Is it your job to potty train a puppy, after you (or someone else) brought the adorable furball home? Potty training a puppy takes time and patience, there’s no doubt about it. There also has to be a method to your madness for that inexperienced little creature to understand what you want. Some of those methods may not be obvious to inexperienced dog owners who don’t have a mental playbook to go by.

If you’ve been trying to housetrain your puppy, and your puppy is older than six to eight months but is still having accidents in the house, then it’s time to take a look at your training methods. Here are some important tips when it comes to successful puppy potty training.

1. Does your puppy have a crate where you can put him between potty breaks? Is the crate always clean, and is it the right size so that your puppy can turn around but not move from one side to the other?

Dogs hate to soil their dens, unless they’ve been taught to be dirty. If you crate your puppy in the right-sized crate and always keep that crate immaculately clean, your puppy will do his best not to soil it. For this to work, though, you’ll have to give your puppy frequent potty breaks — if you wait too long, he’ll have no choice but to go in his crate, which defeats the purpose.

When you take him out on a break, tell him what you want, saying GO POTTY or using some other phrase consistently. When he does, praise him warmly and play with him. Then put him back in the crate — near you — and do it all over again.

2. Even when your puppy has an accident, take him outside and show him what you want him to do. He still needs this reinforcement about what you want. Then, make sure wherever he goes after this (ideally a crate) is very, very clean.

3. If your puppy has an accident, show him you’re mad. Take him to the accident site, act mad, and bang on the floor with your hand. Never hit your puppy, even with paper — it’s totally unnecessary.

Now that you’ve let him know what you don’t want, take him outside and show him what you do want. It’s tricky thing for baby dogs to figure out that outside is okay, but inside isn’t — especially if the dog’s ever been paper-trained. Rest assured, your puppy isn’t piddling out of spite, but out of confusion. Be sure to forgive him right away — don’t give him the cold shoulder. He really does want to please you.

Now make sure you’ve cleaned the accident site thoroughly, using one of the popular enzyme preparations or a vinegar solution, so he isn’t attracted back there.

4. If your puppy’s making progress, test him by giving him more freedom. Give him a little more run of the house, without throwing open all the doors. If he still does well, he’s getting the message and you can try even more freedom. If he has an accident, go back to crate training — but don’t worry, he’s learning.

5. Help your puppy succeed by keeping him on a tight and intelligent feeding schedule each and every day. If he’s eating all the time, he’s going to have to eliminate all the time — that’s just how it works. Puppies older than three months should usually be fed twice a day. Potty training isn’t going to go any easier if you slip your puppy snacks all day in between feedings. Similarly, it doesn’t help to overfeed your puppy, so that he has trouble digesting.