I pick up my first puppy this afternoon

1. Yorkies only come in one variety. There is no such thing as mini-Yorkies. Sorry, pet peeve. Congrats on your pup!

2. RELAX!!! You'll do fine. He's a baby but he's not made of glass. Do you have a crate or ex-pen to keep him in when you can't closely supervise him? If not, get one or even both. They'll keep him and your house safe.

3. While you don't want to take him outside to areas where a lot of strange dogs congregate, it's perfectly ok to take him outside to potty and to take him out to socialize. Socializing does not mean he has to come into close contact with unknown dogs, it just means exposing him to all kinds of situations, surfaces, people (you don't have to permit petting), etc.

4.. Did I say relax?

Congrats! I just got my first puppy last month (although, my family did have a dog when I was a teenager, so it's not exactly my first dog!).

I think the best thing you can do is to be relaxed, but assertive! Also, ask lots of questions so you feel more confident with your dog. The more confident and assertive you are, the better the environment for training and bonding with your puppy.

I picked mine up this morning hes nine weeks old on thursday. Congratulations on your new puppy

Thanks everyone for your replies, Gizmo was quiet for the first hour at home but after having some dinner was bouncing around like a nut! He uses his puppy pad 70% of the time and gets rewarded for this, the other time he is shown the accident and told no and put on his pad. He slept the night in puppy pen with crate inside, puppy pad and water bowl he did two poos in the night on the pad. He didnt whine once as my 11 yr old daughter was in the bed next to him. I woke up constantly listening for whining though! he is so playful and then gets worn out and sleeps! he like shis crate so quite different behaviour to cats!

Just a note: dogs don't associate their past actions with the present, so showing him the accident doesn't help. He doesn't recognise it as his own accident -- he just thinks "oh, there's poop on the carpet" but doesn't know where it came from. I know, it's weird, but that's how canine minds work. You need to catch him in the act of peeing or pooping in the house before you can interrupt him and take him to the puppy pad. That means lots and lots of supervision, and crating whenever he can't be watched.

I'm glad to hear that things are otherwise going well, though!