Brimauster, I think you love your puppy! I really do! And I think you believe you are doing the right thing with the collar.
Our point is, that we would prefer you praise, treat, reward your young puppy when she does RIGHT. Rather than feeling you have to use the prong to correct when she does wrong.
I know I train all my puppies to go right outside immediately to their poo/pee place to squat. So they take care of that as soon as we exit the house. With the puppy party I give they learn to LOVE to go pee/poo for me. Then we play and continue to stay outdoors for awhile.
I have had some friends (not saying this is your situation) that accidentally 'taught' their puppies that as soon as they are done with their business the fun of the great outdoors is OVER and they immediately get taken back in the house. So the owners started noticing a similar situation to yours, the puppies started NOT pooping/peeing immediately cause they realized the longer they took to squat, the more time they got to have fun in the yard. So weird how we think we teach our dogs one thing when they are learning something else entirely!
Most of us love and use the prong collar. We just feel that for such a young puppy, that is clearly just showing 'play' behavior, it's not appropriate. Punishment for play, on a puppy, isn't clear. You may THINK you are 'teaching' your puppy to focus/pay attention and pee. While you may actually be teaching your puppy that normal play behavior with you is wrong. Or sniffing is wrong (not good in a tracking dog LOL).
Do you have a local park/fenced in area you can play with when you take your dog out? So you can just be playing with the pup and she'll just poo/pee when she has to. And no leash even needed if the area is safe and within a fence.
Interesting side note: when I first started owning dogs and training them, it was all about seeing my dog's do something wrong so I could then correct them to show them that wasn't right. So it USED to be (and this was also with trainers and in dog classes) all about actually setting up our dogs to do something wrong so we could 'correct' them with a choke or prong collar. So my poor first dog spent her training career doing wrong wrong wrong and being corrected corrected corrected..............(poor baby).
The current mindset for most dog training, especially for puppies, is to have an active and thinking member of the dog training 'team'. And the 'team' is made up of the pup AND the handler. With both of us having to THINK come up with ideas and being innovative. Because, and listen to this cause it rocked my world initially
It's about 'How can I THINK of ways to have my puppy do something RIGHT?'. Not just pop/correct on a leash (which is way easier and my instructor told me was the lazy way to train). I need to come up with a plan and see if it works. Using praise, treats, toys.
I want my pup to WANT to listen, want to learn, want to try new things to find out which of the new things is RIGHT! To earn my praise and reward. Rather than them end up being cautious and always getting corrected for being WRONG.
And I do correct my dogs. There are things that are wrong. But it's more along the lines of safety (jerking me off my feet by pulling the leash when they are adult? Running after a deer? Attacking another dog?) rather than almost any general training issues. Positive training isn't permissive....
Frankly, I want to be my dogs leader. And someone they want to listen to, learn from, and have guidance from. Not someone they feel they HAVE to listen to, or else.......
Some good sites to look at are:
http://www.clickerdogs.com/trainingreminders.htm
http://www.caninemind.com/id1.html
http://r-plusdogtraining.info/guide.htm