Potty Training: Crate vs. Paper

For Bailey I ended up with a hybrid of both the crate and the paper methods.  In the end, the clincher for me was that Bailey did not like at all being in the crate, and although she did not eliminate in the crate, she was so hugely unhappy being in the crate even for a few minutes, I had to put her in a larger place which had to be paper-protected.

It was helpful however leveraging the typical habits of puppies around this age to speed up the process:

• Not going where she slept/ate allowed me to rig the stakes towards her pottying where I wanted her to
• Needing to go upon waking, after a meal, after drinking water, after vigourous play.  Initially, this was once every hour or so, which meant that I interrupted play every 30-45 minutes to place her where she should go to "try my luck".  Performance meant treats and coming right out again for loads of play, non-performance meant back to play until she pottied where she shouldn't, which meant end of play and back to the crate (with the paper).  This gave her a huge incentive to save her potty for the right place, and taught (in a roundabout manner) bladder control.
• Coupled with the above, because she usually sleeps in her crate, I led her to paper before doing anything else eg. taking her out for play, attention, food etc.  This gave her a huge incentive to empty her bladder and bowels before coming out, as she learnt that "empty" = play and fun.

I've been lucky that Bailey since I got her had been waking up in the middle of the night to potty, instead of toileting in her bed.  This cannot be taught by the owner, and is a habit she was made accustomed to by her breeder, who assured us that she would be paper-trained by the time she was ready to go home.  Check the conditions of your breeder in order to tell if this would be the case with your puppy - if the conditions are clean, no poo/pee in sight even with many puppies around, then your puppy is likely to be habitually clean which is a good thing.

It's probably also worthwhile emulating the house training method that the breeder was using if this is possible for your own circumstances.  Your breeder should be more than happy to give you tips.