Have a 13wk old puppy who I'm struggling to house break! She happily goes out in the garden to toilet, which she's praised for, but she's still insistent on also going on my landlords lovely wooden flooring, I've tried pads, special cleaners to remove the odours etc, but she doesn't care. She's off to stay with my mother in law for 3 days in two weeks, want her clean by then. My last dog only took a week to train, she's a nightmare!! Any advice welcome :)

13 weeks is still very young to expect her to be fully house trained. Some dogs are really quick, some aren't, some bitches will wee in excitement and with greetings too which doesn't help. The worst thing you can do is to get cross with her, landlord's flooring or not. By doing so that is a recipe for a very worried dog.

It really is just a case of keeping up with the praise when she toilets in the right place - I prefer not to praise whilst they're mid flow as this can put some off, so end up not totally emptying themselves. Are you taking her out hourly when she is in the house? If not then you need to, if you are, then you may find you have to take her out every half hour.

The other thing to bear in mind is if another dog has wee'd on the flooring beforehand. If you are a tenant, can you say for sure that there hasn't been another young or elderly dog weeing on the flooring before you moved in ... does your pup go to the same sort of area each time? Look at the cleaning fluids you're using - anything containing ammonia will encourage her to re-cover the area as ammonia smells just like wee to dogs.

If you're thinking she's a nightmare I suspect you're already feeling frustrated, and maybe annoyed? If this is the case she will be picking up on that and the task will become so very much harder. Just chill out :) Buy a couple of wonderful mats from Splendid Pets (waterproof backing, scrub up quick, or can be hosed down) ... they're the industrial ones you see in the supermarket - not the most attractive but a god send if you're trying to protect good carpets/flooring from pup wee, and pop her in a puppy pen when she's unsupervised. Or you could attach a training line to her and yourself, she then goes where you go making it very easy to pick up the signs before she gets a chance to wee.

My GR pup is nearly 11 weeks and almost there as far as house training goes, but can't be fully trusted yet. Hence she only has access to one area of the house which is the kitchen/dining room. There is a child's stair gate to prevent her going anywhere else. This means I can keep a watchful eye on her most of the time. She was showing signs of taking a liking to the hall carpet as a suitable wee area, so I immediately got hold of a stair gate to prevent the habit forming. It's been a very useful piece of equipment and will eventually be used to stop the pup going upstairs once she can be trusted elsewhere in the house.
I take her out for a wee when she wakes up after a nap, after playtime, after meals and watch her at other times. She can goes about two and a half hours between wee's!
She has now begun to go to the door, sit by it and look pointedly at me, sometimes giving a whine, so she can go out. The signals that a pup needs to relieve itself are small, so you do need to keep an eye on them and get them out quick even if they are in the middle of a wee.
This pup is becoming clean very quickly, faster then the others I have had in the past, has been about 13 to 14 weeks on average, some later, and I think depends on the personality of the dog. I had one pup who was very nervous and took much longer as she was scared to go out and couldn't relax in order to "go"
Good luck

Thanks makes me feel better about it! She does tend to go in the same area I've bought stuff from my vets to eliminate the odours. I'll try some mats my house is a converted chapel so very open plan kitchen living room only part that's not carpeted, i will just take her out more often, she also has access to water, but it's a huge bowl & she drinks loads so maybe I'll keep it at a lower level.

Make sure you ditch the pads as all they do is teach the pup it is okay to toilet indoors.

I am still not certain that my pup is completely trained now - at nearly 6 months old.  A few weeks ago I found he had been upstairs on my landing and relieved himself - both ends!  He did it 2 days on the trot. We actually blamed my adult dog to begin with because the pup had been crated and walked while we were out - but I think he had nipped upstairs after I had taken him out when I got back.   I cleaned the carpet with my carpet cleaner and now only let him upstairs accompanied.  The door is open into the garden most of the time and he takes himself out.  I do let him come all round the house with me when I make the bed etc - so he sees it all as indoors not his toilet area.  When I take him out to the toilet I make sure I have no toys around otherwise he focusses on play instead of doing his business.  I gave up on pads very quickly when I realised that he was heading there to go - took ages to stop him going on my stone floor - it will mark if left.   

in all honesty, if the pup is very frequently toileting indoors then you're not watching her closely enough! :-)
you can't expect her to 'ask' out like an adult dog might at this point but you should be watching for any signs that she is about to go and immediately scoop her up and take her out. Signs would be sniffing, circling, any movement towards the door. As someone else asked, how often are you taking her out? It should still be every time after waking, eating, or playing and around every hour! She isn't going to learn to 'care' about going indoors, she just needs time and consistency to learn what is right.
personally I have also kept pups confined if I was unable to be actually watching them, I used to have a kennel but I think a crate would be a very good idea, unfortunately dogs learn both good and bad behaviours through repetition, every time she goes indoors it is going to be re-enforcing the habit. If you can break the habit by managing the situation so she doesn't get the opportunity to go indoors I think that would really help her learning.

good luck!

If you're only 'praising' her when she goes outdoors, that's not going to make enough of an impact - you need to be giving a treat immediately after she toilets in the right place.

> she also has access to water, but it's a huge bowl & she drinks loads so maybe I'll keep it at a lower level.

You are required by law to allow free access to water. 

Rather than line your vets pockets buying the latest expensive cleaner, use tried and tested stuff!  Ordinary biological washing powder will remove the smells that draw a dog back to the same place.  :-)

Thanks I'll use treats as she's extremely food orientated! As for the water what i meant to say is she has access to a very large bowl of it, I'll change it for a smaller one which should help keep tabs on her intake. As for going to toilet she goes out about every half hr, night times she's dry & crated from 9/10pm til 5.30/6am has been from 8 weeks & she's in her crate frequently during the day. I take her out as soon as she wakes. Walking she hardly ever goes
to toilet on a walk, tends to save it until she's got through the gate! I guess I'll just have to take her for toilet breaks more often :)

Your being too impatient, I would not expect a pup to have anything like full voluntary bladder control until 5 or 6 months. 

When they need to go they go.

Out of 10 dogs I have had from pups most were pretty good but two were slow and not anything like reliable until nearly 6 months.  These are from naturally clean breeds.

All have been clean re pooing from a very young age.

A change in environment and you may as well start from scratch so she won't likely be clean at your Mum's.