Before your Portuguese Water Dog puppy comes home you should purchase a "crate" or, at the very least, a portable gate to fence off a portion of the house for the puppy. You should crate the puppy whenever you can not supervise his activities. Some people will look at a standard dog crate made of metal or plastic and wrongly assume it's cruel to confine a dog to a small space. In fact, getting your puppy accustomed to a crate has many benefits for both of you. First, it gives your dog a sense of enclosed shelter and security, which it would seek in the wild. (Many an adult dog still retreats to the relative peace and safety of his open crate when the house is full of noisy visitors.) Second, it keeps a young dog from getting into unforeseen trouble when you're not around. And third, it is a tremendous aid in housebreaking. It is not, however, an instant housebreaking solution. While it's generally true that a dog will not soil the place where he sleeps, it can take a while for a puppy to catch on to that idea. I would use the same size crate that he will grow up with but divide it so that he only has a place to sleep. If it is left big and roomy then he may use the far side to do his business.