help is needed

Hello everyone, my family and i bought a puppy from a so called breeder lol she was filthy anyway he is only 5 1/2 weeks old instead of 7 like she said. i dont know if we should crate train or confinment, we are home most of the day till 2pm then we are in and out till 5 pm. i mainly want the puppy to releave himself outside when potty trained and not go in my house at night. the other prob is like i said she was not very clean we took the pup home and he started itching like crazy and whimmpering well we thought he was dirty turns out he had flees.
my mother in law bathed him she is a vet but now that we seem to have gotten them off him and hes happy im concerned about the carpet and things in my house, i did not see any jump off him the night before and he slept on a blanket on the carpet while kids were over to see him and i kept him in a basket by my side the first night so i could take care of him when he cried. he only ran around the house a little but need to know how to tell if they are in my carpet. i have sprayed it and put moth crystals on it already but we are paranoid we wont get them out if they are in the house. also what is the best way to teach the pup top sleep all night without its mother.

Thanks anyone for any advice

Okay, first get those moth crystals up out of the carpet. They're really not good for puppies - or kids for that matter. To give you some idea of what they are, the chemical in them is very potent and if you add a box of them to the gas in your car, will make it run like a rocket - before it blows the motor.

You can use Sevin dust on the carpet. I'm not really crazy about it, but it's relatively (not completely) benign. Sprinkle it down, leave it for 24 hours, keeping puppies and kids out of the room if possible, then vacuum it up.

A ticking clock and an old T-shirt with your smell on it are very helpful to help a pup to sleep on its own. Remember, though, a young puppy isn't likely to be able to sleep through the night without having to go. You need to restrict water and food in the evening.

You'll need to confine him in a puppy proofed room while you're gone. A puppy that little needs supervision. Things like electrical cords are just waiting to be chewed, along with carpet, upholstery, your shoes, any clothing that he can find . . . you get the idea. If you want to crate train him, you need to read up on it, make the decision, and act on your decision. Personally, I've never used a crate, probably because I tend to be claustrophobic myself, but Shiva stays in the laundry room when we're gone (she forages for food and she's very, very good at it). Kharma and Bimmer get to stay in the house. Shiva sleeps in the house at night, but she and Kharma both had turns at sleeping in the laundry room when they were learning to hold it all night. Once they were able to sleep through the night, they got to sleep in the house.

thanks so much for answering my question. I thought of the ticking clock after i wrote this , but not the t shirt and yeah i got the crystals off carpet and had it cleaned so th puppy could go back into the room and my kids. so far the little darling is doing well he goes potty on those training pads and only mised once in fact we are proud of the pup he even went to the pads on his own and his blanket to sleep and hes so so young. hopefully il have a pic to post of him soon.

OK, one suggestion for you... Don't use puppy potty pads. They train the pup that it is acceptable to go to the bathroom in the house, and particularly because yours is a male (Who are notoriously hard to house train) you want to get the point across from day one that he should be going OUTSIDE to use the bathroom, not inside.

i did not know males were harder to train, what should i be doing yes i want him to go outside but he is so little and since he had flees from the day i got him and hes so young they told me not to take him out innthe grass for a awhile, and if i crate train him do males spray or relieve themselves in their crates?

It might help you - in the long run - if you start moving his pads closer and closer to the door. That's going to teach him to go to the door. Then you can move the pad outside the door for a couple of days; by then he should have the idea that outside is the place to go.

The reason for the crate is that dogs naturally avoid soiling their own dens, so they generally won't relieve themselves in the crate unless they just can't hold it anymore. If he's doing well without it, though, keep up what you're doing. Crate training is a relatively new technique in the general dog owning public. I guess breeders have probably done it for a long time, but most of us "everyday" dog owners never used a crate unless we were traveling with our dogs until lately.

You can Sevin dust an area of the yard where you want to teach him to go. Don't do the whole yard, as it affects the bird population. Use it sparingly, and allow at least a couple of days before you take him to that area and wipe his feet off well when you bring him back inside. That's also going to help you down the road when he goes out in muddy weather and you want to wipe his feet off before he comes in and paints your floors. He'll already be used to wiping those feet before coming in.