When I first got Cooper I was living at my parents' house, and their house is kind of like a maze; you have to go through several doors to get outside, and it's quite a long walk. I knew there was no way a tiny puppy would make it outside. For that reason I decided to purchase an indoor dog litter box. The one I got was the Rascal Dog Litter Box, Big Squirt. It has a grass pad on it which I hoped would make the transition to outside easier. When I first got him he refused to go potty on the grass. He would only go on puppy pads. But after playing outside on grass a few times he got used to the sensation and started to use the grass pad more and more. What helped was that the litter box came with a "training spray" (watered down fox pee). When I sprayed that, Cooper naturally wanted to pee in the same spot. By ten weeks he was still having accidents and still using puppy pads some of the time, but he was also going potty on the grass pad on command (see video below).
When Cooper was a few months old I moved into my own house. I spread puppy pads throughout the house to cut down on accidents, and put his grass litter box in an easily accessible place in the living room. By this point he was having very few accidents and using the litter box most of the time. When he was about 3.5 months old I removed the puppy pads and made him use the litter box all the time. Then I gradually moved the litter box closer and closer to the back door. Then I put it outside. Something that's important to note is that I wasextremely vigilant during the house training phase. I am self-employed so I took some time off work to keep my eye on him 24/7. Whenever he showed any signs of needing to go (sniffing, circling, walking towards the door) I took him out. By the time he was 4 months old his accidents had been reduced to almost zero. The only accidents he had were because I didn't let him out fast enough or wasn't there to let him out.
Around this time I hung up a bell by the back door. I was planning on teaching him how to use it to ask to go outside. The weekend I put it up he accidentally hit it a few times while playing, so I let him out each time. Then I noticed that he seemed to be ringing the bell intentionally, and whenever he did, he went potty outside. It seemed like he had taught himself how to use the bell! Over the next week I paid attention to when he rang the bell, and sure enough he really was using it to ask to go out! He figured it out himself after just a few times of me letting him out, and has rang the bell ever since.
