We house trained our puppy using pee pads on the floor. Now he will not relieve himself outside. What should we do?

Hello.

I have a 7 month old Maltese puppy that I am having great difficulty training to go to the bathroom outside. He is perfectly trained on puppy pads and never has accidents however making the transition to the outdoors has been rather unsuccessful. I have even tried taking the pads outside to make this transition easier for him to associate with but it doe not seem to be working. I have read that you suggest taking dogs on walks until they go but this puppy for some reason has a very strong bladder. Regardless of the time we spend walking him or taking him outside, he simply won't go. (I am referring to hours upon hours here!) He will hold it until we return to the house and either go on the pad or if we have removed the pad for training purposes, he will eliminate on the floor where the pad typically can be found.

I also realize that crate training is a critical component to potty training however this puppy seems to have issues with confined spaces. Even if he is with my husband and I and we close the door lets say when we are in the bathroom brushing our teeth, he will go absolutely crazy. We have tried crating him and have used all of the suggestions for crate training such as giving him his treats and food in the crate but have had no success. The crying doesn't concern me however, the chewing at the metal bars of the crate in addition to the shaking and excessive salivation do. I eventually thought that a baby gate would help him not feel so confined yet I would still be able to contain him to a small area however the problem with this idea is that he simply jumps over the gate.

Do you have any suggestions on how we can house train this puppy? Thank you for your time.

Lori