A couple of ideas I haven't seen anyone mentioned yet:
- spray vinegar (mixed with water in a spray bottle) on spots where she has accidents. The puppy will never go on that spot again. I did this (sprayed pet deodorizing spray followed by a vinegar/water spray) in her pen so that the only place that smelled good to for peeing was her litter box.
- use some kind of pan or litter box instead of the pads. Countless people have had trouble with pads, and that is because the puppy often sees the pad and the carpet as the same medium; it looks too similiar. But a litter box or pan looks competely different, and therefore, will recude the chance of confusion.
- IMO, crate training should only be used by people who are home enough to take the dog out of the crate every hour or so. In any other situation, it's animal cruelty and simply should not be tried. Keeping a puppy in a crate for more than 2 hours just isn't right (unless it's sleeping at night), they have too much energy that needs to be released. My 15 week old puppy always uses the litter box when she's in her pen. And she gives clear signals when she needs to go (like suddenly stop playing and just sniffing the floor non-stop), so we put her in the pen and she now goes right away most of the time. She knows peeing in the litter box gets her out of the pen. The only time she seems to have accidents is when a new person visits and she gets so excited she leaks.
And please have your husband read this:
http://www.crean.com/jimwillis/hcy.html
before giving away the dog.