It may feel weird to have the puppy in the cage at first but they actually feel safe in there. She has only had one accident ever in our house since we got her two years ago. Good luck!

Connie, we crate trained all our puppies too, and if they did have an accident they got their noses rubbed in it. It doesn;t happen instantly but he will get the idea pretty fast.

Connie, I agree with Lisa and Leslie...crate training is the best way to go. We always suggest that to anyone adopting a puppy from our rescue group.

Thanks for all the comments. I have just ordered a crate to use to train my new puppy.