toy poodle training

What a little sweetheart. 

I'm not a crate training expert, I train my dogs by confining to a small area of the kitchen with gates.  But, I think that by putting a pee pad in the crate you are teaching the puppy that it's okay to pee in the crate, and that's not a good idea. 

First of all...get rid of the pee pads.  They're useless and only hinder housebreaking.  By teaching the dog to use a pee pad in the house, you are not teaching him "It is ok to pee on the pee pad in the house."  You're just teaching him "It's ok to pee in the house."
 
Best thing to do is take your pup outside every 30 minutes (usually I say every hour, but in my experience smaller breeds go more often), and have him potty out there.
 
If you take him out and he doesn't potty, he sits in his crate for 15 minutes and then goes back outside to try again.  Once he's pottied outside, he gets run of the house.
 
Also, if the pup's crate is big enough to fit a pee pad in, it's too big.  There should never be enough space for a dog to potty in their kennel. 

That's how I housetrained my toy poodle, I kept her confined not to a crate, but to a small area of the kitchen, and I took her out every 1/2 hour.  When she would produce something she'd get great praise.  I've had friends tell me "well, I just can't get this dog house trained."  If you are willing to take a dog out the yard every 1/2 hour for 2-4 weeks, you will end up with a dog who is housetrained for life.  Small investment for a very wonderful carefree life with your dog. 

After my dog was housetrained, I did teach her to use tinkle pads when she's on the second floor of the house (she can't go up and down stairs).  But, I did that very long after her housetraining was established.  If she's on the first floor of the house, she asks for the door.  If she's on the second floor of the house, she goes to her tinkle pads.  She's a very bright dog and was able to tell the difference between the two.  I'm not sure  all dogs would make that distinction.  I agree that tinkle pad training or paper training to start with simply teaches the dog that it's okay to "go in the house."

i live in a condo...so the poodle can only go inside during the day.

Why? Isn't there anybody there to let her out?  Ask a good neighbor or hire a walker, or you will have problems later

It sounds like what you need to do is to litter train your pup.  You can do this with either tinkle pads in the litter box, or dog litter.  Here's a link to a thread about this very topic: 

http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=86787&mpage=1&key=𕠄

Bunni.com is the resident poodle guru, and is an expert on litter training very young pups.  If you scroll down through this thread, you'll see she gave another poster explicit directions on litter training a pup. 

A toy poodle can be litter or tinkle pad trained and are good indoor dogs, although they certainly love a big romp outside also. 

Are you gone all day, leaving this pup alone for a long time? 


 

thanks..i'll readup some more.