If I had done anything differently, I would have crate-trained Rosie for real (she's half rattie, half ACD but she's built and mentally like a sturdy rattie at 25 pounds). 
I had never had a dog before and I lived in a small place next to a neighbor that took a night job 2 weeks after I brought the puppy home.
I ended up having no choice but to use puppy pads while I was gone at work and I used the crate at night and as her "time-out" spot (this ended up working for me, given the space we lived in).
I got her to the point where she was on a good schedule - she'd wait for me to come home at lunch and after work but not if I allowed access to the spot where the puppy pads used to be.

I have since moved into a bigger place where there are 4 other women like me- single girls with smallish dogs but Rosie is admittedly challenging and I don't want to subject the nice neighborhood to mornings of Rosie crying in a crate.

Again, she is to the point where if she's denied access to the spot where she thinks she ought to be allowed to go then she will hold it.  The trade off of moving to a better place was that it's further away and I can't get home at lunch anymore.  She does hold it all day but sadly, she can't be trusted even for an hour so when I leave, she's in my bedroom.
An odd sidenote: She only has doody accidents, rarely does she pee in the house.

We're finally at a happy place.
She knows to go outside and as long as she's denied access to her spot inside, she is really good about not having accidents!

I do think that if I'd committed to crate training correctly, she would be a little bit better in terms of seperation axienty and in terms of being able to focus and behave but we're getting there!
She's always going to be a handful and I wouldn't trade her for a gentle lazy dog for the world!