Interesting potty training situation.

[Serenity]

This new puppy we have is absolutely AMAZING. We were told he was 8 weeks old and the vet thinks he's closer to 6 weeks.

What is amazing is that this puppy already knows he's suppose to go outside. We take him out pretty frequently. Every two hours at the bare minimum. Usually about every hour.  And when we set him down outside we walk away a couple feet and he does his business right away then comes running back to us like he's saying "I'm done lets go back in and play."

And even when there's slightly longer intervals between outings he tries to hold it and always goes outside. 

The problem with all of this is that when he absolutely can't hold it he doesn't know how to tell us so he just goes on the puppy pad.

I have no clue how to teach him how to tell us that he needs to go. He doesn't do anything to indicate that he has to go. Like if he whined or something then we could take him outside everytime he whined and I think he'd catch on to that. But he doesn't do anything to tell us.

When he gets older will he come up with a away to tell us or is there a way we can train him to tell us?

[chaa]

it sounds like we had similar situations!! I have no clue how, but when my pup came home with us from the shelter at five months he seemed to know already that the inside was not the place to relieve oneself.  That's a HUGE blessing, and congrats on having a wonderful pup!

One method I used myself before we changed houses is super easy to train and even the most... *ahem*... 'goofy' sort of dog can grasp it.  (aka i've trained a beagle to use this method in the past)
I'm not sure where you could find them in a store outside of christmas time, but I'd root around for one of those doorknob-hanging belts with sleigh bells on them.  Any sort of bell works, but the sleigh bells on the strap keeps the door from getting scratched/damaged and they're very easy to get noise out of for your dog.  Be sure they hang down low enough on the door to reach the dog's nose without encouraging him to jump up.

anyway, put the bells on the door you'll be using to let him out most of the time.  Every single time you let him out to do his business ring the bells right before you open the door.  After a while you'll find that if you ring the bells while he's not there he'll come running.  Most dogs will naturally progress to figuring out "hey, if the bells ring i get to go potty!!" and learn what they have to do to make 'em ring.  If not, encourage the dog to accidentally ring them until he realizes that he can do it himself.
during the early training stages be sure that every time he rings the bells of his own accord you open the door immediately, let him out, and praise, praise, praise!  As he gets older and you're more confident in his potty-training status you can ignore more of the bells, as dogs then see that ringing the bell brings their human AND can get them outside to chase squirrels!  Intermediate reward is a stronger motivator, anyway.

there's only two downsides to the bell training.  Your door can get quite scratched up, especially if an excited dog likes to ring with his paws instead of his nose.  and if the dog is on the intelligent side you could start hearing bells a LOT more often than you'd like, especially at three in the morning.  When we moved to a place with a smaller yard (unfortunate, I know) we had more wildlife visible to him from the house.  If there was a possum or chipmonk or anything small, furry and lumbering we'd hear the bell at any ungodly hour.  It became more of his 'i want to chase things, lemmie out' bell.  since he's getting to be on the old side we took it down and just take him out oldschool four times a day.   

hope this gives you some ideas... and congratulations on the new pup!

[Serenity]

thats a great idea. i think my mom has some in her basement. We'll give that a try.

[Heather]

The bells are an excellent idea. It's possible the puppy isn't telling you because the bladder muscles are so weak (as in all puppies) that he isn't associating the feeling and urge to go with urinating yet. It took me awile to figure out my adult dog's signals when he needs to go out. It's VEEEERRRRY subtle. He'll get up, walk past and give me a glance. He normally doesn't even go to the door, he just walks past me into another room and if I don't follow then an accident may follow depending how full his bladder is. My foster puppy is 4.5 mos old and when he has to go he'll let out a whine.

[Serenity]

How should I deal with accidents.

They are pretty few and far between. My boyfriend prefers the "rub his nose in it" method but I don't really care for that method.

I think the only way a puppy will understand what he's getting yelled at for is if you catch him while he's doing it. So when he has an accident I just clean it up and forget about it. Then when he goes outside he gets tons and tons of praise.

[Washu]

Rubbing their nose in it is just going to make the dog afraid of you. What you are doing is the best thing to do.

I accidentally trained Ranger to tell me when he has to go out. Whenever I take the dogs out, I tell them to "sit" so I can put his leash on. Now whenever he wants out he'll go sit by the front door and look at me. But your puppy is so young that it will probably take a while to learn something like that.

[Ratwings]

Do NOT rub his nose in it! This will tech the pup absolutely nothing other than that people are likely to do scary and unpredictable things. You don't want your pup to be afraid of you because you are randomly violent to him. They have no concept that the accident was "bad" after the fact, or even that the accident was their "fault" and the punishment is a consequence of past actions.  You can try to anthropomorphize all you want, but the simple truth is that dogs' brains just don't work that way.

If you catch him in the act you can interrupt him with a quick and firm verbal reprimand (do NOT yell, a stern voice is enough) and simultaneously pick up the pup (gently) and take him outside. Just use one word, you don't need to go into a tirade. Again, yelling and grabbing the pup roughly will only cause the pup to fear YOU regardless of any potty accidents that are going on.  He will likely not even make an association between punishment and potty accidents because he will be too scared and confused to understand what is going on.  The point is not to scare the puppy, but to interrupt the action.  Use praise and treats when he does his potty outside.

He is still VERY young yet. You are lucky he's doing so well. Some pups are great at house training- others not so much. Give him time, you still have to get to know each other. Soon you will be able to recognize his signs. Meanwhile just keep him on a very regular potty break schedule so he never has to have to hold it in longer than is comfortable for him.

PS- sorry to be redundant but I was posting at the same time as the post above me!