Struggling with house breaking/crate training

y2jake215

I have a new puppy and I’m totally unsure what I’m doing is right. I’ll try and list what I’ve done and see if somethings wrong, if it’s fixable.

I tried putting her in the crate at night from day 1. Everyone said “whatever you do, don’t let her out when she cries.” Well the first two night she pooped the crate. I’ve slept near the crate and let her outside to pee/poop the last two but she clearly hates being in it, and her poop is getting wet, and I think it’s making her very anxious. I don’t understand how you’re supposed to get her to not hate her crate by starting her in it so soon, but no other resource gave an alternative on where she can sleep otherwise. I feel she now hates her crate (won’t go in really on her own accord, very cautious with it) and I don’t know if I should start over with her sleeping elsewhere (where?!) or just power through.

In two weeks (now 10 days) I have to go back to work and though I could leave her at my parents for a week or two longer to work on training, fairly soon she has to be able to be at my apartment during the day (I will come back at lunch).

Could I leave her in a pen attached to the crate during the day and just puppy pad the floor until she gets it? Am I going to confuse with her a million things? I’m trying to housebreak her by bringing her outside constantly, praising during the act and a treat right after, and she’ll usually do it outside, but often will sit down, try to get brought back in, or will pull towards the door. She has a bunch of accidents inside, usually if the variety where she dashes off for a second and gets pee/poo out before I can stop her, even under close supervision.

We’ve also been kind of letting her roam the first floor (while supervised) so now if I put her in a pen she cries some of the time.

I just feel like I’ve screwed up a bunch of different ways already despite having had a plan, and that I won’t be able to get anything done before I have to work. I’m getting incredibly, incredibly stressed, and barely sleeping is not helping.

Any advice? What I should abandon? What I should start over? Whether the puppy pad plan can work? I’m not married to crate training. I just want her house trained

y2jake215

I should add she’s not completely freaking out at night - not since I started taking her on business trips overnight. I’m basing this on her response to the crate during the day. I’ve also bought a clicker to incorporate into potty training.

Fiendishrabbit

Well. Either you misunderstood your friends, or they're wrong.

How crate training is supposed to go:
1. You put the crate in the puppy's confines from day one, but you don't put the puppy in the crate. Instead you put a blanket (which you should have rubbed so that it smells of you) and put some toys that you've played with during the day in the crate.
2. Then you start to put the food bowl in the crate for feeding time.
3. Then when the puppy is used to that you close the gate when the puppy is eating, and then keep it closed for longer and longer times. The first time the puppy starts to whine, you open the door. Then you keep the door closed for a shorter time. It's at this point where you shouldn't let the dog out of the crate if it whines, but instead do it once they've stopped whining (otherwise you'll have a "if I whine, they open the crate" behavior, which isn't what you want).
4. Once you've reached the point where the dog is comfortable in a closed cage you can start to leave the room. First stay with the puppy for a few minutes, then leave, then come back and play a bit with the puppy before you open the cage. You shouldn't put the puppy in the crate without supervision until it can handle about 45-60 minutes in the crate without you.


Right now I think crate training is off the table. You have enforced negative notions about the crate, and as such you're screwed. You'll have to start from scratch with something different. Pen off the kitchen or a different smaller area, and start over with something that doesn't have negative notions attached.

My advice:
1. Don't get excited over anything the dog does when pooping. When the dog poops where you want it, say "good dog" (and maybe a quick scritching) and that's it. If it has an accident, don't let it bother you.
2. Puppies poop a relatively short time after eating. Like, within 30 minutes. Eat->wait 5 minutes->Take a walk. When out for a "poopy walk", do the same walk every time. Puppies need to feel safe to poop, and as such it needs familiar places. You can do recreational walks in different areas, but do the same walk every time for poopwalks.
3. Puppy pad the entire pen. Then once the dog is starting to feel comfortable and doesn't have accidents on a daily basis, start to reduce the padded area. At some point, if the dog feels that it "has to go" it will do so on the pad even if it's just a single pad in a single corner. At some point the dog will no longer use the pad as long as you just replace the pad without reaction when it poops on the pad, and briefly praising it when doing it outside..

y2jake215

There was a lot of contradictory info from a lot of different sources, not just friends. But regardless, sounds like it’s off the table. Can I just use the pen now? She doesn’t freak out in there really. But I don’t see how you can do all the door stuff, letting them feel it out on their own first, etc with a pen.

Also, do i continue taking her out all the time to pee/poop with the puppy pad method or will she be confused/do I “click” when she uses the pad or only positively reinforce going outside to pee

y2jake215

Like, where is she supposed to sleep otherwise, if not the pen

Fiendishrabbit

How large is the pen?
I don't have any perfect answers. Last time I house trained a puppy was 25 years ago, and then we newspapered the entire kitchen (with a gate on the kitchen door). Letting the dog out into the rest of the house before house training was complete wasn't even an option, because the rest of the house was wall-to-wall carpeted.

y2jake215

Fiendishrabbit wrote: »

How large is the pen?
I don't have any perfect answers. Last time I house trained a puppy was 25 years ago, and then we newspapered the entire kitchen (with a gate on the kitchen door). Letting the dog out into the rest of the house before house training was complete wasn't even an option, because the rest of the house was wall-to-wall carpeted.

She sleeps in it fine - she will cry a little if I leave her in it alone. I’m just not sure how to avoid bad associations if she HAS to be in this - much like she got from the crate from being in it.

Puppy pads are on the way- I will replace the tarp with them tonight

Fiendishrabbit

Should be enough. Not ideal, but it should work.
Puppy pad the area, but once the puppy gets used to the pads remove them from the area around the food bowl.

Blameless Cleric

hey Jake, have had and helped potty train like a LOT of dogs over the course of my life - @Belasco32 for her expertise here too since she has like dog training certifications and stuff -

never used a clicker but:

yes keep taking her out all the time while doing puppy pads. Our method was, we'd keep the puppy somewhere without carpet (this was our bottom floor so nbd for us but yeah), and take it out to the back yard for supervised bathroom time almost hourly, and heap TONS of praise on it any time it was witnessed going. At the same time, what we'd do is be diligent enough to catch the puppy any time it started to pee/poop indoors, and immediately grab and transport the puppy to a puppy pad so it finished going there and then heap praise on it. Any messes that missed a pad that we somehow didn't catch, we'd clean up with some kind of strong pet odor eliminator while not calling the puppy's attention to it/ignoring it while cleaning. At first we made a few big squares of puppy pads throughout the house, but then over time we only had one square of them right by the back door, so the puppy associated the "ok place to pee" with the door to the outside. Then over time after the puppy learned to control itself enough to make it to the back door pad, we started paying attention and moving the puppy outside while it was going on those pads. Eventually - puppy scratches/barks at the back door when it wants to go out and does not pee/poop inside! This is a process of a few months generally, because when you first get a puppy it is generally physically too immature to actually control its bladder, like a baby.


The big things were to not get upset or be negative when it makes messes inside - no reaction at all except cleaning it up is best. There will be lots of messes, it's a puppy and again is literally too young to be able to control its bowels/bladder so at least for a while, no matter how hard you're working on training, there will just be pee and poop in your home.

We don't crate train (though we do have a dog that was crate trained at the shelter) so can't help you there; never had a problem just letting the puppy sleep in with someone, generally in my experience they sleep through the night and don't pee on you or anything and if they wake you up at 4am you can just toss 'em out back to pee and then go back to sleep on the couch for a bit when they come back in.

Doodmann

My vet mother-in-law highly recommends this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Raising-Puppy-Revised/dp/0316083275

This isn't the version we had but I assume its the same stuff.
It's got a lot of tips but also is good at the general philosophy associated with dog stuff.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Your crate is way too big for a puppy. It should be big enough for her to turn around and that’s it. It is meant to mimic a den like area and should be covered in blankets and feel safe. Once you’ve bonded a bit more with the puppy put some old socks of yours in a smaller crate. Then occasionally hide treats in the crate. During the course of the day she will discover them and associate the crate with good things. Make the crate a neutral object and let her associate with it. It’s hard and frustrating to wait for natural behaviors to arise to reinforce but it is best because it means crate time has nothing to do with you personally. I also recommend feeding the puppy in the crate. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Just start putting her food and water in the crate. Keep all toys in the crate. Just throw them in there whenever you are picking up around the house. It again provides a natural opportunity for the puppy to enter and exit the crate to get her own things and it’s a stress free action for her.

Keep this small crate near wherever you lounge around in the house. You can even keep it next to your bed. She may even enter and exit it on her own while you are relaxing. But you definitely need a much smaller crate. The one you have will come in handy when she is an adult.

There are more laborious ways to train crate acceptance but I would try this approach first.

Also I demand a closeup picture of the doggo.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Oh you can also put the small crate inside the pen.

y2jake215

The crate I have (but you can’t see? How did you know!) IS way too big, but it has a movable divider so I had made it very small for her

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

When you divide it make sure she can’t see the other side. Basically mimicking a cave is what you want to go for.

y2jake215

So my current plan is to continue using the pen while I re-crate train. I honestly think i could probably have her just sleep in the crate, she took to the pen with a lot less whining (though not zero), but I will still try to build more positive feelings first. I may have been overreacting to separate poop issues, some random puppy behavior, and my anxiety over having her poop in there a few times out of my own ignorance. The pen has several puppy pads in it, but they are “in case of emergency”, covering the half of the pen car enough from food and bedding that she seems to use them fine (so far).

When I have to start going to work in ~10 days, I will continue using the pen, and come home 1-2 times a day, probably 2 until she’s old enough to reliably hold 4 hours, and hopefully get to the point where crating is okay (and will switch to that at night).

I only worry that doing this will cause her to think it’s okay to pee inside (though hopefully, with no praise for using pads, she won’t prefer it over holding it for outside).

I’m mostly just concerned that I will reinforce destructive behaviors, like peeing on the floor is ok, that can’t be trained out, etc. It’s possible I am, like in many other phases of my life, overthinking and catastrophizing and otherwise giving myself unnecessary anxiety over this.

Oh and @Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud here is pup

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Yayyyy. Almost all dog behaviors can be trained away so don’t worry about messing it up too much!

mts

Puppy pads by themselves won't make house training harder unless you are actually training the dog to go on the pad

y2jake215

mts wrote: »

Puppy pads by themselves won't make house training harder unless you are actually training the dog to go on the pad

I’m not training her to, but so far today she certainly seems to be aiming for it on her own

Figgy

..this is not how you crate train. That "crate" might as well be the entire house.

It's pooping in the crate because why the hell not? The crate should be only large enough for the dog to fit in, turn around, and lie down.

I recommend reading a dog training book.

y2jake215

Again - the picture is not of the crate. The crate is the right size, and she is not currently being kept in it

I am keeping her in the pen while doing the steps recommended to build positive associations with the [not shown] crate - feeding her meals in there, keeping toys in there, having treats in there so she’ll hop in on her own

Shadowfire

Figgy wrote: »

..this is not how you crate train. That "crate" might as well be the entire house.

It's pooping in the crate because why the hell not? The crate should be only large enough for the dog to fit in, turn around, and lie down.

It's that small because they won't shit where they sleep.

y2jake215

For reference, the crate (currently sans bedding)

Belasco32

Blameless Cleric wrote: »

hey Jake, have had and helped potty train like a LOT of dogs over the course of my life - @Belasco32 for her expertise here too since she has like dog training certifications and stuff -

never used a clicker but:

yes keep taking her out all the time while doing puppy pads. Our method was, we'd keep the puppy somewhere without carpet (this was our bottom floor so nbd for us but yeah), and take it out to the back yard for supervised bathroom time almost hourly, and heap TONS of praise on it any time it was witnessed going. At the same time, what we'd do is be diligent enough to catch the puppy any time it started to pee/poop indoors, and immediately grab and transport the puppy to a puppy pad so it finished going there and then heap praise on it. Any messes that missed a pad that we somehow didn't catch, we'd clean up with some kind of strong pet odor eliminator while not calling the puppy's attention to it/ignoring it while cleaning. At first we made a few big squares of puppy pads throughout the house, but then over time we only had one square of them right by the back door, so the puppy associated the "ok place to pee" with the door to the outside. Then over time after the puppy learned to control itself enough to make it to the back door pad, we started paying attention and moving the puppy outside while it was going on those pads. Eventually - puppy scratches/barks at the back door when it wants to go out and does not pee/poop inside! This is a process of a few months generally, because when you first get a puppy it is generally physically too immature to actually control its bladder, like a baby.


The big things were to not get upset or be negative when it makes messes inside - no reaction at all except cleaning it up is best. There will be lots of messes, it's a puppy and again is literally too young to be able to control its bowels/bladder so at least for a while, no matter how hard you're working on training, there will just be pee and poop in your home.

We don't crate train (though we do have a dog that was crate trained at the shelter) so can't help you there; never had a problem just letting the puppy sleep in with someone, generally in my experience they sleep through the night and don't pee on you or anything and if they wake you up at 4am you can just toss 'em out back to pee and then go back to sleep on the couch for a bit when they come back in.

Couple of corrections -
I'm not a certified trainer, I've worked with many and done a lot of studying, but I'm not officially anything other than a mom & a wife.

More importantly - we used what's currently called "Balaced" training. If we busted the puppy (after it's old enough to reasonably expect the dog to be able to not have accidents) having an accident we would be very visibly and vocally disappointed. The balance part in this is approach is very important, in the words of a couple of dog trainers and a human psychologist "it's just as, if not more, important to catch and react to good behavior as it is to catch and react to bad behavior."

In my experience there are a lot of similarities between parenting and dog training - which I'm not saying for amusement value, I think it's actually important. Just like with parenting there is no one right way, no one right book, and no one size fits all answer. The biggest thing I've learned in all of the classes, reading, tainings, conferences, and multiple individual and group lessons with trainers is that it's okay to do what works for your household. No two dogs are identical in temperament, every house hold has its own needs to be healthy, and, unfortunately, like parenting there are fads and a lot of potential for judgement.

It sounds to me like you're headed in the right direction for the results you're after... Really it's mostly just read a lot, get opinions, and use what feels right to you (note: "right" not "easy") and file the rest away as potential future use information.

Feel free to PM me and I'll be happy to try and help however I can.

Figgy

y2jake215 wrote: »

Again - the picture is not of the crate. The crate is the right size, and she is not currently being kept in it

I am keeping her in the pen while doing the steps recommended to build positive associations with the [not shown] crate - feeding her meals in there, keeping toys in there, having treats in there so she’ll hop in on her own

Sorry I skipped a few posts and missed it. That was lazy.

y2jake215

She’s having trouble actually getting to sleep, lots of shuffling, but zero crying or whining. Progress...

y2jake215

She spent the whole night in the crate with zero whines or cries - I took her out 3-4 times so no accidents or anything either.

However this morning after she got taken out to pee/poo, she came back to the crate and pulled out all of her toys (she’ll still keep grabbing any toy that goes in and pull it out)

She didn’t seem particularly interested in food at all this morning, but it took an hour plus for her to want to go in and eat it.

Are these signs she was very unhappy in the crate? Or just normal for a puppy learning what it’s like to be in there all night? Again, no crying or trying to get out, when I’d take her out to pee I’d put her down outside and she’d climb back in to sleep, and as far as I saw through puppy camera she wasn’t awake in there, she was back to sleep quickly.

E: immediately after posting this she hopped in her crate to chill for a minute lel

mts

Sounds normal. My dog is crate trained but he doesn't go in to chill out. The only thing I would consider is taking a lot of the stuff out. Some blankets and a bone or something is fine but that seems like a lot of toys in there

Mugsley

Not that this helps much, but we crate trained my (now 11 y.o.) dog. He now gets to lay wherever he wants throughout the house, but he still tends to prefer laying in the crate with the door open. During the day, he tends to sleep near a floor vent, but when we are home he ends up in the crate of his own accord.

Yours will get there if you stay with it. You're making progress!

y2jake215

Thanks everyone - helping put my sleepless mind at ease so far

However, second night in crate - woke her up after 2 hours and she pooped, but I noticed no pee.. she hopped out and went to a different bedding when I put her back in, and yep, she peed... no crying or barking to be let out, though - I was in the room the whole time. That doesn’t seem good. If it matters, it seemed like she peed dead center, not in a corner and tried to go to the other corner.

Does this necessitate a change of methods or is it just a random accident that happens to puppies from time to time?
Maybe the crate is still too big? I can’t shorten it widthwise which is all I’d be concerned about, maybe have to buy a new one? - picture for size vs crate width comparison, she takes up maybe 75% of the width at this age? (I have made the crate a lot smaller vertically since this picture)



I could also try removing the bedding.. I have been getting up every 2-2.5 hours to take her out already to preempt these but she snuck one in

Darkewolfe

One of the positive reinforcement steps that really matters is to dedicate a ton of your time to getting her outside when you know she's going to have to go to the bathroom soon, then catching her going outside and rewarding the heck out of her. It's really important to getting the other side of things, where she starts to associate needing to go to the bathroom with wanting to go out so she can get rewarded. Are you doing that at the same time?

Lots of people recommend taking a few days off work to dedicate some time to that in particular, since you have to really carefully watch the dog.

y2jake215

Darkewolfe wrote: »

One of the positive reinforcement steps that really matters is to dedicate a ton of your time to getting her outside when you know she's going to have to go to the bathroom soon, then catching her going outside and rewarding the heck out of her. It's really important to getting the other side of things, where she starts to associate needing to go to the bathroom with wanting to go out so she can get rewarded. Are you doing that at the same time?

Lots of people recommend taking a few days off work to dedicate some time to that in particular, since you have to really carefully watch the dog.

I took two weeks off and have been taking her out probably every 2 hours 24 hours a day - but she stopped accepting treats after going like 3-4 days ago! I still lay on the praise but food always better

mts

that still seems really big especially since she is so tiny. she can go to the opposite corner and still sleep on the other side.
I would say pick up a small one but keep that around for when she is trained since she can have more space.


accidents do happen. i would not worry too much. that bedding amount looks ok to me. you can stick a puppy pad under the blanket to keep mess down.

other things to try
1. make sure she goes out before going to bed.
2. you can pull water after 8 or so or whatever.
3. make sure you praise alot when she does go outside.
4.

y2jake215

Got a smaller crate, have been making sure to do the other things as well

Yet last night I put her in crate for bed and she barked for 30 min until I went to bed also, this morning she was napping so I put her in he crate for 10 minutes to take a shower and she woke up and barked the whole time and peed in it

Starting to lose my mind

y2jake215

I took her out to pee/poo after going to bed, I put her back in the crate to go clean up the poop (i needed a flashlight) and I’ve been waiting 30+ min for her to stop barking so I can reenter my room. At least I know she’s empty and can’t go in her crate... prob will anyway

Creagan

How old is this puppy?

A good general rule of thumb with dogs is that they can only hold it for however many months old they are. 4 months = 4 hours before an accident's inevitable, for example.

Other things to look for would be if Puppy has accidents outside of her crate. (If it's only happening in her crate, then there's something else going on that needs to be addressed.) Is there any kind of pattern to these accidents? (Like, do they occur after a specific amount of time in her crate? Do accident locations correspond to the conditions in which Puppy found herself in her crate? Does she prefer to pee in her crate over your house/the outdoors? Does she have an accident in her crate when she can see you? If she has an accident in the crate while you're present, is there sniffing behavior before the accident or is she just looking at you and going?)

Figuring out those things can help narrow down what the problem is, and make it easier to address the issue. Sometimes a dog will totally understand potty training, but have a separate problem submissive peeing or revenge peeing. We dog-sat a toy poodle that was totally house-trained, but would steal your shoes and poop in them if you didn't play with her in the mornings. My sister's dog was house-trained, but has some anxiety issues and would submissive-pee in my father's office every morning unless you caught her fast enough. (Solution was to carry her out to the yard every morning and make sure she couldn't even SEE Dad's office. Once she had her first pee outside, she was usually okay.) My dog developed a revenge-peeing problem despite being otherwise fully potty trained, and would mark my father's favorite chair every chance he got. (I know it wasn't a potty training issue, because it only started after my dad was short with me in front of the dog. And when we were at my apartment, he was FINE. He thankfully stopped a few weeks after we got him neutered.)

The only other tip I can think of is sometimes puppies benefit from having a command associated with doing their business. I accidentally taught my dog "go potty" (pee) because I repeated that phrase so often when I took him out, and it turned out to be SUPER helpful potty training him. Length of potty walks dropped dramatically, and I was able to get him to go regularly enough that he developed a sort of pee schedule. (He is very easily distracted so being able to remind him why we were outside was a godsend.)

y2jake215

Update: I basically have been following all the advice given in the thread (smaller crate, no water after 8, I say go potty every time too, rewarding her for doing it, everything)

We went to upstate New York for Labor Day weekend, and she was great. 4 days, 1 indoor pee, 1 indoor poo, slept through the night in her crate (with a couple wake ups by me to take her out each night) with almost no yapping, pretty good about being put in it to sleep during the day. Even went to the door to alert me of needing the bathroom a couple times (though maybe coincidental)

Then she got back to my parents’ and has been a nightmare. 4+ accidents a day despite watching her like a hawk. Today I took her out, she peed, and 30 min later peed on the floor. I grabbed her, took her outside, and she peed more. 15 min later she peed on the floor again. Took her out at 820, she peed, peed on the floor again at 9 right before being taken out before bed. She doesn’t give off easily noticeable signals she’s about to, it’s pretty immediate, and it’s happening so soon after taking her out to pee it’s unexpected. During the night she’s been okay, but again, getting up twice to take her out (and she usually goes pee twice and poop at least once during these).

Not to mention today I had to leave her in her crate at home for the first time while I was at work. I hired a dog walker to come twice, so her schedule went:

Last person left house at 8, took her out right beforehand.
First walk - 1030-11.
Second walk - 130-2.
Brother got home around 240 (though it was supposed to be me at 430 or so)

As far as I could tell from my dog camera, she didn’t cry/bark THAT much during the day. But I’m pretty sure she wet the crate at least once. The towel was damp, and even though I left water in there for her, I don’t think she could’ve spilled that much.

I’m just at a loss at what I can do at this point. How she acted in NY leads me to believe she may just smell all her previous accidents at my parents’, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about this. I’ve cleaned every accident from the beginning with the most recommended enzymatic cleaner. I literally can’t have her watched much more than I am. 2 walks a day is already expensive, I plan on coming home an additional time when we’re in my new apartment and can make it for lunch. She just needs to... stop peeing, and she won’t. I was utterly hyper vigilant tonight the entire night and she still managed 3 accidents on me, plus one on the dog walker on the way out the door and however many she had in her crate.

E: I think i will do the “safe zone” fully puppy padded method around an open crate for now. I don’t think I have any other options. Though when left alone, my puppy had started chewing on and biting pads so... we’ll see I guess. Ugh. I wish I could just start over. She’s going to bark and whine all the time being confined to a pen instead of the whole house. And I won’t be able to replace soiled pads while at work, and I doubt dog walkers will. So she’ll be covered in pee and poop when i get home, and all her toys. I really hope all of these false starts are fixable.

I basically just don’t know if these are necessary steps backward or if I am making things unnecessarily difficult and confusing the dog further.

E2: I think it would be best if I summarized my actual problem into a more concise post so I will do that soon when I have time

Darkewolfe

Let me just say that having a puppy kind of sucks for everyone. They're miserable babies. Don't think you're necessarily doing something wrong. Puppies are kind of awful.

mts

My previous dog hated crates and was fine sleeping with us. During the day we kept her gated off in the kitchen so if she had an accident it was Easy to clean up and there was nothing to destroy easily

mts

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Let me just say that having a puppy kind of sucks for everyone. They're miserable babies. Don't think you're necessarily doing something wrong. Puppies are kind of awful.

And then they do something cute and you forget they are assholes. Until they then do something to remind you of rhat

Shadowfire

mts wrote: »

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Let me just say that having a puppy kind of sucks for everyone. They're miserable babies. Don't think you're necessarily doing something wrong. Puppies are kind of awful.

And then they do something cute and you forget they are assholes. Until they then do something to remind you of rhat

Just like kids!

Creagan

• A change of environment can lead a dog to temporarily regress in house training. That could explain why she was progressing on your trip, then back to square 1 at your parents house. If my family took my childhood dog on vacation with us, he'd pee indoors at least once to mark his territory. Even as an otherwise fully housebroken, adult dog.
• Sometimes, having a larger "territory" space can make it harder for a dog to understand the difference between indoors and outdoors. Another possible reason for why she improved on your vacation, then regressed in your parents house. My current dog really struggled with house-training the first couple weeks I had him, when I was staying with my parents for Winter Break. Then we went back to my 500 square ft apartment and he improved dramatically.
• Pee pads can confuse some dogs. We had to discontinue pee-pad training with my current dog when it became obvious he could not tell the difference between an area rug and a pee pad.
• They make fabric pee pads that a puppy can't tear up & eat. We used these with my current dog. They weren't the best. Pee will soak through the bottom if the puppy has an accident in the same place often enough. But they make ones with waterproof bottom layers like this that might work.
• I put baking soda down over any area where my dog'd had an accident. (I can't smell and get neurotic about cleaning.) It seemed to deter him from re-marking old spots, because he didn't like sniffing baking soda. Maybe a little baking soda sprinkled in areas your puppy's marked will help?

Small dogs sometimes pee due to excitement. Are you playing with her when these accidents happen? Play can work a dog up to the point where they just pee without warning. Or is something happening immediately prior to the accidents, like somebody walks into a room, or the TV gets turned on?

You should also watch to see if peeing as the dog walker (or anybody) leaves becomes a pattern. Stress can also trigger accidents and if your puppy has separation anxiety that could explain at least some of what's going on. (Puppy sees an indication she's about to be left alone. Puppy panics and wets herself.)