Housetraining help! Fletcher is not doing so great with it!

I feel your pain on this one, our new baby is almost 7 months old now. Potty training was tough! I too hated seeing him crated too much. Some people say to leash them to you. It does seem they disappear to have their accidents so that might work. I kept ours within sight at all times or crated him. Since I didn't like him crated, I generally kept him with me and watched him well.

Fletcher is still very young so I wouldn't be too concerned at this point. I'd just keep consistent and keep him with you at all times (or crated.)

He is doing super well for being 9 weeks. Most pups are closer to 6 months before they "Get" house training. Only suggestions is to train yourself better. Set an alarm so too much time between outtings doesn't happen, if he is out of the kennel keep him tethered to someone (not free roaming unless the person is explicitly only watching him and not watching tv!)

Or teather him to something. That way he has more room to play AND is learning that more than just his kennel counts as his/your den where he doesn't want to potty.

Give him a treat outside for going. If you give a treat after potty but come back to the house to give the treat you'll get him trying to fake you out over it. Like a kid he will be in a hurry for the treat. So give any potty related treats out at the potty site.

I think he is doing great for only being 9 weeks!  Consistency is the key and it sounds like you have your morning and work routine down and it's time to work on consistency the other times of the day.  I would allow him more free time and make sure someone is watching him like a hawk.  I spent hours sitting on the floor at their level watching and playing with them.  If you are paying really close attention you will notice he will give you a signal that he needs to go before he is in position. It may be a split second at first but if you watch him you will catch on to that signal.  For example, one of them would walk in a circle and by the second circle she was getting into position.  Once I figured out it was more than trying to see if she had a tail or figure out where the toy went, I knew that was our signal. If he starts to get in position interrupt him and carry him outside and so he can continue.  Don't yell, just pick him up and take him out.  After he goes, give him a treat and lots of praise. If he does go in the house or starts before you can grab him and go out, put him outside and clean it up.  Don't yell, just clean it up.

What worked for us was watching the clock or having a timer.  We went outside every 30 minutes when we were home and it was free time.  The first 2 or so weeks, one of us would carry her out but then we started having her follow us out so she would learn a routine.  We would go outside and encourage outdoor potty.  If it happened, great! Lots of praise and a treat.  We used to say "good girl, good potty".  I'm sure the neighbors loved us!  Even if it did not happen, we still gave a treat because we wanted to reward the trying and we would say "good girl".  Our puppies were (are) extremely treat motivated so it was rather easy to train.

Staying patient, consistent, and having lots of treats and cleaner will get you through!  There will come a day when the light bulb goes off and they get it and then you will not remember what it was like trying to potty train a puppy

We have a now 14 week old puppy (a Catahoula/Lab mix). We brought him home at 10 weeks. The rescue that had him, had already begun crate training so he was already used to the crate a bit. The first week we got up at 2:30-3:30am to let him out. Most of the time he'd pee and some of the time he'd poop. After a week, we started stretching the time a little to see how long he could go. After 2-2.5 weeks, we were able to go to bed at 10:30 and he makes it until about 5:30. That's 7 hours...and that's just about his limit right now, which is super important because I go back to work next Thursday and he'll be left in the crate at home for 6 hours (7 hours the following Monday - I only work 2 days per week).

Anyway, he picked up really quickly NOT to pee/poop in the crate and truly only does that if he's been left too long. It's been a week, if not 2, since he's done anything in the crate. We do not carry him anymore (he's up to at least 20 lbs if not more) but we encourage him quickly to get outside (we also have a 6 year old dog that's eager to get out so I think that really helps). He pees almost instantly and sometimes he'll poop right away too. He gets a small, low calorie treat RIGHT away to show he did what he was supposed to.

Over the course of the last month, we've really tuned into his schedule. He eats RIGHT after he comes in at 5:30. He usually has to go back out to pee within 30 mins. By 7:30 or so, he's pooped again. I leave to take my girls to school at 8 and then on the days that I work, I go right to work after that. I'm really concerned that when I start back to work next week we're going to have problems because between 10-12 he usually poops again. I hope and pray the little guy can make it until 1-2pm. We'll find out next week.

Anyway, so then he gets fed again at night around 5-6pm. He goes out to poop again within an hour. He's not crated at all when we're home unless we have to do yard work or something outside. He eats EVERYTHING - rocks, mulch, dirt, leaves, etc. and he absolutely cannot come outside with us if we can't give him our undivided attention. But when he's in the house, he's learned from watching our other dog to go to the back door and paw it. When we see that, we know our time is limited...either we get him outside right away or we're going to have a mess. Occasionally, we'll not see him go to the door and if he starts to squat or even starts peeing, we'll yell "NO CANON! OUTSIDE!" and he runs right to the door and we get him outside and he'll finish peeing outside. We still praise him and give him a treat because he KNOWS he has to go out but it's on us because we missed his cue, KWIM?

We've only had 2 or 3 pee accidents in the house in the last 2 weeks. So I'm EXTREMELY pleased with that. We still have to watch him like a hawk and there is NO slacking with this puppy. He requires constant supervision and during the day when we're home, if he's not sleeping...he's going outside like once an hour or hour and a half at the most. I figure (from the advice I got here) that he'll eventually be able to hold it longer...but he's still a baby.

Good luck and I hope you can find something that works. I really think shevy is right on that he's in the crate too much. You have to let him out in the house and teach him the rules. Otherwise, he'll NEVER know what he's supposed to do in the house. We do keep the back section of our house gated off because there's carpet and all the bedrooms and just too much for him to get into and destroy. He has the living room, dining room and kitchen to roam around and for now that's more than enough space. Once he's a bit more trustworthy in the pottying and chewing depts, then he'll get free access to the whole house.