toilet training - what am i doing wrong?

I don't know where I am going wrong with toilet training, my puppy is now over 4 months old and we don't seem to be getting anywhere.
I take her out regularly but it just isn't working.
If she does go outside (rare!) then she gets loads of praise and a treat but if inside then we do not acknowledge her and just clean it up.
More often than not we I take her out and she runs round the garden for 10 minutes sniffing around as if she wants to go but then doesn't so we come back inside, she then usually goes to the toilet immediately when she comes back inside. This is a problem with poos more than wees, I can count on one hand the number of times she has pood outside.
I really don't know what else to do, I have been following all advice but no luck, anyone else having or had similar problems?
She is a jack russell chihuahua cross and i read that chihuahuas are difficult to house train but should it take this long?
I am having nightmares about her turning out like Sharon Osborne's chihuahuas after watching them on The Osbornes where they were just running all over the house and pooing everywhere, on sofas and on guests included!
Help please!
(on the bright side, she is improving with the biting so thanks very much for all the advice I got on here about that!)

Hi nic, can I ask, when she does do a wee/poo outside do you praise her and then immediately bring her back in the house?

We found with Roxy she started holding it until she got back inside because she never wanted to go back inside. So now we have to allow her to wee/poo and then carry on playing with her outside so she knows shes not going to go straight back in the house. Just an idea? But to be honest it could be 1 of many things that is slowing the process.

Yes we do bring her back in when she has done it, that seemed to be the advice so she knew that she was going outside for a reason, i will try letting her play a bit more outside though because that makes sense, thanks for the tip.

Are you catching her in the act, when she goes indoors?
If you catch her, yell "no" so she stops going and quickly pick her up and put her outside, stay out there with her until she has finished what she started indoors, then really praise her up, if you want to try what dobiegirl says try having a game everytime she goes outside before taking her back in. I dont play outside with chance when hes been, so he associates the garden wth toileting, when i know he has got the hang of it then ill play outside with him
Take her out about every hour, and stay out there with her until she does do something, no matter how long your out there dont bring her back in until she has done something, even if its just a dribble

Its been years since I had a pup but I can remember going outside very regularly. We would not play with him outside until he had done something, and as Dobiegirl says, he would then get praised and have a play before we went back in. He learnt very quickly, but I have no doubt that different dogs learn at different speeds.

When inside the house, watch her like a hawk - as soon as she shows any signs of being about to do something, rush her outside & then of course praise when done outside.

Also of course important to make sure that the area inside where she has been is throughly cleaned - any remaining smell will encourage her to go to the same place.

I must admit i am guilty of not stopping her when i catch her going inside, the reason being that i did a couple of times and she ran away still peeing/pooing and made a huge mess, i should put toilet training as a priority though i suppose or i will have years of mess cleaning ahead of me instead of a few weeks of pee trails around the house!

I agree with Sara. If you see her about to "go" in the house just tell her "no" then take her outside. After she's finished outside then praise highly. Best if you can catch her before she starts (for obvious reasons) watch for her sniffing around etc then take her straight out.
Good luck

It really is worth putting the time/effort in now. Th more you watch her the more you will get used to seeing when she is about to go - catching her just before she has actually started is best IMO. Good Luck!

Minihaha did a piece for house training but i cant find it, i remember cause i printed it out so i could keep reading it.

Can someone put a link to it please

I think she posted it for me before but thanks anyway, have followed her advice but doesn't seem to be working, will follow the new tips I have got on her today though