Timeouts not working, and a defiant pup

The problem with the supervision bit is I just can’t watch her very second of every day. I live alone, am a full time college student, part time worker. Fortunately with Covid I’m at home for school, but even so I need time to focus on my zoom meetings and time to focus on homework. A little over a week ago we were finally getting into a routine of, wakeup, walk, eat, go outside for a bit. And then when I sit at my desk for class, she would either lay in her bed or at my feet until I got up and was done. Which was exactly the routine I wanted, but now she’s pushing boundaries. And then for work I’m gone 5-8 hours a day 4 times a week (Though she’s very good when I’m gone, she hasn’t torn up anything or gone potty in the house and etc while I’m at work). I don’t want to crate her for that long because then she’ll associate crating with me leaving, or with being bored for way too long and it’ll turn the crate into a negative experience for her. And since the problems mainly arise when I’m in the house, I think it would just be a negative experience for nothing. She’s already stubborn enough, and if the crate is anything she doesn’t like it’s over she’ll never go in it again. I alreafd think I will have trouble getting her in a crate, because she was confiscated form a hoarding situation where she most likely was crated for days on end without attention. I basically inherited a 5 m/o pup with the people manners and training of an unweaned pup. So having to start from scratch like that has been hard. I’m also positive they abused her which is why she is so defiant and stubborn to do anything she doesn’t want. And since she is so stubborn and it’s often hard to get her attention back on me when she’s riled up and overstimulated (be it excitement or frustration). I’ve contemplated an e-collar as a means to get her attention, focus on the command Im giving her and then reward her for listening. Though ecollars are a slippery slope of used incorrectly. And since I’m no trainer I don’t know if I wanna risk it. I’ve been looking at all sorts of avenues to upkeep the training we’ve done for 2 months that has seemingly been undone by her teenage stage (getting new toys for motivation, getting a higher caliber treat for situations where I’m struggling to get her attention, getting a crate). But I’m obviously in the market for any advice that could help keep her on course to being a well trained dog.

Firstly, e-collars and shock collars are two vastly different things. E-collars don’t hurt them at all if used right and are very helpful tools. E-collar technology has evolved drastically making it so there are hundreds of settings, so you can find the right setting that will just get your dogs attention without hurting them, it's basically just pressure or a muscle contraction that gets your dogs attention. That's the right way of using them. And e-collars have many features not just sending a stimulus to their neck. That includes beeps, whistles, and other noises to get the dogs attention. So no, it’s not disturbing to want to use a proven highly effective tool that can be used to reorient overly eager dogs to pay attention. It’s literally just a stimulus that gets their attention or a noise that gets their attention when used correctly. Secondly, stubborn and defiant is the right word. Especially in her recent teenage phase. Because any effort to correct behavior, reorient her, even when I am fully calm and collected and trying not to agitate her, is met with heavy resistance, barking, not letting me approach her at all, nipping at my shoes, etc. no matter how I present myself to her, be it friendly, calm, quiet, or even on the opposite spectrum of trying to be more assertive, it is always met with resistance from her. It is intentional defiance most likely because of her previous home and however they treated her (which I expect was probably abusive). As for a trainer, I am not willing to pay $50+ for one session a week. Because that’s not consistent training or worth my money. None of the local trainers here are even doing at home training. And training her in some random dog park once a week isn’t helpful either. On your note, the main reason I don’t save her diet yet, is because she’s not house trained either (and it has been a struggle and half to house train her). So with her food only being given in the morning and mid afternoon, it gives me a good potty schedule of taking her out first thing in the morning to poop, and then after breakfast, once in the middle of the day, and then once after her dinner. I worry scattering her meal throughout the day will just make her poop more and I don’t want to have to relearn a whole new routine with her when there’s already so many challenges we’re already facing. I do have puzzle feeders with her train me treats on occasion since she loves them and they’re low calorie treats with no bad additives. As for a crate Im most likely going to try and crate train her for down time, but there is always a chance she responds negatively to a crate due to her unknown past. In which case I’d have to try something different. I’ve also purchased some new toys for her, because maybe she’s just getting bored of her current ones and taking it out on the carpet.

Knowing my dog, I think if she learns that crate means I’m leaving she’ll most likely make a game out of not getting into the crate as I’m about to leave, so I’ll most likely only use the crate for down time, and let her get familiar with sleeping in it with the door open and stuff. She doesn’t have separation anxiety, but I know if I add another cursor to me leaving the house she might get a little feisty. I normally out on shoes and pickup keys anyway when we go on walks, so there hasn’t been any key indicators for her to know when I’m leaving and when I’m not. I’d hate to add one and then cause a slew of problems. And yeah I know she’s in a teenager phase, which is why I’m in the market for some training advice to better handle this crazy stage of hers. My last dog was a small dog so I don’t think I noticed the teenager stage at all since small dogs are so easy to handle. I know it’ll pass, and some days she’s not even that bad, but boy oh boy are the bad days bad.

I reward her A LOT whenever she does what I wants (like bringing me a toy quietly instead of attention barking or getting rowdy) with both special treats that are separate form her daily training treats. That way it’s like an extra special reward. If I am on a zoom call and she’s not taking a nap, I have 2 toys that are exclusively for when I have zoom calls so they are also considered special. Or sometimes I’ll dip some cow hooves in chicken broth and she’ll gnaw on them for hours. I am planning on buying some new toys for her (including kong toys) specifically for my zoom calls as well. In terms of exercise she gets about 3-4 hours a day in walks, fetch, tug of war, etc. as for mental stimulation we do at least 2 training sessions a day, and she does have some puzzle feeders.as for classes, my local trainers are all crazy expensive and way out of budget for me (I’m talking like one class a week for like $50 per session). And it seems ineffective to only have one training session a week and it wouldn’t even be in my home. And the carpet is all over my bedroom, it’s not a rug , so tethering her wouldn’t stop her from getting access to it. I’ve resorted to just blocking off the area she takes particular interest in with something heavy until I can get someone to fix the carpet.