Very young puppy - house-training

[Bilbo'sMom]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have had two chows in the past, blackie and sushi, both when I was a child. Last week I bought a really young chow (mix?) puppy off a seller (I live in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic). I know its wrong and it supports puppy mills etc., but I just couldn't stand to leave him with those people.
The guy said the puppy was born on january 6th and that he wasn't going to pay for food for the mother dog anymore, they had already sold his sister
Puppy is home with me now for a week. Doing fine, eating like a little pig, but I have questions because he is just too young and I have never had a puppy this young.
When should I start house training, should I just close off parts of the apartment with an x-pen and paper it with newspapers for a while, forget about any real training? Should I start to crate training right now or wait a few weeks?
He is very smart, already recognizes "sit" and mostly comes when i call his name, but is really nipping a lot with me, how should I control that, I feel bad giving him time outs he is so little.
Already socializing him with my nephews and my neighbors and extended family, do I really need to wait till 12 weeks to introduce other dogs?

Thank you for any advice. (again, I know he is way too young, it was more a rescue)

[Pinoy51]

My first rescue girl was also four weeks old.
For the first two months i just praised good behavior and re-directed bad. No obedience training at all.
Just play, and sleep and whenever something nice happened I praised her. We had her in a part of the house where she could not damage anything and the typical puppy bladder breaks didn't mean a thing to us.
In that age there is hardly any bladder control. All you can do, is to bring him to the place he is supposed to use later whenever he wakes up and after eating. Specially the poop could go well soon, if the routing is have him at the potty place after meals. Meals should be four times or more small amounts of puppy food, the stomach is that big either right now.
All proper training should start with ten to twelve weeks of age.
I wouldn't bring him into contact with other dogs until he finished all Inital vaccination and learned some social skills.
The risk of being attacked by an anti social adult dog or getting sick right away is too big.
That's what I did, but hopefully others can give you some additional or other advises as well.

[Bilbo'sMom]

Thanks it really helps hearing from someone else. Thats what I am doing now, but I wasn't sure if it was all right and I didn't want to mess him up because of mixed signals. The vet said all vaccines will be up to date at 12 weeks so I guess that's when I can take him to the park for the first time and start real potty training.
Poor puppy, it's like puppy jail being cooped up here all the time with no other dogs. There aren't any puppy classes in DR, I checked with the vet and she thought I was joking

I'll try attaching a photo of my cutie.

[Pinoy51]

we don't have any puppy classes or dog parks in the Philippines either. Surely not a perfect way to grow up without siblings and dog mom, but on the other hand being malnourished or even maltreated is way worse.
Reyna (my four weeks rescue girl) is now in her 14th year, she has a bit arthritis now, but still a happy and alert old lady. She wouldn't have made it beyond her first year of life without me getting her out of the puppy mil, where she was born by accident and therefore even worse treated than the pure breeds fit for sale.
So do not worry too much of not being able to have him with other dogs. A carrying home with affection, calmness and later rules and boundaries will make up for that. And who knows you might end up getting him a playmate later.
My pack grew to seven members over the years.

[Bilbo'sMom]

UPDATE:
Bilbo seems to train himself more and more, he will now poo only on grass and pee on grass during the day, at night I can't take him to the park so he uses wee wee pads, but no accidents at all this past week. I am in awe of this puppy he is the smartest dog ever!

We start classes with a trainer next week (don't want to have issues crop up later with obedience and such). He is eating well and gets along with everyone. We are working on nipping, but he gets better very day and now understand NO right away Hopefully this will keep getting better and resolve itself by the time he is done teething.

[Pinoy51]

Sounds very good, congratulation you're doing the right things. Nipping at that age is absolutely normal and he will grow out of it.
Keep being a calm assertive and your pup will be most loyal companion you can imagine.
It is us humans who create dog monsters, no puppy is born aggressive, fearfull or nervous. They become like that due lack of proper guidance or absolutely wrong attention by their human owners.