You could put his crate in the area you have him in now instead of a bed - with the door open or removed, that way he gets used to sleeping in the crate, but has his potty pads or newspaper available.
I started crate training Cooper from the very first day I had him. I bought a big crate (way too big for a puppy but he grew into it nicely... heck, here's the link to the one at Petsmart - he has the 24x21x20 model) and was able to put both his bed area and his pee pads inside at the same time. I didn't have an area to rope off for him, so it's what worked best for me. I kept potty pads near the back door as well.
As he got older and got the hang of the potty pads, I moved them out of his crate completely. Lucky for me, it only took him a couple weeks.
Water should always be available to your pup. Cooper drinks a lot of water because it's so freakin' hot in Texas. Plus, with the smaller pups, dehydration can set in quickly and you don't want that to happen.
And to answer your last question, I never gave Cooper treats for doing his business. I did, however, throw him a party every time he went. I would clap, say "good boy" and "pee pee" or "poo poo" and smile like I had just won the lotto. He was never really treat-driven though, although he wouldn't turn them down, he didn't need them as praise.
Something that might help is if you are going to eventually transition to outdoors for potty stuff, you want to get them used to the words associated with their bodily functions so when you do go out, you can say "go pee pee" and they can make the connection to the action if you say it now, when they're using the potty pads or newspaper.
I started crate training Cooper from the very first day I had him. I bought a big crate (way too big for a puppy but he grew into it nicely... heck, here's the link to the one at Petsmart - he has the 24x21x20 model) and was able to put both his bed area and his pee pads inside at the same time. I didn't have an area to rope off for him, so it's what worked best for me. I kept potty pads near the back door as well.
As he got older and got the hang of the potty pads, I moved them out of his crate completely. Lucky for me, it only took him a couple weeks.
Water should always be available to your pup. Cooper drinks a lot of water because it's so freakin' hot in Texas. Plus, with the smaller pups, dehydration can set in quickly and you don't want that to happen.
And to answer your last question, I never gave Cooper treats for doing his business. I did, however, throw him a party every time he went. I would clap, say "good boy" and "pee pee" or "poo poo" and smile like I had just won the lotto. He was never really treat-driven though, although he wouldn't turn them down, he didn't need them as praise.
Something that might help is if you are going to eventually transition to outdoors for potty stuff, you want to get them used to the words associated with their bodily functions so when you do go out, you can say "go pee pee" and they can make the connection to the action if you say it now, when they're using the potty pads or newspaper.
