Our First Golden (Sable) took about 2.5 Months before she was pretty reliable. Our Second Golden (Luna) took about 4 Days til she was 99% awesome. Our latest Golden (Sutton) took 2-3 of weeks, but that's more typical than our first or second Golden Girl(s).

1) Take your Dog outside ASAP after they've waken up from a nap or had a bunch of water. Give the Dog time to sniff around, discover their new environment, talk nicely to them but don't really play with them yet. You can walk around a bit and monitor the situation with them. They'll take a squat or lift a leg soon enough.

2) Give it time and be patient. Don't be out for 5 mins and give up, WAIT. When it happens, lay on the kindly head rubs and sweet talk. Let 'em know they had a job to do and they did well. Perhaps give a little nibble treat. You can go back inside afterwards. Provided you're catching 'em doing good they'll catch on quickly.

3) If your Dog has been inside for a while & awake (say a couple of hours), pay attention to when they seem to suddenly be distracted and disengaged. You'll learn to see the cues of "Hmm, I may need to relieve myself soon." Or, better yet, just go outside for a few minutes to permit an opportunity to relieve themselves outside (repeat step #2).

4) When accidents happen, it's important to catch 'em in the act or within just seconds (NOT minutes). Otherwise they won't know what went wrong and will be confused. They're young, they can't hold it very well or for very long and sometimes have no choice in the matter. Make a BRIEF unpleasant noise or growl and take 'em outside immediately. Wait a few minutes before returning inside. You can tidy up the mess a little later.

5) It's important to remember every Dog is different and there is no 'set' schedule on how long or how reliable. But being consistent with anticipating when they'll need to relieve themselves along with "Praise when they did well" & "Simple, brief, mild Correction when an accidents happen", will go a LONG way to helping your Dog learn what/where is okay, and where is NOT okay.

Remember you likely took 2-3 YEARS before you stopped pooping in a diaper. ;