Poms are usually rated as one of the more stubborn breeds to house train but I do not get many complaints from my puppy people who are raising just one or two Poms. I strongly recommend crate training and crating your Pom especially when they are younger or new to your home, whenever you can’t directly supervise their activities, ie whenever you’re unable to be alert to accidents. If they can’t run free in the house and potty somewhere without being scolded, it makes their training go that much faster. MOST poms are naturally fairly clean and won’t mess their crates once they are old enough to hold their bladder for 5-6 hours (about 6mos old) as long as they are let out to potty at reasonable intervals. I recommend a schedule similar to this:
– Sleeping in a crate at night
– First thing in the AM, IMMEDIATELY take them outside on their walk (or to the yard, expen, puppy training papers or wherever you WANT them to do their business). Praise them when they potty.
– Put them out to potty IMMEDIATELY after returning home when they’ve been crated (I find if they get excited at your homecoming and you don’t let them out immediately, they will potty)
– Put them out immediately after they wake up from a nap
– Put them out after dinner
These are the most frequent times they will need to use the bathroom – right after waking up, right after eating and right after being crated for a period of time. If you rush them out to potty after these events you will catch most of their accidents before they happen.
Clean up any accidents immediately with a cleaner for pet messes. If they smell a previous accident that wasn’t cleaned properly, they will return to that spot to do it again. Neutering and spaying will also cut down on accidents because they will not have an urge to mark.
I also recommend feeding regular meals – 2 meals per day for adults, 3 for young (under 6mos) puppies. I would not free-feed or leave food/water available to an adult dog unless you are going to be gone for a long period (8 hrs +) because the more they eat, the more they go.