Ugh. Feeling your pain-- sounds like you might be in need of noseplugs.
Agree with everything that's already been posted. A little concerned that your pup poops 10x/day. Not a vet or breeder here, but it sounds like a lot. Worm at 4 months was going 2-3x/day max. If there are GI issues, better to have them addressed by the vet, otherwise, hard to housetrain due to the diarrhea/loose stools and sense of urgency (like people, they are not able to hold it as well when having GI problems).
In case this helps, this is what we did with Worm: HIGHLY recommend crate training. As someone posted, being in the crate helps them to hold it because they don't want to soil their living space. At 4 months and beyond, Worm was able to hold pee/poo 4-6 hours during the day, and 8 hrs at night staying in the crate overnight. Just be sure you really come back every 4-5 hours to let him out to go bathroom. Worm has never soiled his crate before (knock on wood).
Also, would GET RID of the puppy pads. That is because it is simpler to have them learn that it is unacceptable to go ANYWHERE in the apartment. We are in upstairs apartment too, btw. This is my bias, because my last dog, we newspaper trained him in the kitchen, and it was too confusing. he ended up going in every room in the house. he was not able to understand it was only ok to go on newspaper in the house and not everywhere else. Would not use the puppy pads to be able to stay away longer from the house. We always made sure we were home every 4-6 hrs for Worm and still do now (he is 9 months).
Also, like someone mentioned, it was super important to watch him like a HAWK. Follow him everywhere. Some of the best learning took place when we caught Worm in the act. Even if he peed a little indoors, that was good, because we picked him up and went outside, and he finished peeing out there. He figured out what we wanted pretty quick from this. Although we were super-tired, we had to watch him like a hawk for 1-2 months, and then not so much anymore because he understood it. He was actually pretty much housetrained by 5 1/2 months (we started at 4 months).
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
ps. reading your post again, you might need some help, given you just had knee surgery. We had to take Worm out all the time at that age. Also, want to stress the importance of never turning your back to him, as you wrote in your post. When you need to shower or do other things when you can't watch him, that is the time to put him in the crate. If he doesn't go outside, and you come back in, watch him and if he starts to make an accident, you gotta pick him up and head back outside again to finish the job. or put him in the crate as vb3 wrote-- so he can "think about pottying" for 5 min, and then take him out again.
Agree with everything that's already been posted. A little concerned that your pup poops 10x/day. Not a vet or breeder here, but it sounds like a lot. Worm at 4 months was going 2-3x/day max. If there are GI issues, better to have them addressed by the vet, otherwise, hard to housetrain due to the diarrhea/loose stools and sense of urgency (like people, they are not able to hold it as well when having GI problems).
In case this helps, this is what we did with Worm: HIGHLY recommend crate training. As someone posted, being in the crate helps them to hold it because they don't want to soil their living space. At 4 months and beyond, Worm was able to hold pee/poo 4-6 hours during the day, and 8 hrs at night staying in the crate overnight. Just be sure you really come back every 4-5 hours to let him out to go bathroom. Worm has never soiled his crate before (knock on wood).
Also, would GET RID of the puppy pads. That is because it is simpler to have them learn that it is unacceptable to go ANYWHERE in the apartment. We are in upstairs apartment too, btw. This is my bias, because my last dog, we newspaper trained him in the kitchen, and it was too confusing. he ended up going in every room in the house. he was not able to understand it was only ok to go on newspaper in the house and not everywhere else. Would not use the puppy pads to be able to stay away longer from the house. We always made sure we were home every 4-6 hrs for Worm and still do now (he is 9 months).
Also, like someone mentioned, it was super important to watch him like a HAWK. Follow him everywhere. Some of the best learning took place when we caught Worm in the act. Even if he peed a little indoors, that was good, because we picked him up and went outside, and he finished peeing out there. He figured out what we wanted pretty quick from this. Although we were super-tired, we had to watch him like a hawk for 1-2 months, and then not so much anymore because he understood it. He was actually pretty much housetrained by 5 1/2 months (we started at 4 months).
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
ps. reading your post again, you might need some help, given you just had knee surgery. We had to take Worm out all the time at that age. Also, want to stress the importance of never turning your back to him, as you wrote in your post. When you need to shower or do other things when you can't watch him, that is the time to put him in the crate. If he doesn't go outside, and you come back in, watch him and if he starts to make an accident, you gotta pick him up and head back outside again to finish the job. or put him in the crate as vb3 wrote-- so he can "think about pottying" for 5 min, and then take him out again.
