12 week old puppy pooping in his crate.

Hi new member here. I have a serious dilemma. I live in Brooklyn NY where there are many, many dogs. Since my puppy has not competed his final round of shots my vet has told me to not let him outside of my apartment. So I started crate training him right away and he did fine for the first few days. So I started trying to potty pad training him. He has no clue what it is, he either rips it up or lies down on it like it's his bed. Then after about 3 days he pooped in his crate cause I might not have made the divider small enough so I made it just small enough for him to turn around and lay down like everyone says, got Natures Miracle, cleaned everything up and replaced the blanket. He still did it again even though I was right there and the crate door was open! And today, he did it again today. I still have 3 weeks to go before I can get him his final round of shots.

I work from home so I keep a good eye on him but he's a very quiet dog and doesn't give me enough sounds or signals, like sniffing or circling cause he does that all the time. I'm completely out of ideas. Should I just risk it and just start taking him outside?

It's not unusual for pups to poop in their beds, try picking the poop up and leave it on the pad and see if he gets the idea. I take it you're using pads as you have no outside space at all not even a balcony.

Thanks for the reply, yeah no balcony and I live on the 4th floor.

Not sure if you can but buy a piece of grass or artificial grass and see if that will encourage him to go, maybe put it in the bathroom. Obviously put it on layers of plastic and keep an eye on him. Use a word like hurry up or be quick when he goes so that eventually he goes on command. Leave the door open and put him in there everytime he has eaten and played. He should get the message quite quickly.

How big is the dog, I once trained a Pug to use a cat litter tray.

He's a Boston Terrier, so he's about 12in? The problem is, he doesn't mind lying in poo. I've tried putting a little bit of his poo on his training pad so he gets the idea and he just lays on it like it's his bed. Just tried a real grass training box and he does the same thing. He just doesn't mind being amongst feces it seems.