Anyone with experience with housetraining a puppy in a highrise?

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone, a little background info: we are a DC family currently living abroad in a mayor city on the 31st floor of a highrise. The apartment has lots of space. We have a 15 week old small breed puppy and are completely in love with him! He is bright and cuddly and just adorable. He is still getting his vaccines and is not allowed (per vet's advice) to go outside to the park yet. All kinds of weird diseases and ticks around here in the tropics.
We plan on taking him out twice a day for walks in a couple of weeks when all his vaccines are in but because it will take forever to get him out to relieve himself we are house-training him to go on piddle pads always in the same spot in the laundry room. So far he is doing fantastic as long as he is in the kitchen-laundry-family room area (which is a very large space that can be closed and is the place where he "lives" during the day) No accidents at all. Whenever he needs to go, he goes to his pad with no problem.
Thing is as soon as we allow him around the rest of the house (bedrooms) he starts peeing-pooping everywhere. He particularly LOVES rugs...
I can wait to give him free reign of the house but so far, even if he has just relieved himself, the moment he leaves his area its a disaster.
I know this is a particular situation that is very different to just taking the puppy outside, but I was hoping someone had any advice. I have read all about crate training, but I don't know if it would help in this case. He sleeps in a playpen and can already hold it through the night from 11 to 6.
Appreciate any advice!

[Anonymous]

We didn't live in a highrise, but we used a crate and a sleighbell (attached to top of stairs by the door in our condo). We hid treats in his crate for him to enjoy being in there and associate it with a positive place. And to train him for going outside - everytime we took him out, we rang the bells. Eventually, when he needed to go out, he could go over and ring the bell (took about a week or so. He was 10 weeks old).

He loved his crate, btw. That is their special den. Also, when you see the dog sniffing around, he's probably looking for a nice place to go potty. So look for signs he needs to go potty.

Hope this helps.